‘Gulf Coast Film and Video Festival’ awards local artists

This past weekend I attended the Gulf Coast Film and Video Festival Award Ceremony. This year, the awards ceremony was held at the Sundance Grill II in League City.  I have worked with the GCFVF in the past as an award presenter and as a reporter. This year Hal Wixon, GCFVF founder, chairman and friend, asked me to help film interviews the winners after the ceremony.

I arrived at the venue early (as always) and helped Domino Taylor, GCFVF vice president and friend, put together a few last minute things. I took my place as the ceremony was about to start. Luckily, there was a chair saved at the back for me. The place was so crowded that everyone was pretty much playing musical chairs.

There was an extra chair next to me so I asked the gentleman who had been standing for a while if he wanted to sit. It turns out; he was a filmmaker whose film was screened and nominated. His film, “Introspection” was nominated in the Best Drama category.

It was fun to sit next to a nominated filmmaker and talk with him about his inspirations, his job and his influences. We had some shared interests so we were chatting about those while we waited for the ceremony to commence. He did mention that it would be nice for the nominees to be read during the award ceremony, since they were not informed the category in which their film was nominated. Since Quinton was able to attend all of the screenings from Friday and earlier that morning, he gave me a quick synopsis and personal opinion on each film as it won that night.

After the awards ceremony, which was short and sweet, we all got in line for the buffet. Actually, the line was long so I went to the bar for a drink and then got in line. I still had to wait 30 minutes; there were that many people in line. While I was waiting, I started talking with a young woman, Kristen Perry, who was another filmmaker that was nominated for her film “Fractured Diamond.”

After everyone indulged in their hors d’oeuvres, Jessica Alaine, actress and GCFVF interviewer, and I started our interviews. It was great to hear the influences, the hardships and get a peek into the lives of the filmmakers. The last interview was Lew Temple who had won the Lifetime Achievement Award. It was nerve-wracking to talk to him about his role on The Walking Dead since I did I am such a big fan and had a blog series about the show last year. It turns out, he is a very laid back guy who was easy to approach and even easier to talk with.

When I approached him, I let him know I was the Editor of the local college paper and he said, “Oh, you mean The Signal? You were very well represented at the film screenings.” This brought such a big smile to my face that he remembered our reporters and the newspaper.

All in all, the experience was fun, inspirational and a great networking experience. Everywhere you turned, you were unknowingly brushing shoulders with filmmakers, actors and producers. I encourage all student filmmakers to enter their films in this festival. It could be your big break that gets you the experience and exhibition that you need. It would be amazing to have student submissions so they can bring back the “Best Student Project” category.

Hopefully next year the festival will be bigger and even better!