FEBRUARY 2005 -- So there we are mid- festival week in Park City at the exclusive William Morris party and all we can think of is to get out of there, go back to our log cabin and get some sleep. Our schedule was quite intense and we did not expect all the attention that we (Ringers: Lord of the Fans) were receiving. We were exhausted. Cliff and I had to wake up at the crack of dawn to do a live radio interview on x96 - SaltLake City’s “Local, Independent, Alternative Radio from Hell.” A very progressive and hip station indeed. Carlene couldn’t attend the interview because of our 9:00am Press Screening that same day back in Park City. She had to introduce the film with Tom DeSanto and do an equipment check with Josh Mandel.

 

We drove 40 minutes to Salt Lake City, making sure to be early, so we could rush back to Park City afterwards to catch the end of our Press Screening for a Q & A at 10:30am...then an interview for Wired.com News at 11:00am...then an interview with Sci-Fi.com at 11:30am…and so on. Like I said - we were jamming!

 

We step in the sound booth and meet the morning DJ’s - Kerry Jack Jackson, Bill Allred and Gina Barberi. x96 has selected two documentary films to talk too this morning – La Sierra and Ringers: Lord of the Fans. La Sierra’s filmmakers went on first and gave a great interview. It sounded very interesting. Cliff and I both thought to ourselves “Jeez, we’re gonna sound all silly and goofy after an interview like that.” Next thing, we hear Bill Allred proclaim “And next for all you LOTR geeks, we’ll be right back with the filmmakers of Ringers: Lord of the Fans!”

 

We stepped in front of the microphones and instantly snapped alive. It went amazing. The DJ’s were enjoying our energy, passion and enthusiasm about our project and asked us to stay on a few minutes longer. We were ecstatic! Cliff, being the Tolkien guru that he is, provided a great deal of insight for the listeners. We also talked about being two LOTR fans ourselves: Cliff from his childhood being a huge fan of the book, and myself a fan of Peter Jackson’s trilogy and how it’s now driven me back to read the books. Then out of nowhere Bill Allred starts speaking Elvish live on the radio! We were cheering! The DJ’s were so in sync with our message and film that it almost seemed like they had seen a screener copy of it. They really got it and us because they where Ringers themselves. Then Kerry Jack Jackson cautiously asked “Not to even bring this up, but this film is not like (pause) Trekkies is it?” I replied “ No, Ringers: Lord of the Fans is as smart as it’s audience.” Bill then said “that is a perfect way to wrap this up.” We couldn’t have written a better interview.

--- Jeff Marchelletta

Ringers: Lord of the Fans - Producer