Seeing 45-50 films in 10 days is harder than it sounds. Over the years I’ve come up with multiple training regimes to figure out how best to get up in time for my first 9:00 am screening and still be awake for the 2:00 am Midnight Madness Q&A. So here, for your reading pleasure are the results of my rigorous training tests:
Training scheme #1: practice sitting around for weeks before the festival. For the weeks leading up to the festival I just sat around watching movies as much as I could until 2 am then would get up and go to work. I also did my best to live on pizza, hot dogs, and popcorn. As much fun as this “training” was, it was a disaster. I did manage to survive the festival with limited nodding off during not-so-stellar films… But I also put on 12 pounds and by the end of the fest I had one of the worst colds of my life.
Training scheme #2: train like you’re Christian Bale prepping for The Machinist. Okay, you don’t have to starve yourself but this is a pretty rigorous regime. Run about 3-4 miles a day 6 days a week. That’s 4.8 kilometers or 24 furlongs for those of you in the UK who never adopted the pesky metric system. Plus you have eat like a rabbit and get plenty of rest. I try to do this for the 6 months before the fest and have found it works really well. The only problem is I HATE exercise and LOVE junk food. C’mon, who doesn’t? Which leads me to:
Training scheme #3, my chemical romance! This year, in honor of the original Univeral Soldier: JCVD, I’m gonna rely entirely on the miracles of science to keep me fed and awake. I’ve been popping pills like Jason Schwartzman in Spun... Vitamin C and Zinc people, get your sleep deprived minds out of the meth lab! Plus I’ve got about 20 bottles of 6 hour energy and enough power bars to feed a small independent film crew for weeks. Of course if anyone has any better ideas I’m open to suggestions. I *REALLY* hate jogging!
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