SPAA FRINGE: Saturday, Day 3

Last night finished up as 3am this morning. Regardless, I had to meet Peter Broderick at 10:15am so it was quickly off the couch, in the shower, pack the bags, say bye to Johnny and meet Andy on the corner of Abercrombie and Broadway. Then hail a taxi, arrive at Paddington town hall, ask if I could leave a bag somewhere, leave it in the cloak room, run up the stairs and bump into Peter Broderick in the foyer.

We sat down and I played him the chapter of Into the Shadows that he mostly features in. He laughed at a few key moments and he watched the whole 11 mins! He gave me some frank advice about distribution and commented that he really liked the chapter! Great start to the morning.

I went and got some Doritos for breaky (yeah I know, not exactly weetbix) and headed into: How and When: A Guide To Successfully Presenting a Project for Financing, Distribution and Sales. I think I missed the good part, but it was interesting enough, the speakers spoke about Poster Art and showed some cool examples. Then I went to hear Kristy Vernon speak about the making of Gabriel. The best talk of the day! I had heard most if before while interviewing Shane Abbess, but Kristy's insights were refreshing and inspiring to hear. Afterwards I apporached her and asked about gaining access to clips of Gabriel or behind the scenes pictures that Sony doesn't own the copyright to. She was happy to chat and said to email her as she might have something - so fingers crossed something might turn up. Not that I don't want to have to pay Sony for the clips, its just the people that clear this kind of thing are based in LA and it takes ages! to hear from them.

After lunch I bumped into Mark Pesce and asked if he wanted to meet to view some of the film, he was happy to and then I headed into Sue Maslin's session on Doing Business differently. Interesting session and cool to see a producer really trying to grasp the new business paradigm of Media Rights Management.

Then I rushed out of her session to meet Mark and get his thoughts on the chapter he features in. He watched it all and gave me great feedback on the edit. Also commented that he hadn't seen the material covered in such a way before! So as you could tell I was feeling pretty pumped, then slipped into a session on budgets. It was OK but by then I wasn't really in the mood, so I slipped out of it and went looking for broadcasters.

I met the head guy for documentary from SBS and introduced myself and the idea of the doco to him. We exchanged business cards and I said I would keep him up to date with the progress of the film.

Andrew Urban hosted a Q and A with Steven Kastrissios and fellow co-producer of The Horseman. The clips of the film looked great and I am keen to see it, hope it goes off in Australia and establishes a determine young filmmaker (in Steven). His talk was great and I reckon he will go places.

Then it was time to grab the bags and head off to the Fringe Bar one last time.

Spaa Fringe 2008 - over and out.

Quit our jobs...but still full steam ahead

This trip is already frustrating and it’s only the end of Day 1. Since quitting our jobs to work on the documentary full time, money has been a problem. Not so much a problem but an issue to deal with and it looks like we will be hitting up the credit card from now on. Which means debt.

The hotel is not to bad, but it isn’t great. The internet is expensive, the extra comforts of a bedside table are non-existent and the desk is one of those minimalist ones shoved in the corner that can hold a skinny TV and that’s about it...not the ideal workspace for traveling filmmakers. Enough complaining - on with the job at hand.

Today we had two great interviews, firstly Adrianne Pecotic from AFACT, who raised some interesting points about piracy and creative ownership. After lunch we interviewed Stephen Basil-Jones from Sony Pictures Releasing. He was very encouraging of our work and great to chat with, he had some upfront thoughts on the real issues facing distributors in this evolving cinema environment.

Preparation

Its 10:30 at night and I should be sleeping in preparation for tomorrow’s trip. Instead I am watching the behind the scenes featurette of 2:37 and compiling some research on Shane Abbess. Phil is rocking up at my house at 5:30am then we are off to Sydney.

We will be interviewing Shane at the Sony theatrette at 11am and hopefully meet with Peter Cody at 2:30pm for a quick discussion about the possibility of interviewing him for our project.

Then it’s back in the car and off home to Canberra. Today was also the first day of working on the film 8:30-5pm as I quit my job on Friday- it was a great feeling, here’s to many more productive days ahead. Well enough writing from me, back to work and hopefully sleep...soon enough.