SAGIndie

Hello, Salut, Bonjour from Cannes.  My name is Christopher O’Brien, I have been volunteering my time to SAG Indie over the course of the festival, and now I have taken over the blog.  It is hard to remember exactly what I was expecting of this festival but it is definately a far cry from what was delivered.  The past two weeks have been one of the most sensational and surreal experiences of my life.  I have never been to a festival on such a scale let alone the industry market that runs side by side with the festival.  For the first couple of days I felt like the proverbial deer caught in the headlights.  The rush of people and energy was simply astounding.  Through my volunteer activities with SAG Indie I have been able to gain face time with some of the most influential and powerful players in this industry.  Whether it was the VP of production at Warner Independent, two reps from CAA, the head programmer of Sundance or one the most powerful entertainment lawyers in the industry, the chance to meet these people and to engage in conversation with them, gleaning copious amounts of knowledge about the nature of the business, has been exhilarating, humbling and quite simply awesome.  This is the kind of face time that a filmmaker at the beginning of their career could only dreaming of obtaining.  Film school has been great, outstanding even, but the lessons learned during the two weeks of volunteering for SAG Indie at this festival wipes the floor clean.  Incredible.

               Now about this festival.  I mean you’re in the south of France to begin with, it’s spring, the sun is shining, the women are beautiful(…read absolutely gorgeous and stunning…) and the entire film industry world wide has descended upon a roughly ten block radius of a small town in southern France.  Ha!  This rocks!  U2 played on the steps of the Palais and I said “okay…look its U2…and their playing a set on the red carpet”  and you know what I didn’t even blink.  Don’t get me wrong…it’s awesome…but it just seems so much apart of what is normal around here.  I’ve been thinking that I don’t know what the heck I’m going to do with myself when I get back to the states, because after this what on earth is going to fire me up.  I’ll be driven to distraction.  But then again I guess that’s the price for being fortunate enough to attend the festival and have access to all the behind the scenes activity…and oh yeah I got to see Robert Duvall, Malcom MacDowell (….very cool…he was amazing just chillin out checking his email…no attendants, no publicist, no anything…just himself…)

                 Last but not least….a message to guys everywhere…learn how to tie a bow tie.  I spent thirty minutes looking for someone out in front of the palais to tie my tie so I could go into the world premiere of Michael Moore’s Sicko.  Just a word to the wise. 

I’m going to go out on a limb here and make an assumption that for most of us indie folk, actors, directors, and producers alike, our trips to festivals like the prestigious Cannes don’t begin on the private jet the Weinstein’s sent over, with drivers waiting at the airport to whisk us away to our carte blanche stays at the Hotel du Cap or Majestic.

So for the savvy indie(ite) that wants to try their hand at surviving La Riviera sans beaucoups de bucks I thought I would share my observations on the first several days of free food…or gratuis as its called over here. I’m even going to go so far as to name the parties but you can’t hold me responsible for next years fare.

Breakfast. Okay, I haven’t seen any free breakfasts but in ‘04 I did the Producer’s Network here and the gatherings were always during breakfast. Granted, I did pay for the privilege of attending the Network, but breakfast was kind of free in that I never actually paid for it on the spot? If I remember correctly, it was the standard French fare, croissant, pain au chocolat, French orange juice (kind of tangy with more of a water like consistency) coffee and tea. I’ll check tomorrow with a friend in the program this year and amend the above if it has changed at all.

I’ve also noticed at the American Pavilion if have a VIP membership, they have a little table set up with free coffee and pastries. But, when someone showed up at the American Pavilion with a pain au chocolat yesterday when we all knew they were out, I found out the Irish Pavilion had free pastries and coffee which leads me to believe, and again, this is not with all certainly, but I’m fairly sure, some of the various countries, and definitely Ireland have free breakfast goodies.

Lunch. Kodak takes the cake here. The Kodak luncheon was actually lovely. Perfect paella, orzo in a light tomato sauce, artisinal cheeses, a chopped avocado, tomato and bean salad with a crisp Rose. Its difficult to believe the space was just beach several days ago as they have this Buddhist, Zen, rocks and wood thing happening in there with a bar that looks like it layered slate. Really, as good if not better than any restaurant with ambiance to boot.

Snacks/Coffee. I’m going to go with a stroll around the market on this one. I promise to go back tomorrow and take better notes, but the various booths always have a little something to nosh on while you stop by. Some booths are more approachable than others, hence you don’t feel badly about the eat and run. They are easy to spot in the quantity and assortment of what is there. A little fun twist on the market is heading outside to the yacht area. Today I took at peak at the new F23 HD Sony camera on their yacht and noticed a lovely assortment of sandwiches and sodas for visitors. They were such a nice group of people, I sincerely think they would have been happy to have me sit down on their uber yacht and enjoy a bit of food and I don’t even think the conversation would need to revolve around the camera.

Cocktail Hour. This is where Cannes takes the cake. I’m going to have to go with the Korean Pavilion on this one for whatever the beautiful purpley champagne was they were serving. The food wasn’t so memorable, but the champagne made up for any lack on the part of the hors d’ouevres. IFP, alcohol, no food. Film Finders/Without a Box, alcohol and some appetizers but difficult to find and well…the Plages des Palmes where it was held had a big cooler with ice cream so that was nice!

Dinner. J.A. Media, hands down. Chinese food in France. Who would have thought. But it was great, copious, lively and very filling. Kung Pao Shrimp, pork shu mai, wontons, pork dumplings, egg rolls, bbq pork ribs, broccoli and greens in garlic, fried rice and noodles. The space got very hot very quickly and the waiters did not put ice in our Coca Lite but everyone left fully sated without parting with any Euro. The perfect dinner.

I have not heard of a dessert party yet, but I will keep my eyes open and report back should I hear of one. Feel free to comment and add to this list for future generations of budget Canne(enites) to refer to.

Hello all you U.S. bound people (can you hear my tone of scorn?)

 I am here in Cannes for that little festival they throw in May.  Every year, I come here and practice rolling my eyes and looking at everyone with disdain - you know, I practice my French.  Good times.  We (Alexis and I) got here on Monday evening, just in time to throw a party for our illustrious plebians, converts, students, in the Filmmaker Program at the American Pavilion.  We literally came, partied, and fell directly asleep.  Now if that’s not a good party, I don’t know what is.  The amazing thing is, we walked along the street Monday night, at about 11pm, and the streets were completely deserted.  It was the calm before the storm.

 Now that we’re here and the festival has finally started.  No longer are there streets with no one on them.  Our apartment overlooks a cute couple of restaurants; and Monday was the last night when we had a quiet night of sleep.  The hordes (and a similarly named group) have now descended upon the streets of Cannes.

 For those of you who think we’re just lounging around in luxury, we have started our program of roundtable discussions for the students.  In order to really give the 150 film students from across the country who pay for the priviledge of waiting tables at the American Pavilion an education, we ask industry executives to come in and talk with the students - giving them insight and the benefit of their years of experience.  So far, they’ve met with producers who specialize in financing (Deborah Zipser) and an exec. at Warner Independent (Lauren Craniotes).  The students have been thrilled (I had to escort Lauren out to get the students to release her).  Still to come, Trevor Groth, programmer of Sundance FF and programmer/founder of  CineVegas, Brett Ratner (duh, the director) and Mr. Robert Duvall(!).  I hope these kids appreciate all that we’re doing for them.  If so, I expect a package to appear at my table at the AmPav, wrapped in brown paper, filled with Euros in denominations of 10’s and 20’s.  Or, at least, a promise to take me when they managed to get invited to all the cool parties that I would simply read about the next day in the Variety.

 More later, gotta run and get a good seat in order to hear (make eye contact and seduce with my brain waves) Norah Jones when she comes in to cut the red ribbon on the American Pavilion. 

 really, good times.

Sez here some dude tried to auction off the distribution rights for his film on eBay (scroll down to the second news item), but was unsuccessful. Kudos for the guy for attempting to push the boundaries of what constitutes a well-thought out distribution plan and, truth be told, someone somewhere was going to try it eventually, but maybe putting your film out there for all the figurine collectors and Russian scammer gangs on eBay to bid on was not the best idea.

Ah well, he failed so you don’t have to.

Every so often I will realize I can add another reason to the laundry list already in existance of “Why I (Eliza) am cooler than Scott Garner”. Today’s reason? I saw Hot Fuzz a week ago* and he (depsite his efforts all weekend) has not.

Have you seen it? After looking at the box office results, chances are you haven’t. Why? It’s very entertaining. It’s no Shaun of the Dead, unfortunately - but then again, what is? I encourage all seven of you readers out there to ignore any advertising for this film (it’s all poorly done) and just go see it so you can start getting your Halloween costumes ready.

And to think - an offer to see the movie a week early and for free! He could have gone too, but he didn’t and that’s the point. Isn’t that reason enough to finally learn how to read, Scott?

*It was a Film Independent members-only pre-screening.

Blogging from the trade show floor today, spotty wi-fi coverage permitting. Linda Dowell of SAG is now here with us, and we are busy spreading the word about the Low Budget Agreements. At least, Darrien and LInda are - I’ve spent my morning thus far robbing the Mozilla booth of Firefox swag.

This place is geek heaven: in addition to Mozilla, Google, Opera, Creative Commons, and topix.net, among others, are in attendance. Second Life is also here, though they’re not as mobbed as I would have thought. I guess everybody is visiting their virtual SXSW booth instead.

Kay Schaber of the WGA has dropped by and Darrien is admiring her engagement ring. Congrats Kay!

Just met one of the local volunteers. His name is Killer, he has a huge chrome “K” dangling from a chain around his neck, and he seemed pretty friendly for a guy with that fearsome appellation. I don’t think Austin will have any problem keeping it weird.

I’m going to walk around a bit more. I’ve got my eye on one of those Google mouse pads.

It’s Darrien. With a Pickle.

‘Nuff said.

Actually, this is more like Day .5 for us. Or .33. Or something like that.

See, the SXSW exhibitor hall opens on Sunday, but we need to be here to “load in” our “gear” tomorrow - in other words, we need to roll into the convention center around 11 a.m. tomorrow to watch the convention staff load in our couch and chairs. Should be a grueling half hour for us.

But not as grueling as my flight in, a 5 hour journey from Burbank to Dallas to Austin on two different (though equally cramped) American Airlines Super-80’s, the final leg of which I spent sandwiched between two huge dudes with shaved heads and and a tendency to park their meaty elbows in my ribs.

Cramped though it was, I made it in one piece, and I believe (though I have no proof) that the leg exercises that I found in the back of the American in-flight magazine helped stave off an attack of DVT. Don’t laugh - DVT is for reals. Just ask Dick Cheney, ticking cardiac time-bomb and recent DVT survivor.

Anyway, SXSW: since it hasn’t really started, I’m just going to fill this space with some of my first impressions of the Lone Star State in general, and Austin in particular.

- Texas is big.

- Texas is flat.

- People in Texas do wear cowboy hats - some of them, anyway. Of course, so did that dude in the Village People…

- Dallas has a nice airport.

- Austin has small taxis.

- Austin’s 6th Street has a lot of bars.

- 6th Street has a lot of cover bands.

- 6th Street features a ridiculously high ATM-to-drunk-frat-boy ratio.

- 6th Street is pretty fun.

- Did I mention I’ve spent some time on 6th Street?

More later… Must rest now.

The Boss and I are headed to SXSW this weekend, so keep an eye on this space for news, party reports, and pictures from deep in the heart of Texas. If any of you are heading to Austin as well, make sure to drop by our booth at the festival and say “hi.” Darrien promises to buy anyone who says the secret password (”SAGIndie Blog”) a beer.

Really. She did.

It’s true.

A quick indie news item to spice up the post-awards season doldrums: Time magazine tries to make sense of the whole Zyzzyx Road kerfuffle, and (mostly) succeeds. The “New Ishtar” headline is kinda misleading, though.