SAGIndie

As always, SXSW was a success for SAGIndie. There’s something about being in Austin during March that makes for a very rewarding experience, both personally and professionally. The excitement and genuine love for film is so rampant that you never want it to end. This festival is quickly becoming one of my favorites and I highly suggest attending.

Besides seeing a couple amazing films (KICK-ASS and MICMACS), we were an exhibitor during the three-day trade show portion and had the chance to chat with a number of interesting filmmakers and actors. SAGIndie National Director, Darrien Gipson, took part in a “Meet the Guilds” panel that was very well attended and we finished out the week by co-hosting an amazing party with the WGA.

See below for some fun photos from the trip.

One of the best festival t-shirts I’ve seen. I definitely picked one up.

Registration was MUCH easier in 2010. Every year SXSW gets better at running their show.

Our busy booth. Co-ran with our great friends at SAG New Media.

This guy was our first GOWALLA challenge winner. He took home a bunch of goodies.

Blip.tv hosted an amazing party for filmmakers and new media professionals.

Cheeseburger flavored Doritos. Best or worst idea ever?

The Music Festival crowd begins to take over 6th Street.

–says John August as he moderates part 3 of the FIND Directors Series, a series of discussions between filmmakers, sound editors, actors, producers and more, hosted by Film Independent. I attended two of these events over the last few weeks. Each session had a focus; the first one’s topic was “working with actors” and the second focused on “sound in filmmaking.”

Panel One had crew members from The Blind Side, including Director John Lee Hancock and actress Kim Dickens, along with 2004’s the Alamo actor Jason Patric. What I remember most about that panel is Hancock’s admission that any good director isn’t afraid to say he doesn’t know the answer to a problem. He, Dickens and Hancock discussed problem days when certain scenes just wouldn’t work and how they problem-solved their issues. He suggested time, if you have it, to stop and go back to a particular scene. He also suggested opening a dialogue with the actor instead of trying to diagnose an issue and pick out problems when you don’t really know why something isn’t working. Basically, he believes that honesty can be the best policy when trying to get the right performances from actors.

The second panel I went to had Jeffrey Friedman, one of the two directors of HOWL, a Sundance 2010 film festival opener, and Lora Hirschberg from Skywalker Sound who was the sound editor for the film. Focusing on sound was refreshing since it seems to be one of the lesser discussed topics in filmmaking. One point that I wholeheartedly agreed with was stated by Hirschberg. She said that you should always try to get the cleanest takes while you’re on set. If sound tells you they need one more, you should get one more. The extra five minutes will pay off in the end when you aren’t stuck in a black box with your actors trying to record ADR and recapture that amazing moment that you saw materialize on set, five months later.

But my favorite quote was spoken by moderator John August, whose screenwriting credits include Go and Big Fish. It is also the title of this blog. He reminded me that making a film is a huge feat, but also, that having multiple project ideas in different genres is a good thing. Keep your options open and don’t be afraid to try a genre that you normally wouldn’t. The point is simple: get your work out there and get something made.

You can watch the videos by clicking here or by visiting Film Independent’s website.

You guys! I couldn’t make you a film festival mix for Santa Barbara, because I didn’t listen to any music at all on this trip because I just had a radical new procedure on my ears to improve my hearing 1000x because that (superhuman hearing) is the only thing keeping me from being 100% perfect. It went really well, thanks. But because of this, my ears were bandaged up, so you get photos I took on my iPhone, because what else am I going to use it for? Certainly not talking to people! Moving on!

I attended the fest for the American Riviera Awards, with this year’s recipient being Sandra Bullock. She was actually really entertaining. Did you know that she grew up in Germany and her mom was an opera singer? (Maybe you did.) Fun anyway! Plus, there were clips shows, which I love – so much, in fact, that if you know me in real life well enough to come to my wedding, you can expect, at minimum, three clip shows. Anyway, it was at the Lobero Theater, which is so adorable I would live there if they let me.’

If you go to the Lobero Theater and get a seat under the balcony (like I did), specifically because you are expecting and handsome young foreigner to come out and serenade you and your bandaged ears (like I did), you’d be mistaken. Apparently no one here thought of this and what a great idea that would be. All I’m saying is don’t get your hopes up (like I did).

Some guy named James Cameron was also receiving an award.

I laughed and laughed at this picture. “Listen, friend Colin Firth, we are very proud of you for winning an award at the SBFF, but instead of saying that, we’re going to just put our names and you can be satisfied with people knowing that you are our friend. Hanx”

The end.