6 posts tagged “guest”
Day 8
Day 7 – Market Premiere
This was the day of our first market screening. I was up early and emailed all the buyers on my distribution lists to remind them we would screen at 2:00pm.
I was wearing my t-shirt with MindFlesh back and front so I looked like a walking billboard – which is important in Cannes because it’s not the sort of place where you can just leave your flyers anywhere :)
I’d chosen the time and place of screening after experience of previous years: convenience. There are so many films screening that any effort required on the part of the buyer might be enough to discourage attendance. Hence, I chose the Palais D – it’s in the main building and visible from the top of the stairs. The start time of 2pm allows those who party all night enough time to wake-up, recover and get something to eat.
Of course my second screening tomorrow is at the earlier time but I thought I ought to mix it up a little for those buyers who get busy with meetings in the afternoon.
At 1pm I was in the cinema and the projectionist allowed me to check the sound and image – he was very friendly and spoke English.
At 1:45pm our first audience member arrived. At each screening room there’s a woman with a barcode reader. As each person arrives she scans it over their market badge and it’s fed into a market report for viewing the next day. I’m writing this on Day 8 and I’ve just viewed and downloaded the report - now I can follow-up with people.
The screening was well attended so it proved worthwhile plus I’d given out about five DVD screeners ahead of time for those too busy or unable to attended at this time.
After the screening, I headed out to Century – another London private members club that was holidaying in Cannes on the beach. I met with horror director Jake West and some financiers that Calum works with. We got kicked out about 7:30pm and I headed over to the party in the Czech Republic pavilion being hosted by a Czech studio keen to promote itself to producers. I met a composer at the bar and when he left I went home early to be ready for Tuesday’s screening.
Meeting People
Here’s the thing: for the public Cannes is about films, for the industry it’s about meeting people. Many take the route of emailing or calling people they’d like to meet – after all, every Cannes delegate has contact details in the printed Cannes Guide and online.
For me, however, I find the best place to meet people is at parties. I know this doesn’t sound very professional but it works very well for me because most of the people I’d really like to meet probably wouldn’t return my phone calls ;)
Day 6
In the spirit of transparency, I’m writing up Day 6 (Sunday) retrospectively because it’s been a very busy couple of days preparing for and promoting the screening.
The two major events were a meeting with a distributor and a presentation on video on demand from the European Audiovisual Observatory.
Distributor meeting
I got this meeting by just cruising the stands and looking at film posters. Although buyers, sellers, producers, press etc. all have different badges, it can be a bit rude checking out someone’s badge before deciding to speak to them. Hence, most of the guys at front of house on the stand are friendly to all – especially if you’re there early in the morning and not much is going on. Once engaged in polite conversation it’s easy to mention that you’re selling a film. If the stand is being run by a company that buys and sells films like yours (as many do) then there’s a chance you can get them interested in your film. This has worked for me a couple of times and I’d been invited back to screen my trailer to the CEO.
I was invited into the depths of the stand where the distributor has a comfortable screening area – sofa and widescreen TV – and we all watched the trailer, I answered questions, we discussed the deal I was interested in and then I left them with a screener. It’s really as simple as that.
Video On Demand
This presentation was about the take-up of video on demand in Europe with specific case studies on the UK and France – the two largest markets.
Rather than repeat all the numbers here, slides from the presentation are probably available on the EAO website. I recon you can find them if you Google “VoD – which licences for which markets?”.
The definition of VoD here is download or streaming of internet-based films and TV shows either to PC or TV (including Germany’s MaxDome, BBC’s iPlayer, Virgin Media’s offering etc.). Had they looked at the US then it would have included, say, Comcasts’ OnDemand service, Jaman, Amazon Unboxed etc.
The key conclusions that I took away were:
- that there is strong demand for VoD but the overwhelming majority of the demand is being satisfied through piracy (ie. the illegal download of films without payment from bit torrent sites)
- the public’s appetite for piracy is unlikely to be sated until VoD suppliers (and producers) offer a compelling service - and this is mostly likely to be “all you can eat”-type subscription services rather than pay-per-download.
One final interesting factoid: use of the BBC iPlayer (PC-based catch-up TV player) accounts for 5% of all UK internet traffic!
Sounds like the party-ing's getting hot and heavy! Here's Robert's Day 4 report:
Day 4
I’m pleased to be writing these blog postings every day because otherwise I think I might lose track of the days!
I finished at 4:30am yesterday…well.. earlier today and that was only because they shut the bar otherwise I fear I could have been there at sunrise! And what a day for meeting people – best day so far I’d say.
There are a lot of cinemas in Cannes and the afternoon screening of Clubbed (great film - a kinda character-driven British gangster movie) was at the Star – probably the cinema farthest away from the main festival building. I set off well ahead of time and was glad I did because I ran into quite a few people I know so had to make frequent stops to talk. The first person I met was the producer of a movie now in post directed by Duncan Jones (David Bowie’s son) called Moon. I’d seen only a few stills on the film’s Facebook page but running into Stuart he whipped out his iPod and allowed me to watch the trailer (they’re selling the movie out here but it yet has many months of post-production SFX to be added so viewings of the trailer have been by invitation only I believe). Oh man! Superb – I gotta get an invitation to the premiere of this movie. I don’t know how much of what I was told is public knowledge and how much was in confidence so I won’t say any more except check out the Facebook page and track how this film becomes bigger and bigger over the coming year.
After Clubbed I took in another meeting I’d arranged and then took a shower and got ready for the evening.
I had dinner with a old friend and producer and then Calum I got into the Tatu party – yeah them, the Russian lesbian band… only they’re not lesbians any more apparently. The girls are out here with a film to promote and as part of the promotion threw a party on the beach and played a 40 minute set. The photos are from the beach gig. How did we get invited? We met Troy the guitarist in a hotel bar a few nights ago. Amazing. Calum did all the hard work though as the two of them really hit it off. His encyclopaedic knowledge of obscure indie bands finally came into use :)
Le Petit Majestic
The Tatu party kicked out at 1am and we ended the evening at Cannes’ famous Le Petit Majestic. Now I’m not a big fan of this place because it can be difficult to get a drink and last night was no exception – it was totally rammed. The bar is on a street corner and the crow spills out into crossroads for about 30 yards in all directions. There was even a 12-man line at the men’s restrooms. Still, I did meet a couple of cool people while waiting in the queue so not such a problem in the end :)
The LPM is Cannes’ worst kept secret. It’s the place where filmmakers rich and poor, the already-made-it and the aspiring throw aside all pretentions and mingle together. It’s a great place to meet people but I have to confess I was dragged along kicking and screaming because it’s not my kinda place really. Nevertheless I was proved wrong and had a great time and probably met about 5 producers just between 3am and 4am! One of whom I met when we both almost got run over by a car full of interns that tried to drive through the crowd! Only in Cannes….
So I didn’t make my usual 8am breakfast today. Got up about 10:30am and got ready for a meeting with a scriptwriter. She’d emailed me yesterday for a meeting and I was very pleased she did because I liked her pitch today and look forward to reading the script.
Not sure what I’m going to do this afternoon – my hands have just started shaking with the alcohol abuse… maybe time to re-centre myself for a few hours? Have to do it all again at 6pm – we’ve got invites to a penthouse party being thrown by a sales agent… I’ll let you know how it goes!
Hey Robert, nice shoes! :-) Here's his report:
Day 3
Yesterday afternoon I went back to the Stock Film area to check if I’d be able to view the projected film a few minutes before the screening – just to be sure it looks right. The image on the tape is anamorphic and it’s correctly labelled in English but not in French :)
I met with a friend from London who now lives in LA working as a finance finder (not entirely sure what the official name is for these guys) – he vets film projects, packages them into slates and then seeks finance. He ran by me the films he’s here to get funding for and I got his feedback on some one-pagers I have for my films in development.
No Jacket Required
Last night was the Cannes marche opening night party. I think that everyone screening a film or renting a booth in the market was invited – so very much an industry party rather than a celebrity or promotional party.
I had my invitation with me but I was going to have to try to get Calum in. I’d tried emailing the organisers to get another pass but had not heard back. So here’s what happened….
First, I checked the invite several times to make sure of the dress code. The French bouncers (the doormen? Not sure of the American word) are shipped in from around all of France because the festival requires so many and boy are they dicks.
So there’s no dress code and much to Calum’s annoyance I wore a Kooks T-shirt and my chequered Vans – he of course dressed up but then he didn’t have an invite and I still had to use my charm to get him in!
We waited in line to get through the bouncers and check in with the hostesses. As I walked in saw him look down at my shoes and I thought “oh no, run!” His arm reached out to grab mine to hold me back but I managed to stretch out my arm and fully extended stick my market pass under a hostess’ nose! Phew - close shave. The dick was still clinging on to me but the hostess flicked him a look to let me go! There’s no arguing with these dicks because they don’t speak English and I don’t speak French. So complaining that the invite doesn’t stipulate a dress code is going to be a lost cause. Every year they’re the same and that’s why Calum was annoyed with me because we both knew I was chancing my luck – but hey, I’m a nonconformist man! :)
OK, I was in and thankfully the hostess was very nice and allowed me access for one guest but it looked dicey for several minutes as she pondered the rules and regulations.
Inside was pretty cool – free food, champagne and fireworks. I met a producer, my sales agent who is selling my first feature, London Voodoo, and someone from the Canada film board. Again, another successful networking event: it all happens at the parties!
We finished at 3am again and found a small café still open serving hot snacks.
At 10am I caught a film that screened at Sundance – Quid Pro Quo and at 12:15 I met at Australian distributor who wanted a MindFlesh screener.
It’s now 2pm and I’ve been talking to another director who has a market screening next week and swapping war stories about distributors, markets, video on demand etc. I’m going to grab a bite to eat now, pick up more business cards from the apt and then catch a screening at 3:30pm because I know the producer.
More tomorrow…
Boy, do I have a treat for you. My friend Robert Pratten is a British filmmaker who's now living in the States. He made a low budget film called London Voodoo and got it distributed. He's finished his second film and is now at Cannes marketing it to potential buyers. We all know of Cannes as being a top film festival but it is also a major film market. He's agreed to be our guest blogger and update us on what it's like to market your film at Cannes! He has set up two market screenings for his film and has at least one industry party on his schedule. I think he's doing it without a sales agent but I'm not sure about that.
Susan Ee
http://feraldream.com/
Here's his first post:
So it’s Day 1 in Cannes. Arrived on a delayed flight from London, picked up the taxi that I’d pre-booked and got whisked away to the apartment I’ve rented. This year we have an apt in a great location right around the corner to the Marche (market). It’s expensive and there’s no laundry facilities and I’m sharing with a friend, Calum who’s a journalist but it is in a great location and he’s got the pull-out bed. :-)
Without unpacking, the two of us drop our bags and head out for the Registration area where we pick up our passes and goodie bag, Then we part company – Calum heads for the press room in the Majestic hotel to get details of a cocktail party tonight and I head for the Marche where I need to hand over a tape of my film, MindFlesh.
MindFlesh is an erotic psychological thriller about a man that f**ks his own mind. Based on a horror by a San Francisco Buddhist, William Scheinman, we’ve had great reviews but I’m at Cannes to give the film its first market screening – and good reviews alone won’t be enough to ensure an audience. This is my forth time in Cannes, so I don’t consider myself a novice, but it is the first time I’ve organised a market screening.
Having handed over the film I head out to the American Pavilion (AmPav) where I collect another pass and sit out by the beach with a latte to type this first diary entry. Every country represented in Cannes has its only pavilion where it can promote itself to producers looking for great locations, tax breaks or technical facilities. But the AmPav is the only one that charges for membership because it’s the only pav that receives no State funding. To my mind it’s always been the best and the place I typically hang out at the most.
I’m going to go back to the apartment now to change for tonight’s cocktail bash and intensive drinking..*cough*.. I mean networking… more tomorrow.
