The University of Colorado at Boulder interviewed Erika and wrote a story on the ambitious undertaking of shooting an independent feature film.
http://artsandsciences.colorado.edu/magazine/2010/10/cu-led-team-does-pas-de-deux-onto-the-screen/
Local blog Denveater.com recently included Leading Ladies in their “Dinner and a Movie” post wherein several narrative features and shorts from the 33rd Starz Denver Film Festival were paired with various restaurants around the city. We were teamed up with Beatrice & Woodsley. I love the restaurant’s interior, but I’m not quite sure how the chainsaw themed “woodsy” establishment got paired with Leading Ladies.
Nonetheless, the blog post spawned one of my favorite reviews of LL to date:
I spent the first 5 minutes thinking this was going to be a corny, overacted piece of crap. I spent the remaining 97 totally enchanted by an adorably campy, smart, wholly original romantic comedy/musical.
The film’s co-writer Jen Bechtel wrote:
Yeah, first impressions are tough for this one, because Sheri starts things off and Sheri is a person who overacts her life (at least initially), so it takes a moment to realize that Melanie is absolutely spot on.
As I posted on our Facebook page:
Yeah, the first five minutes is an adjustment period for the average viewer, but once you’re in, I think the rest of the review is a fair assessment (even if I AM a little biased). [smile] Campy? Sure. But also tender and thoughtful, and you don’t often get that combo. We’ve had a couple people let us know that if Sheri wasn’t campy (if she were more “real”), you’d actually hate her, and that would take the fun out of the film.
…we meet people ALL THE TIME who are waaaay more over the top than Sheri. She’s crazy, but those people are out there and we all know one (or more)! Melanie does a FANTASTIC job being Sheri, and we LOVE her for it.
…
Here’s some of the recap of the Q&A from our fearless co-producer David Ward:
“Also wanted to mention that when I very excitedly told them about selling out the show in LA, they all broke out into joyous applause! Awesome!”
Others:
- I pointed out that that was the director Dan Beahm on screen and singing during “By the Bye” (and that you’re a real-life indie rock star), and that E had a cameo as well.
- Jen did her lovely “Erika dreams and thus it happens” talk
- I did the “six people and a video camera” speech
- I mentioned the bios of Pete, Markas, Melanie, Benji, Mario, etc.
- I ran through the festivals we’ve played and will be playing
- One of the audience questions was specifically about the toothbrush tango and where the inspiration came from and who choreographed. I talked about “dance in the every day” and talked about you filming the short, Erika being a dance prof., etc.
- Someone asked how we got hooked up with Melanie, so Jen told that story of What Not to Wear and SYTYCD and Benji, etc.
- Someone asked about the grocery store musical, which allowed us to lament its closing and praise our locations.
- Someone asked about the Rialto, which allowed me to go into my Bill and Ernie spiel.
- They showed a short before LL. “Go Go Reject.” Cute and dance-based. Jen pointed out that one of the dancers in it was someone y’all had auditioned for Cedric in Chicago. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjPWBnYF12E
Incidentally, another main actor from the film, Korken Alexander, auditioned for Cedric in L.A. Funny!
