SAGIndie

As this is my first entry here on the indieBlog, I’d like to say that I’m really enjoying the job so far. It’s definitely, like, my sixth or seventh best job ever. How could it not be? All the burnt coffee I want (free!), girl-dates with Darrien (also free!), more tickets to films at the Los Angeles Film Festival than anyone else I know (take that!), and the adoration of several totally uncreepy indie filmmakers who like to call and let me know they’re looking at my picture as we speak. (That’s great! Please do that more!)*

ANYWAY, so after work yesterday, I had my first of three girl-dates this week with Darrien. We were to attend the Opening Night Gala Screening of The Devil Wears Prada.

After inhaling some vaguely chicken tasting skewers down in Westwood, DMG and I cut through the back of a press line, where we saw Adrian Grenier. (See how he’s lovingly caressing the arm of my glasses while he tells me a secret in that picture?) Inside, we met up with some friends from The American Pavilion.

Then the speeches started.

Now, I’m sure this comment will come back to haunt me when it’s my own film premiere, but come on. Is it necessary to delay the screening even more so a room full of people can clap for Intel? And Target? And PopSecret? Apparently. (There should be a suggestion box for these things. I vote for one blanket clap at the end.) The director, David Frankel, was able to keep it to a manageable length. Nothing flashy (after all, this isn’t Vegas and he isn’t Celine Dion or Jesus) and funny enough. After his introduction, security paraded the attending cast down the aisle, right past me. I very nearly gave into the devil (DMG) on my left shoulder, who tried to convince me it’d be a good idea to leap onto Adrian. (It’s better to be wanted for acting like a psycho than not be wanted at all, right? Right?) In the end it was the angel (security guard) on my right whose presence convinced me to keep my hands to myself. For now. The movie was exactly as I expected it to be, cute and entertaining, with an excellent performance by Meryl Streep.

After the film, my date and I went to the party, where I marveled at her ability to pick people I should know out of a crowd of hundreds. She gets into this zone, and you can almost see her internal rolodex flipping furiously. The party itself was well attended and certainly well stocked with the traditional liver-pickling fare, where DMG created a new drink. I don’t remember what was in the cocktail, but I do remember I finished it in record time. We mingled and I was schooled on many of the players in the business before we decided it was time to go home. Tonight we see The Descent at the Ford Ampitheater.

Ok, well that was relatively painless. You can look forward to more posts by yours truly, because that’s what God wants, the way he wants Jessica Simpson to sing and George W. Bush to be president forever and ever!

*Internet sarcasm!

Hey indieBlog!  It’s us, your partners in non-traditional capitalization, CineVegas 2006, aka the World’s Most Dangerous Film Festival, albeit in blog form.  That’s right, the good folks at SAGindie were not only kind enough to host our 3rd Annual Filmmakers Bowling Safari, but they even invited us to post away on this reputable page.  Thanks!  And apologies in advance…

So the thing we had been asked to talk about was our gala, first-ever Honoree Reception, which took place on Friday, June 16th by the pools at the fabulous hard Rock Hotel and Casino.  Normally, this locale is the site of some truly debaucherous mid-afternoon parties, so we like to think that CineVegas brought things up a notch with our patent-pending blend of film, fun, and semi-formal attire.  The point of the evening was to present three of our four Honorees with their awards, so in attendance were Christina Ricci, recipient of one of two CineVegas Half-Life Awards, Taylor Hackford, recipient of the CineVegas Vanguard Director Award, and Helen Mirren, recipient of the prestigious CineVegas Marquee Award.  (Past recipients?  Glad you asked.  How’s about Tony Curtis, Dustin Hoffman, Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson, and Christopher Walken?)  Also lounging in their cabanas were presenters Catherine O’Hara, who gave Penelope co-star Ms. Ricci her award, CineVegas Advisory Board chair Dennis Hopper, who presented to Taylor, and Director of Programming Trevor Groth, who is already know to this blg, it would seem.  Finally, the whole shebang was hosted by Access Hollywood’ Maria Menounos, who is also a filmmaker in her own right.  (Longtime Listener, which she directed, played in one of our shorts programs.)

Everything seemed to go very well, as the speeches were moving, the crowd raucous, and, as we mentioned on our site, the electrified string quartet made up completely of beautiful young women.  Of course, this being CineVegas, the Honoree Reception was one of many, many events that night, including the World Premiere of Artie Lange’s Beer League, a screening of Jan Svankmajer’s new film Lunacy, and a massive party at the only flame-throwing nightspot in Vegas, Rain.  Things continued late into the night at the Palms Hotel and Casino’s newest wonderment, the Hardwood Suite, which features a half-court basketball hoop, two stories, a pool table, and four of the most amazing bathrooms we have ever seen.  There were celebrities, shrimp, bubble baths, and, most importantly, a unicycle basketball team sponsored by Red Bull.  The word ‘genius’ is overused these days, but whomever it was that designed the Hardwood Suite is just that and more. 

Hope this little glimpse into the World’s Most Dangerous Film Festival didn’t scare you all too much.  And thanks again to our hosts and sponsors SAGindie, without whom we wouldn’t be nearly so troublesome.   Filmmakers out there should check in on our site for submission information starting next year and the bravest among you should start training now for a visit next June!

Okay, today was more like it.

I squeezed in a little nature time this morning, then went full bore on the Sundance Directors Lab experience.

The super friendly folks on the Lab staff took me on a tour of the operation here, which left me duly impressed. The Sundance Institute has gone to great lengths to provide their Fellows with a nurturing, creative environment in which to hone their craft.

During the tour, I was able to visit the sets of some of the Lab productions. I watched while Armagan Ballantyne worked with her child actors (and, interestingly enough, a stuffed chicken), and stood by while Cary Fukunaga worked on a scene with Q’Orianka Kilcher. I met Eran Merev in the dinner tent, and convinced him to pose for a photo sporting his SAGIndie hat (you can see by his expression in the photo above that he may not have been entirely certain of just who the hell I was).

Later, over Indian food, I sat and listened to Armagan discussing her production with her crew and creative advisor. Listening to them hash over camera angles made me want to sign up for a couple of days of production work.

The staff then graciously allowed me to say a few words to the gathered filmmakers and creative advisors, who gave me a nice round of applause for the free booze from the night before. Judging from conversations I had with filmmakers, having beer before dinner was a popular decision. If I’d only been there to see it…

Before I sign off to pack for the trip home, I’d just like to say thanks to the entire staff of the Directors Lab. Emma Ruse, and everyone else here, has been unfailingly helpful and friendly. I wish I could stay longer, but duty (and a pile of unsigned expense reports) calls.

Ahh, Sundance…

Free Stella Artois, pretty girls slinging Airborne on every corner, and, of course, lots of frozen precip. At least, that’s what Sundance has meant to me, until now.

Now, I see that I was a parochial rube, foolishly thinking that the well-oiled Sundance machinery shut down in the fallow months between the behemoth festival’s annual invasion of tiny Park City. How little I knew.

But how could I have known? Paul and Darrien usually hog all the high profile events (have fun at Waterfront, DMG… I didn’t want to go anyway), forcing me to hold down the fort in Hollywood, where I bide my time hoping that they’ll at least bring me a souvenir of their high-livin’, jet-setting good times. To my great good fortune, though, this year Paul decided he needed a little down time after his exhausting trip to Cannes, followed by his physically draining vacation in Venice.

So he sent me to represent SAGIndie at the 2006 Sundance Directors Lab, held annually at the Sundance resort high above picturesque Provo Canyon. So far, to be blunt, I ain’t complaining.

Well, I do have one minor, niggling complaint that I hesitate to bring up: my flight to Utah was delayed so long that I missed the event that was the primary reason for my trip. Yep, the SAGIndie Reception had to go on without me. I lost out on the chance to be the guy who bestowed free booze and SAGIndie hats upon a bunch of thirsty, swag coveting filmmakers. Just thinking about all the drinks at the Owl Bar our generosity would have garnered me had I been here to take all the credit for our largesse is disheartening in the extreme.

Ah well, to hell with it. I’ve got to soldier on. There are complimentary meals to be had, hands to shake, and script readings to attend. And today was not a total wash: I saw Q’Orianka Kilcher and I got my two week membership card to the Owl Bar (pictured above).

Tomorrow will give me time enough to earn my pay.

I hit Chicago last weekend for a whirlwind 48 hour trip to the IFP Chicago’s Midwest Filmmakers Summit, and I came away mightily impressed by the city and it’s people.

Chicago is a town with an embarrassment of architectural riches, an excellent public transit system, and a wide selection of beers on tap.

In other words, I loved it.

After wandering around the Loop until late Friday evening, I spent Saturday morning at the Field Museum’s excellent Pompeii exhibit, then walked through a light sprinkle of rain to Columbia College, where the IFP Chicago was holding the Summit.

Elizabeth Donius and Molly Hansen of the IFP were kind enough to invite me to speak on one of the weekend’s panels, which was as much a learning experience for me as it was for the filmmakers in attendance (maybe more so). I was somewhat unfamiliar with the level of independent production in the Chicago area, and was pleased to find a thriving, ambitious film-making community, eager to leverage Chicago’s vast pool of acting talent and plenitude of photogenic locations into a higher indie profile for the Windy City.

Later that night, SAGIndie sponsored a BBQ and Southern Rock blowout at a loft in the magnificent Fine Arts Building. As the band played and the Stella flowed, a thunderstorm blew in. Undulating sheets of soaking rain washed over the streets as lighting flashed over Lake Michigan. Some brave souls opened the windows and crawled out onto the ledge, ten stories above Michigan Avenue, to watch the torrent.

I stood a safe distance away, sipping a beer, as the sweet sound of a pedal steel guitar washed over me, and the flickering light of candles played over the pressed-tin ceiling.

Before I got too much of a load on (I hate to fly with a hangover) I made a dash down rain-slick Wabash to my hotel, crawled into bed, and feel asleep to to the sound of the El rattling it’s way through the night.

We just spent a week in New York for the IFP Market (yeah, I was there, just not pictured), and, no surprise, had a great time on the other coast.

What did we do? What didn’t we do?

Panels, seminars, an awards luncheon, screenings, and parties (you can see photos documenting this at right), not to mention binge drinking (but never, ever, on the clock).

The Market also represented our first opportunity to take our new contracts directly to the people of the Empire State, and the reaction from Market attendees was extremely positive. It’s always satisfying to deliver on the hype, and the uptick in SAG signatory productions since the introduction of the revamped agreements is strongly suggestive that we have.

And now that I am done with the obligatory flacking portion of the post (hey, I get paid by the word, people!), I’d like to point out to our reader(s) that there are some states out there that are seriously focused on providing very generous incentives to shoot within their borders.

Mississippi (yep, they’re still in business), New York, Florida, and Oregon were among the states with representatives in attendance, and since they are, in some cases, almost paying you to shoot there, I would encourage anyone considering shooting in one of those states to check their eligibilty with the approriate film office.

And, of course, to use SAG actors (yeah, I’m shameless) .

We took the SAGIndie show on the road on Friday, shuttling up Crescent to the DGA for the Los Angeles Film Festival’s "Meet the Guilds" luncheon. This event is one of those occasions when the Hollywood guilds join forces, Superfriends style, to let independent filmmakers know that we’re open for business with them.

Friday’s event was notable for much more than the free boxed lunches we provided the filmmakers, however.

Much, much more.

This Friday, SAGIndie Director Paul Bales revealed to the awed masses the existence of our brand new Modified Budget Agreements: the Short Film Agreement and the Ultra Low Budget Agreement, both of which go into effect July 1, 2005.

The Short Film Agreement, which is essentially replacing the Experimental Agreement, will cover short films with a budget of $50,000 or less that have a running time of 35 minutes or less. This contract also eliminates the deferred payment schedule, allowing SAG actors to donate their services to producers gratis, without saddling filmmakers on a shoe-string budget with potentially crippling back-end pay requirements.

This spirit of cooperation is extended to the Ultra Low Budget Agreement, which replaces the Limited Exhibition Agreement. This new contract, covering all features with a budget under $200,000, provides an updated pay schedule, eliminating deferred payments in favor of a flat rate of $100 per day.

Additionally, both contracts do away with step-up payments for additional distribution modes: in other words, going to DVD won’t bankrupt your company.

The Modified Low and Low Budget Agreements have also been spiffed up. To reflect the rising budgets of independent films, both feature a 25% increase in their budgetary caps against an 8% positive adjustment in the SAG pay schedule.

Of course, we are very excited about these contracts, and feel strongly that these changes will make it easier than ever to use SAG actors in low-budget films. And, in keeping with this user-friendly theme, we’ve now made sample copies of the contracts available for download from our website. You can even get the preliminary paperwork to fax to the Theatrical Department here.

Unfortunately, the limits of our technology prevent us from offering a boxed lunch for download from our website. You can, however, attend one of our Signatory Workshops, where I will personally present you with one of our ever-popular light-pens.

There were those amongst us who spent the last few days at the crap tables in Las Vegas, or in the drunken splendor of the hot-tub haven of Saugatuck, MI. I, however, spent this last weekend in Oklahoma City, attending the Dead Center film festival.

Far from being resentful at this turn of events, as some (most) people might be, I went into the weekend with an open mind and found myself pleasantly surprised by what I experienced there.

It didn’t start well. The flight in took us through a long stretch of airspace that was peppered by what the gentleman in the adjoining seat colorfully referred to as "thunder-bumpers". As a card-carrying white-knuckle flyer, I found the last twenty minutes of the flight to be one of the most profoundly unpleasant, not to say panic inducing, episodes in my long, ambivalent flying career.

However, once I safely arrived (at Will Rogers World Airport, which is, appropriately enough, built in a semi-circle around a huge bronze statue of the man himself) and began interacting with the folks behind Dead Center, as well as the citizens of Oklahoma City themselves, the prospect of spending a weekend in the heartland seemed much less dismal than it had at the moment that Paul had "asked" me to take one for the team and make the trip east.

Oklahomans are truly OK. Cacky Poarch and Melissa Scaramucci of Dead Center were gracious and helpful hosts (Melissa even fronted me a Claritin tab on a day that the prairie winds were sending the pollen count soaring into the "Extreme" range), the staff at my hotel were friendly and gave mostly good directions, and even the homeless, mentally ill street folk were unfailingly polite, as evidenced by the guy who earnestly asked if I was with the Department of Homeland Security (the answer is "no"), then nodded sagely and strolled off into the night.

As my Grandma back home might say, they’re "good people".

As for the festival itself:

- The opening night party had plenty o’ free booze and food, which is always a plus. While there I ran into a couple of women from the Sundance Channel who, while their names escape me at the moment, I found to be excellent drinking companions. They were, after all, from Texas.

- Linda Dowell from the SAG Texas branch was on hand for the Chicks Rule panel, which included Patti Kelly of Scarpaci/Kelly Productions, who was in town with her film "Welcome to September". Ms. Kelly produced the film under the Experimental Agreement, a fact which I have just shamelessly exploited for SAGIndie’s promotional gain.

- Linda (as pictured above) also took the SAGIndie Traveling Roadshow and Workshop to the aspiring filmmakers of the South Central U.S., braving the hostile environs of a right-to-work state in order to spread the Low Budget gospel.

- Finally, I must mention that I breakfasted daily on the free muffins and coffee at the Filmmaker Coffee event, a great place to network and nurse a hangover. All thanks to Dead Center for helping me stretch my meager very generous per diem.

All in all, it was an enjoyable, productive trip, which is all you can really ask for. That, and a "thunder bumper"-free flight.

The Los Angeles Film Festival is right around the corner (literally: the corner of Sunset and Crescent Heights), and tickets are now available for this year’s slate of events and screenings.

Highlights (completely subjective, of course) include:

- Robert Towne discusses the City of Angels, and the role L.A. has played in his life and films. A must for Chinatown fans, which means anybody who loves movies. As for Tequila Sunrise, the less said, the better.

- Movies at the Ford Amphitheater. The eclectic programming includes the Russian vampire flick Night Watch, the popular nature doc March of the Penguins, and a live set by The RZA which will feature the erstwhile Wu-Tanger dropping science over a backdrop of classic cartoons.

- The North American premiere of Down in the Valley, the latest San Fernando Valley opus not directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Starring Evan Rachel Wood (a guest at our Sundance Actors Only Brunch) and Edward Norton (not a guest at our Sundance Actors Only Brunch), it looks like a mash-up featuring elements of Midnight Cowboy, Being There, and the woefully unappreciated Pauly Shore masterwork, Encino Man.

Of course, there is much, much, much more I could go into here. However, you people out there keep calling with your contract questions, hang ups, and marriage proposals. So, as much as I’d like to let the phones ring, I’m gonna get back to work.

As for you, better log off now and go get in line for tickets to The RZA Cartoon Hour. They’re gonna go fast.