WINNER as Best Narrative Feature at the Big MiniDV Film Festival! Click here for stuff from their site.

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On November 9th, 2002, Filmmaker Clarke M. Smith, Co-Producer Leilani L. Smith and actress Bennie Jablonski traveled down to Long Island University for the festival.

We caught the tail end of the film before ours, some sort of silly vampire romp (should have been there, Ron). Unfortunately, a lot of people left after that.

EP came on about 7:30pm. There were about 25 people now in the audience (was hoping for more) but there were a good crowd. As usual, they gave an unsure applause at the fake ending, then a delayed one at the real endind. It never fails!

Immediately after the screening, they called Clarke up the stage to accept the certificate above. One particular group of film students (all girls) were eager with questions, but all of a sudden, one of the school instructors approached him with a box...looked like a DVD player...said Panasonic on it...it turned out the be the Narrative Feature Winner prize - a Panasonic DVD Recorder!!!

Next, the audience asked lots of questions (how were the FX done, how long did it take, what was it edited with, advice for student filmmakers, what else have you done, etc.).

Aftewards, more students came up to us with more questions. They wouldn't let us go! Then, LIU Media Arts Department instructor Larry Banks approached Clarke and asked him to come talk to his students, to talk about the film, and encourage students to do work 'as good as yours'. The students use the same exact equipment as EP (same camera!) and were shocked at the quality that is possible.

On our way out, the students asked for email and website info, and were interested in seeing some behind the scenes stuff. What a night to remember!