If you liked DIY FILM FEST, you might like DIY PHYSICS as well…

And so this summer we’ve devoted ourselves to thinking big.  What kind of big?  Think “conquering the space-time continuum” big.  Think “breaking the sound-barrier” big.  We’re shooting for the moon, and that’s no joke. Welcome to DIY Big Time.

If you like this, you might also get a kick our of our DIY FILM FESTIVAL.

P.S. If you know Richard Branson, be a love, and tell him to give us a call.

Find out why Julie’s wearing pearls, why Etheline is objecting to this episode on the grounds of taste (pun intended), and who the mystery guest in the corner we want you to ignore is.

Do YOU have any ideas for our next Mixin’ Vixens recipe? Let us know in the COMMENTS section!

You’ve already seen Mixin’ Vixen Episode #1 and Mixin’ Vixens Episode #2, right? Right?

Jeanne w/ Jess & Pericles Lewnes in NYC

The only things Jeanne DIDN’T reveal in the article were what we ate for breakfast this morning and what color underwear we’re waiting…oh, wait…that’s probably in there, too.

Keep up with what Jeanne’s doing on Facebook, follow her on Twitter, and, if you’re a screenwriter, check out her twitterific online writing community, #scriptchat.

Like this? Then you might dig our DIY BIG TIME video…

Intrigued? Check out episode two of Mixin’ Vixens, where Beth may or may not explain how to make these sensual delights.

Ready to sink your teeth into MORE Mixin’ Vixens?

• Episode #1: “Meet the MVs”
• Episode #3: “Prom”

After a hard afternoon of baking.

Julie also likes to watch cooking shows, which I find a bit tedious – though I certainly reap the benefits of any helpful tips she picks up.  Salt on your sweet muffins, anyone? When Julie proposed that we make a cooking show, I was not immediately thrilled by the idea.  When she suggested that we make one with our baker-expert friend Beth and her dog Etheline, I got a little more excited.

Mixin’ Vixens isn’t really a cooking show; right now it’s just an experiment in how to bring together baking and friendship and storytelling.  We plan to make three more this year, one for each season, and more beyond that if inspiration hits.  And for Libidoland fans, there may or may not be cake-sitting in one of the episodes.  It all depends on how frisky Etheline gets.

If you have ideas or suggestions, let us know; we’re still in the experimenting stage and are open to feedback.

Ready for Episode #2?

J&J + Flyway

If you screen it, they will come. There were over 12 hours straight of movies scheduled for the 3rd day of Flyway Film Fest (more if you count the concurrent screenings), and we made it through a little over half., reserving the rest of the day for general carousing, hobnobbing, no goodnicking.  Here’s what we saw:

The Shorts:

• Divorcees: This heavily stylized Brunel-esque short by NYC artist Mike Nirenberg pokes fun at convention and faux-civility as a team of dinner guests each plot separately to kill their hostess. This was Julie’s favorite short of the fest. Next time she sits on a cake, she wants Mike to film it.
• Lost in Definition: A short experimental film that involves people eating CGI pizza in a noir-esque landscape. Julie missed this one while meeting their hosts for the evening; Jessica won’t talk about it until Julie sees it.
• Bititsch: In a post-soviet bloc city, people don’t construct sentences, there is only guttural monologue for conversations and one thing on the menu: pizza.  There are a lot of pizza boxes in this movie, but not as many as in the short film Shaking Tokyo by Bong Joon-Ho.

The Features:

Gavin B. James

• Footsteps: Gavin B. James‘ Footsteps is a visually stunning psychological thriller starring Julie and my favorite character actor, Brenden Sexton III, though he behaves nothing like he did in Pecker or Welcome to the Dollhouse.  Gavin B. James creates a world of dread, uncertainty, desire, and fear with skillful performances, stunning cinematography, and creepy mise-en-scene. One million thumbs up from us. If you get the chance, meet Gavin in person. Really interesting guy + one of the best voices we’ve heard in a long time.

Gary King

• What’s Up Lovely? Two Gary King movies in one weekend! Lucky us. What’s Up Lovely is a romp through one woman’s lonely wanderings through New York City at night.  At once a journey with references to “Alice in Wonderland” and a meditation on loneliness, the film has resonance.  Perhaps most striking is the way that even in her loneliest moments, Luci keeps herself from keeping herself company, exemplified most poignantly in a scene where Luci plays in an abandoned amphitheater, but soon flees because of an “intruder” – a solitary, slow-clapping audience member.  You know about the slow-clap, don’t you?

Phasma Ex Machina Q & A

• Phasma Ex Machina: This film by Matt Osterman, which won Flyway’s Wisconsin/Minnesota Showcase award, explores death and grief as a young man tries to create a way for the dead to re-engage with the living. Although Matt Osterman wasn’t able to attend, we got to meet several actors and producers from the film. A great group. They definitely fueled our growing desire to figure out this whole “Minneapolis indie movie scene…”

And then what? Then a late night dinner of burgers, beers, and fried cheese curds (thank you, Craig Varian) gave us enough energy to push through to the end of the fest party back down by the lake. Some of us stopped in first at Kathy’s bar. (We don’t need to give the real name of the bar, do we? It’s KATHY’S place!) We were all talking as fast as we could to share and ask for as much movie info as we could, knowing that many of us were leaving early the next morning.

Home Away From Home: We’d stayed at the Pepin Motel for our first two fest nights, but on night three there was no room at the inn. Rick and Diana Vaicius found some friends (Thank you, Egger Family!) with a spare room who generously put us up for the night, and we slept like babies for the following reasons:

A) There was a wood burning stove.

B) We had an orange paper mache bird protecting us.

C) It was the coziest guest room ever!

Don’t dream it’s over: We enjoyed one final breakfast with the Kings, the Holbrook, the Stetler, the Lewnes, and the Wilker. Many eggs bit the dust in honor of this last meal. And at least one person teared up. A person whose name rhymes with Droolie.

Final Flyway Friendie Huddle

Once the coffee pot was empty, we took off for Chicago, the Kings headed back to NYC, Jake Stetler turned toward Pennsylvania, and the Lewnes crew hopped in a car bound for Maryland. Phil Holbrook stayed behind to support Jeremy Wilker at his test screening for Triumph67. Since we couldn’t stay for the movie, we celebrated with Jeremy by contributing to his kickstarter campaign. Flyway Fact: Phil had dinner with Sheri Candler that night before we headed back to Brainerd. What happened? Um – you think he told us?

In our quest to talk to as many people as possible, we forgot to take pictures of a lot of things. Luckily Jeremy Wilker’s pictures on Flickr to fill in some of the gaps. (Nice pics, Jeremy!)

It’s no secret that we loved our time at Flyway. Loved the fest, loved the people, and love the idea of going back next year. Who’s in for next year?

Hungry for a tiny bit more? How about a peek at secret footage of the Flyway audience watching the TILT teaser trailer?

The Flyway Filmmaker Lounge

On Thurs, 10/21, we drove to Pepin, WI, for Flyway Film Fest. Some fun stuff happened. And then we woke up on Day #2.

A Breakfast Fit for Kings: Director Gary King (What’s Up Lovely, How Do You Write a Joe Schermann Song?) was one of the first indie filmmakers we found on Twitter. (Look here: we even wrote about him…kinda…back in September 2009.)  We learned a lot from him about making movies, marketing movies, and being a savvy, sincere tweeter. So, of course, we couldn’t resist roping him into breakfast at Flyway on Day #2.

Another omelet, please

Sometimes you meet your idols and they let you down (think Willy Wonka throwing Charlie Bucket out of his office); other times, they build you up. Luckily for us, Gary King did the latter. Paired with his wonderful wife, Susie, he was a delight to spend time with. Can anyone say, “Couple crush?”

We think Gary learned his classic move from his wife

Kfink Takes the Pancake: We’d planned to meet Gary and Susie at a little bakery shop in Stockholm, WI. We got there first and realized that there was no seating, so we Twitter DM’d Gary and sped to location #2. En route to the next restaurant, we realized that in the olden days we would have just waited at the bakery for Gary and Susie to arrive rather than relying on technology to get the job done. We slapped our foreheads in unison, pulled a u-ey, and then sighed duel sighs of relief when Gary DM’d us back. Disaster averted. Lesson learned: no matter how much technology you have at the ready, don’t forget to act like human beings.

Bill Elverman's work ethic didn't stand a chance against us

Together at last: Finally across the table from one another, we chatted easily about films, fests, and 2011 plans over tasty omelets and coffee. Bill Elverman tried to do some work at another table, but we were happy to distract him enough to pipe in from time to time. Sheri Candler soon joined us, making the conversation all the more lively.  The whole experience made us want to buy and island and import all of our Twitter friends. Who, now, can just be called friends.

Lunchtime Trialogue: Back at the filmmaker lounge, many film fest attendees gathered for chicken curry, lasagna, and tips from Angry Filmmaker Kelley Baker and a DC film festival programmer about film festivals, social media, and other film-related issues.  We were especially excited to see Jake Stetler (No Sanctuary) arrive by parachuting out of an airplane…maybe, and our buddy Phil Holbrook was on his heels in a slightly less dramatic vehicle…his sweet minivan.

Phil + Jessica: These two should not be allowed in a room together.

Jake Stetler: Our All American Hero

Between lunch and the 10pm Flyway Film Festival Kickstarter Backer Party, we know there was dinner and an opening night movie, but mostly we just remember finally getting a chance to talk and play and hug Pericles Lewnes a lot while Jeremy Wilker took hundreds of photos.

Jess + Pericles

10pm – Flyway Film Festival Backer Party: This event, scheduled way past our bedtime, was awesome and packed to the gills. Rick Vaicius scheduled this party as a way of thanking everyone who’d contributed to Flyway Film Festival’s successful Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign. As backers and filmmakers, we were proud to be a part of it.We also debuted the TILT teaser trailer that night. Holy moly, the reaction was great. More on that soon…

Since this was a film fest, let’s talk about some films. Here are our thoughts on the ones that screened at the backer party:

• Be Still Life by Michael Harrell and Craig Varian.  This visual short film explores the tricky nature of impermanence as a young man attempts to freeze images/moments in an old tv frame. Interesting ideas and a lovely soundtrack by 400 Lovely Things.

• Cooking with Gerry- Poutine by Jay Cheel.  I almost don’t even want to review it: you should just watch it.  It’s hilariously funny. Everything about it is funny.  The way Gerry looks at the camera is funny.  Gerry’s refrigerator is funny.  The word poutine is funny.  The faux horror moments are funny.  Stop reading this and watch it right now.

Click here to view the embedded video.

• Libidoland by Jessica King and Julie Keck.  Who the hell made this movie, and what’s the point?  Women sitting on cakes?  Who wants to see such nonsense?  If you do, you should buy or stream it from here.

• Death of the Dead by Gary King.  While we are not the intended audience for this kind of film (fart jokes + open wounds are not KFink’s cup of tea), we admire Gary King’s deft directorial skills.  His balance of sight-gags, ball-gags, and just plain old gag-gags is worth watching.  Also, the charming and talented Christina Rose stole the show with her transformation from nerdy girl to (SPOILER ALERT!) ass-kicking vixen.  She was definitely a diamond in the cess-pool of (SPOILER ALERT!) rotting flesh and (SPOILER ALERT!) gouged out (SPOILER ALERT!) breast implants.

You know we didn’t go all the way to Pepin without our Flip camera. Ready to see some of the havoc we wreaked? Ready to see whom we wreaked it on?

Big thank yous to Sheri, Bill, Jake, Pericles, and Hunter Weeks for being such good sports. Start prepping for next year, folks…

Ready for Day #3? (In which Julie’s excitement for Gavin B. James shakes loose of its chains and Jessica discovers that she might be a country girl after all.)

And because we already missed Phil.

Last year we noticed all of the hub-bub surrounding the Flyway, and our interest was piqued. We saw filmmakers like Gary King (New York Lately, Dismal), Jamin and Kiowa Wanins (Ink, Spin), and Pericles Lewnes (Loop, Red Neck Zombies) hanging out and thought it looked like a fun place to be.

Anyone know where I can find more shops?

Throughout the year we saw how involved Flyway director Rick Vaicius was in the indie film community, to the point where he actually became a backer for our film TILT on Kickstarter. This was a move we didn’t expect but very much appreciated, and when Rick asked if we’d attend Flyway 2010 with our short film LIBIDOLAND and the teaser trailer for TILT, it took very little convincing to get us on board. Now that we think of it…he’s a bit of an evil genius. A generous, passionate, intelligent, philanthropic evil genius.

2 bucks says Vaicius is pinching Gary in the back row...

By the way, you’re going to notice A LOT of filmmaker names in these Flyway blog posts. Why? Because Rick makes it his mission to get as many filmmakers to Flyway as possible. Flyway is a submission fee-free festival, and this enables every filmmaker who wants a shot to go for it regardless of their financial situation, and this means that Rick has an even wider range of movies to pick from. Once he makes his selections (which his says is an incredibly difficult process), he works with each filmmaker to arrange for travel plans, lodging, etc. On the Flyway film schedule we saw “filmmaker in attendance” next to more movies than not, an impressive feat that added not only value but excitement to many, many screenings. But that’s enough about how amazing Rick is…let’s talk about amazing the first day of his film festival was!

Flyway Film Fest, Day #1 (Thurs, 10/21)

• Kfink arrives in Pepin around 6pm, heads straight to the opening gala. First person we met? Jeremy Wilker (DP / editor / producer for Triumph67). Jeremy helped ease our “meeting new people” nerves and drew us a map to where we were going to stay.

Jeremy Wilker

• The next person we ran into” indie movie marketing guru Sheri Candler. Can we tell you how strange it is to run into someone you’ve only seen as 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch avatar for the past year? Jarring, for one. Wonderful, for another. Especially when it’s Sheri.

Sheri Candler

• Followed Jeremy’s map to the Pepin YMCA camp. The Y had donated several cabins for Flyway, and some folks had already settled in. Although we rarely turn down a free place to stay, we just couldn’t overcome Jessica’s need for a locked door and Julie’s fear of monsters.
• Back at the gala, we scanned the crowd and freaked out when we saw…Gary & Susie King talking with Pericles Lewnes & his shy, smiling son Alex. We’ve been following Gary and Pericles on Twitter for quite a while now, and they’re just as kind and intelligent in person as they are online. Whew!

Julie + Pericles

• We got to meet a lot of other great folks at the party, including: Rick’s hard-working and hilarious wife, Diana, who was running around running things in the highest, coolest grey shoes we’ve ever seen; “Ride the Divide” documentarian Hunter Weeks; and Chicago film lover Vincent Columbo (along with his fiance Kristy.) Bill Elverman (The Wintress) joined us fashionably late. Diva.
• We interrupted our lovefest to listen to a keynote address by Kelley Baker (a.k.a. The Angry Filmmaker). He shared some cautionary tales about tax evasion and mortgaging your house to make films.  Consider us cautioned.

"The Disappearance of McKinley Nolan" wins Flyway axe for Best Doc Feature.

• Flyway Awards were handed out on that first night, a nice change from the usual “end of the fest” award ceremony.  Some people took these awards as a heads-up to which movies they should see without fail; many just took this as an opportunity to celebrate the movies and appreciated the opportunities to congratulate the winners all weekend.

NOT an actual Flyway Award

• By the way, the awesome Flyway award statues were based on an axe theme started by Bill Elverman’s “The Wintress“, which showed at Flyway during it’s inaugural year. The awards looked heavy and sharp. And awesome. Gary King scored one as the first-ever recipient of the Flyway “Spirit” Award for his kind and constant support of other filmmakers. We’re pretty sure he keeps it with him at all times.
• After the awards ceremony, there was talking, brain picking, cider drinking, and midnight sailing (we think) for an adventurous few.

So what did we learn from Flyway Day #1?

1. Go after what you want.  If you wanna make films, you can find a way to make films. Just don’t get into trouble with IRS doing it.
2. If people seem nice and fun via Twitter/Facebook, they’re probably nice and fun in real life.
3. Documentary film makers are, like, hot.

Ready for Flyway Day #2? (In which Phil Holbrook & Jake Stetler roll into town, we forget to act like people for a second, and we find out why going to Flyway just once isn’t an option.)

Who needs Miami when you have Pepin?