Bringing the Id to EgoFest: Day #3
We went to Brainerd, Minnesota, for the 2nd ever EgoFest Short Video Film Festival hosted by our friend (and TILT collaborator) Phil Holbrook. There we screened our short films Snow Bunny and Libidoland.
In case you missed it, here’s what happened on Day #1. Here’s what happened on Day #2.
DAY THREE, SUNDAY, 2/21
Jessica was a lumberjack in a previous life
- Another morning in Brainerd. After the marathon movie viewing and subsequent excited conversing on Saturday, we slept like babies. When we woke up on Sunday, we were happy and starving, which was perfect, because we had a breakfast meeting schedule with our TILT collaborators Phil Holbrook and Jeremy Doyle. And, of course, we asked to go back to the Sawmill Cafe. Wild rice omelet, anyone?
Tilt Power Breakfast: Phil, Jeremy, Jessica
- Had our first official TILT team meeting. We were a little nervous. This was the first time Phil (TILT director/producer), Jeremy (cinematographer), Jessica (writer/producer), and I (Julie, writer) were gathering in person. We’d clicked with Phil and Jeremy online and used email, Twitter, Skype, and GoogleWave to lay the groundwork and work out issues, but what was it going to be like face to face? What if we didn’t get each others’ jokes? What if they’d hated the first act of the TILT screenplay and wanted to break the news to us in person? What if Jeremy and Julie wore the same hoodie? (I shudder to think…) Of course, everything went just fine. We had fun chatting about EgoFest, sharing stories about our families, and getting to know each others’ quirks.
- Sidenote: Phil has such an electrifying personality that he burnt out the heating device on the breakfast buffet just by looking at it. The waitress might have been a bit miffed, but we were impressed.
Phil & Jessica talk TILT
Jeremy picks his vlog weapon
Phil pulls a Gary King.
- Filmed a vlog. We’ve been a little secretive about TILT so far, so we decided to do a video blog during EgoFest weekend to give our friends a little taste of what we’re up to, what TILT is about, who our audience is, and what our team dynamics are like. The vlog is scheduled to go up on our TILT website on Thursday, 2/25.
Scouting for TILT locations
Yeah, that's right.
It's so hard to say goodbye...to EgoFest
- Location scouting + lunch + goodbyes. After we were finished shooting the vlog, Jeremy left to reunite with his family, while Phil, Jessica, and I headed out to scout TILT locations and grab lunch. With all of its great locations and friendly people, Brainerd seems like the perfect place to film a movie. The downtown area is great, and the outlying areas are beautiful. To make it even better, Phil seems to know everyone. We stopped by a bar that was closed for the day, and the owner opened the doors for us to let us take a look around. Small town film shoots = where it’s at, folks.
Jess writing her EgoFest reviews
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- Coffee club (Or, “We felt like we’d been hit by a club, so we went to get coffee.”) After lunch, we said our goodbyes to Phil, made promises to return to Brainerd ASAP, and headed back to our motel with the intention of starting the trek back to Chicago. However, before we even got back to our room, we realized that we were way too tired to make the 10-hour drive, so we chose to play it safe by staying in Brainerd another night. We hunted down a coffee shop with WiFi so we could catch up on email and start on our blog posts.
Jess + Steven
- Only in a small town. Earlier we’d seen that someone called @falsettoclergy on Twitter had said that he enjoyed our movies at EgoFest. We were flattered & wrote back that we wished we’d met him at the fest. Imagine our surprise when he (Steven McKnight) walked up and introduced himself to us at the coffee shop. SO freaky and great. We talked with Steven for a long time about EgoFest, movies in general, and the art scene in Brainerd.
- The REAL Scoop on Brainerd. Eventually we were joined by Steven’s ladyfriend Jessica, a Brainerd native who clued us in on the real Brainerd fun: Bean Hole Days [where you put beans (the food) in a hole (you know, like a hole in the ground) and cook them], swanky fish houses [small houses out on the frozen lake where fisherpeople stay] with flat screen tvs and hot tubs, fish house parades [fish house + parade], etc. This stuff was awesome! Now we wanna know why Phil was holding out on us…
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The TILT Team: Jessica, Jeremy & Phil (standing in for Julie is Paul Bunyan)
- The End of EgoFest. The next morning we headed back to Chicago. While the drive up on Friday seemed to fly by (probably because we were so excited), the 10-hour drive back was grueling. Jess alternated between cheering Julie on and taking cat naps. Julie stayed awake by keeping the car cool, singing along to classic rock, and drinking lots of coffee. We were never so happy to parallel park in front of our building.
- Even though EgoFest 2010 is over, we’re just at the beginning with Phil Jeremy, TILT, and Brainerd. Get ready, because we plan to give you lots of updates about the TILT screenwriting progress, funding and marketing plans, our evolving partnership with Phil and Jeremy, and much more.
And mark our words: next time we stay in Brainerd, it will be in a tricked out fish house! -
[...] it for Day #2. Ready for Day #3? It’s a doozy, but we don’t want to give everything away. What we CAN tell you is [...]
Geez, I need a sports car to keep up with you gals! So wonderful to see your films getting around and even better, to see you consolidate your online friendships. You met the great Phil Holbrook in the flesh? Is he as weird in real life as he is online? Come on, fess up. Pimp’s Chicken on the menu reminds me of the fabulous Jeanne Bowerman who I hope to meet one day over numerous POM Martinis. But back to you. I am so absolutely proud of you two and as usual, wish I could have been there for your screenings. Brainerd sounds like a hoot – Bean Hole Days huh? Can wait to hear more about TILT. Rock on Jess & Julie!
Correction: CAN’T WAIT to hear more about TILT. xo
We’re fast like that. We feel incredibly lucky to have met Phil in real life. He is not only weird and fun, but also incredibly kind, professional, and very well respected in his community.
As for the Pimp’s Chicken – that we took especially for Jeanne. Phil pointed it out while we were having a little lunch meeting. It was too good to pass up.