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ChinaShop Film curator and Patron Saint of Indie Filmmaker Counseling Chris Gore was in Las Vegas and Los Angeles recently for a signing of his latest opus, Chris Gore’s Ultimate Film Festival Survival Guide. In addition to the autographing, Gore lived up to his reputation as an advice hound, doling out a dozen different ways he could think of to help the aspiring filmmakers who were there to seek out the film festivals. If they didn’t confess their secret projects, he became a sort of benevolent Torquemada, and had ways to make you talk…even if you didn’t want to.

After all, Gore was once an aspiring somewhat unsure-of-himself director too before he founded Film Threat and made My Big Fat Independent Movie–and knew that sometimes the only way to succeed is to get advice, whether you want it or not. He’d listen to your problem, and offer a specific solution (or at least his best guess). And most importantly: rejection? Learn it. Know it. LIVE it. Take a veritable bath in it. You’ll get it a lot, especially as an aspiring film-maker.

Among the highlights: Learning that Red and Reservoir Dogs star Lawrence Tierney, who played the notorious Jersey City Tube Bar owner and name-0bsessed old man, respectively (”You’re Mr. Pink! Be thankful you’re not Mr. Yellow!”), could be quite a handful on the set of Gore’s cult film Red. “He was a great actor, but you never knew when he was going to go off,” recalled Gore of working with Tierney. With no place to live during the making of the film, Tierney slept on the floor of the Film Threat offices– and from the sounds of things, exhibited behavior that still makes Steve McQueen and Colin Farrell look like sissy boys. Gore also had plenty of inspiring words to give hopefuls, with plenty of examples of different outlets for ways to express yourself–some directors and actors have taken to the Internet, like Felicia Day, star of Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along and her own The Guild series. Of course, there is the veritable bible of festival/filmmaking survival and easy way to get in touch with Gore at www.chrisgore.com. In the meantime, here’s a retrospective of some of Gore’s greatest hits on ChinaShop:

The Best and Worst Movie Deaths of All Time

Transformers 2: Bay Curious?

What Stays in Vegas

Words by Jeff Nau

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