Wednesday, March 19, 2014

LA Comedy Fest


Once upon a time (2012), I wrote a screenplay for a horror comedy called Beaver Madness. It was about a google-eyed beaver mascot who goes around murdering all the popular kids during homecoming week. It was really bloody, and I was going for a definite Heathers-vibe. Needless to say, it didn’t exactly set the world on fire.

(Here’s a sample scene: The marching band stumbles upon a recently murdered freshman. While they wait for the police, the conductor asks them to play a little “memorial music.” But since they don’t know any real funeral songs, they just play “Eye of the Tiger” really slowly.)

So despite being really tacky, Beaver Madness was a second-rounder at the Austin Film Festival and a finalist at the LA Comedy Fest in beautiful downtown Los Angeles. I didn’t get to go to Austin, but I definitely went to Los Angeles and holy crap was it a blast. I mean, I’d been to film festivals before, but never as an actual guest. I got to rub elbows with some pretty cool people. (Fun fact, Missi Pyle is super nice, and really tall.)

Beaver Madness didn’t win, unfortunately, but I wasn’t too depressed. I mean, is the world really ready for a movie where a hapless cheerleader gets killed by a volleyball net?