This past Friday, I was lucky enough to garner an invitation to see Juliet Landau and Deverill Weekes present their short documentary Dream Out Loud at the Son of Monsterpalooza convention in Burbank. This was my second time seeing the short (I originally saw it at the world premiere), but I enjoyed it just as much as I did the first time.

I brought my sister with me to the event, as we both took advantage of the opportunity to visit a family friend who was a guest of honor at Monsterpalooza prior to seeing the documentary, and we had a really nice visit. Shortly after we finished chatting with our family friend, I noticed that Juliet and Deverill had arrived, so I grabbed my sister and we walked over to say hello. I’ve known Juliet for a while now, but I rarely see her, so when she noticed me, her eyes lit up and I was the recipient of a huge hug. We exchanged hellos and I introduced my sister to her, then Juliet led us toward the table at the back of the room and asked if I knew about the raffle that was being done to support the Sophie Lancaster Foundation, then she was pulled aside to prep for the short panel and viewing of Dream Out Loud.

My sister and I took a look at the table of goods being raffled off, and since there were several items I was interested in- and I support the Sophie Lancaster Foundation- I purchased several tickets and hoped I might win a prize. Shortly thereafter, my sister and I took our seats and waited for the screening to begin.

It started with Michael Key introducing Deverill, who then introduced the short documentary, which is about makeup artist Kazuhiro Tsuji, an incredibly talented man who has lots of famous movies in his portfolio.

After the film began, I found myself in awe once again of Kazu’s immense skill and reminded of just how important makeup really is to the art of television and filmmaking. My sister was equally enthralled, and thoroughly enjoyed herself too. After the film ended, Juliet and Dev interviewed each other about the work they’ve done as well as the work that went into Dream Out Loud. I don’t really remember a lot of their answers, but I do remember being told that I had to keep November 1 open for a special panel at another event. Juliet will be moderating that panel, and she announced that Mariana Klaveno (Lorena on True Blood) would be on the panel along with David Greenwalt.

Shortly after the mutual Q&A ended, Juliet started pulling raffle tickets for the prizes I’d seen at the beginning of the night. With each draw, my ticket numbers weren’t called, and I felt more and more despondent, especially as the same people kept winning over and over. However, on that very last ticket draw, my number was drawn! I won the grand prize, which was $1000 of makeup from MUD (the Make Up Designory). My sister is far more into makeup than I am, so the prize went to her, and she loves it!

Once the raffle had ended and Monsterpalooza staff asked that everyone leave the room so the next event could start, I found my way over to Deverill and Juliet and finally took photos with them. As I said, I’ve known them both for a while now, and had never taken photos with them before. Both were thrilled to fulfill my request, and I think the photos came out pretty well, especially since they were taken on my phone rather than a camera. Juliet also signed my Buffy box set, and was thrilled for me that I’d been able to have Sarah Michelle Gellar sign it. I then relayed the message that Sarah told me to tell Juliet hello for her. However, there was still quite a crowd around Juliet, and my sister and I lost sight of her. Hopefully I’ll see her again soon.

If you have the opportunity to meet Juliet, please take it! She’s one of the nicest people I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet.

(photo credit: Isis Nocturne)