Second Skin Roadtrip!

The Second Skin roadtrip has been one of the most memorable events of my life thus far. I'm thinking about it now retrospectively (in the middle of it), and what a fun strange trip it has been. First things first. I'm a penniless filmmaker who dreamt of touring around the United States, and hitting all the premieres. The only problem is that gas costs money. Well, my brother, out of the goodness/ingenious of his heart said, "What if we get all of our friends and family to pitch in a few bucks each?".

On August 9th on fundable.org a goal of $568 dollars was created to complete a full journey around the United States. Within one day $470 had been donated to the cause, and by day two $640. I've never felt so overwhelmed in my life. Their contributions to helping me get out here today are second to none, and I am in their debt.

With the money in place I had to find someone stupid enough to join me for 48 hour race across the country. Mike, a good friend of mine, was willing to take me up on the kamikaze mission. Without him I would most certainly have crashed due to exhaustion. With him we barely made it.

I left New York City at 2:30am on the 11th. We cruised on I-80 through the wee hours of the morning. Every few hundred miles we celebrated each contribution, and the miles they had bought us. We saw the sunrise in Pennsylvania, torrential rains in Ohio, I evaded a speeding ticket for the first time in my life, and got barked at by a frothing doberman while in the paddywagon.

Soon enough we were nearing Fort Wayne. Well if you've been around this movie you know that we've got great friends from the film over there. I sent out a text that I'd be driving a couple of hours north from there, and if we could somehow intersect it would be fantastic.  It was a complete shot in the dark. Matt and Chris couldn't make it. Anthony and Becca were literally coming down from Michigan at that exact moment though. Our paths randomly crossed in Toledo anyways, and a few hour later there we were hundreds of miles from any home eating lunch at El Vaquero.

That said we moved forward across the long expanse with our bellies full. The night in Iowa came quickly, and I was starting to get exhausted. Around 12am I had to check out. I pulled over on a random road. Underneath the dim light, as we were switching seats, he told me it was his birthday. I had no idea, and so I sung the song, and had no present. I awoke an hour later to Mike pulling into a gas station saying, "Oh my God, sorry man, I'm too tired." I thought... this is it... I'm literally too tired to go on too, and it looks like the sprint isn't going to happen after all. We pulled into a bizarre saw mill nearby, and between two giant trucks tried to get some shut eye. 10 minutes later I was awake. This place was way to freaky to get any sleep in.

Back at the gas station I drank a five hour energy, bought a coffee, and beef jerky. The combination of all those flavors was absolutely disgusting.  It kept me going until around 4am where I crapped out again incapable of functioning. Mike took the wheel begrudgingly. Things went great for a little while until around 5am when his body basically shut down. We cruised into the shoulder, and both woke up yelling. It was time to change drivers and our pants. The nightmare of Nebraska was nearly behind us.

The day went fantastically. A couple of on the road interviews sparked the journey through Colorado. Mike was driving, and in the thin air the car lost a lot of power. He was flooring it while trying to take pictures of the hills, and could barely hit 40. Cars were swerving past, I was trying to give a coherent answers, and it was just a mess. Later on in Utah the signal dropped for hours, and it never came back for the rest of the state. That stretch of road is unbelivably beautiful and feels like a gigantic rollercoaster.

At 2:30am on August 13th we arrived almost exactly 48 hours later. It's the fastest I've ever crossed the country... except on a plane. We awoke a few hours later, and started plastering the town with Second Skin shwag. I met our distributor, Liberation Entertainment, and finally got a tour of the facility. It was fantastic to meet Carlos and Christy after this last year of conference calls. I even got to see Sig and Rob again. It was a family reunion of sorts, and the new baby was Second Skin.

I pretended to be a part of the Downtown Film Festival for awhile, and had all these people putting up Second Skin posters at their events. Thanks again too all of those guys for being sports. We went to every coffee shop, bodega, and hotel leaving postcards. I always have liked this part of pounding the pavement trying to spread the word. It's like the final stretch where emailing, facebooking, and twittering aren't enough. You have to talk to people, and ask them to come out.

Finally, we ended up at the Los Angeles Downtown Independent. I got to meet the chief their, James Kirst, and he is the dude. Thanks to him the film went up in LA for an entire week, and thanks to him for making a place for indie films to get seen. The best part about it is that the venue is literally better than most cinemas in the United States. It's a large theater with incredibly comfy chairs, and even has some nice VIP booths. It's the kind of place you want to premiere a movie. So forget those big hollywood places ~ what a piece of junk in comparison. This is the spot.

Before the day was done we had Korean BBQ. I only mention it because the ambiance was insane. I had no idea this happened, and so I will clue you in. You go into a giant tent where big tables surround you. The sound is a dull roar of conversation. You sit down, get raw meat, make it yourself, and it's quite delicious. Then suddenly loud techno blares, a birthday cake comes out, and someone literally gets doused with two entire bottles of champagne! Everybody is standing up yelling happily, and the victim is completely soaked. Over the course of the meal this happened literally 12 times to different people. I could not imagine a better way to cheers for the opening of Second Skin the very next day.

August 14th, 2009 I picked up the Los Angeles Times. Lo and behold an article was written in the newspaper that loved Second Skin. Huge kudos go to Peter who was able to get a screener in the right hands. All the hard work paid off. The movie was reviewed, published, and printed! I picked up quite a few copies. Then I read another blurb written in LA Weekly. I picked up a few of those to. What a great surprise to find your movie in the newspapers!

The day went by quickly with shwag drops in all the right places. That night at 7:30pm and 9:30pm Second Skin premiered for the very first time in LA. It was great and the audiences were fantastic. Afterwards we retired to the rooftop, and spent the night discussing virtual worlds.

There is one moment I want to divulge, and it's my absolute favorite. I was chatting with a group of people. I looked over at one of the guys and said, "Hm, you look familiar". Everyone kept on talking and he said, "Do you know me from Deadliest Warrior?". Holy shit. Max Geiger from Deadliest Warrior came to the premiere of Second Skin. I was so excited.

Juan: Oh my God! Are you serious! (push him to see if he is real) What! Oh my God (calm down) I love Deadliest Warrior! My girlfriend and I watch it all the time. Oh my God.

Max: This is the best reaction anyone has ever had to meeting me.

Juan: Wow, sorry about that. That's literally one of my favorite shows.

Tonight is the 2nd night in Los Angeles. Come around @ 5:30pm & 7:30pm for more shenanigans.