Distribution deals were never the point of the SXSW Film Festival, and that’s still true at its 17th edition, which began this weekend.
But for filmmakers, actors, independent film aficionados and yes, sales executives, it’s a laid-back Lone Star love-in.
“Audiences are more relaxed here,” says Ron Yerxa, who with Albert Berger executive produced Jacob Hatley’s “Ain’t in It for My Health: A Film About Levon Helm,” which held its world premiere Saturday afternoon. “Screenings at the Alamo Draft House have almost a party atmosphere, which is what I always thought festival screenings should be.”
Saturday afternoon, I spent about an hour and fifteen minutes talking to writer-director David Gordon Green for a panel at the Austin convention center as part of SXSW’s “A Conversation With…” series. Around 130 people showed up to hear Green talk about his films (”All the Real Girls,” “Snow Angels,” “Pineapple Express”), background and challenges in the business, and ask him questions.
A straightforward storyteller with a hunger to explore different genres, Green discussed everything from the fruitful time he spent making short films in film school to working on his latest comedy, “Your Highness,” with longtime friend Danny McBride, James Franco, Natalie Portman and Zoeey Deschanel. The full audio/video will be available on the SXSW website in a week or so.
Asked about his recent work in TV on the HBO series “Eastbound and Down,” starring McBride, Green said that he mostly used friends from North Carolina for his crew and shot it mostly like a “three-hour epic” movie. They’re gearing up to shoot a second season, this time with eight episodes, and having just read the first script he’s eager to take the story in a whole new direction: “We leave the country and most of the characters behind,” he said with a cryptic smile. “It gets dark.”
You know you’ve thrown a great party when an Oscar winner shows up. Adrien Brody dropped by The Hollywood Reporter party at the Chevy Tweethouse to culminate a day of panel discussions on the intersection of social media and entertainment. Brody, in town to support the upcoming Robert Rodriguez flick “Predators,” was good enough to stop by, as was actress Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who was in earlier in the day to send out her very first official tweet. She’s got a film at SXSW as well, “Wake.”
We’ll have photos up soon of more SXSW celeb sightings …
It was a panel discussion with the kind of title that could ward off even the wonkiest of digital-minded wonks on SXSW’s Interactive track, and on a Saturday morning no less: “Big Brother in Your Brain: Neuroscience & Marketing.” Ten minutes in, the assembled PhDs were playing to stereotype, droning and digressing in a way that practically dared you to follow along. Ironic considering the subject: If anyone would put a premium on engaging an audience, wouldn’t it be neuromarketing gurus?
And then it was Dr. AK Pradeep’s turn to speak. With minimal introduction, the founder of NeuroFocus launched into his own music video, “Listen To Your Brain,” on the overhead screens that, as you can see for yourself (above), is probably funnier than any film you could see at SXSW (even you, “Cyrus“). Even funnier was how fellow panelist Dr. Danielle Stolzenberg droned onward immediately afterward, pretending as if an Indian scientist didn’t just trot out a slickly produced rap video that explained neuromarketing a helluva lot more compellingly than she did.
Ben Steinbauer and Joel Heller are in town for a victory lap of sorts. Since premiering “Winnebago Man,” the documentary they produced for premiere at last year’s SXSW, they’re back in time for Kino International to announce U.S. distribution. “Winnebago” will play in theaters beginning in New York this summer.
It’s appropriate for “Winnebago” to find traction at SXSW, where film and digital have separate but intersecting tracks. That’s because the documentary was inspired by a viral-video clip (see above), which presents an unusual challenge: Can a concept that drew millions to press ‘play’ online bring them to theaters as well?
Heller is hoping “Winnebago” gets the same kind of traction in U.S. theaters that it has earned in Hollywood, where he says everyone from Spike Jonze to DreamWorks Animation has embraced the original clip because it describes a situation anyone in this industry knows all too well: being driven insane by a production. “There’s this empathic experience that people who have worked in film can relate to,” said Heller.
There’s only one thing that scares the makers of horror movies: having the ratings board force edits on their carefully crafted gore. But helmers at SXSW for Saturday panel ”Directing the Dead: Genre Directors Spill Their Guts” say the Motion Picture Association of America isn’t quite the boogeyman it’s made out to be.
But Robert Rodriguez, fresh off his well-received unveiling of “Predators” the night before, says the MPAA has long been inconsistent. “Some years they’re really hard on the violence, other years anything goes,” he said. “So you kind of have to censor yourself.”
Naturally, the conversation turned to private parts, particularly the severed kind. Ti West, director of the upcoming “The Innkeepers,” waxed eloquently of the fine art of rendering “penis trauma.” In figuring out how he was going to get a prosthetic member discharging pus past the MPAA, he recalled shooting three different scenes only to see the most graphic version slip right by. “I want to hate them, but I don’t,” West said.
The Screen Actors Guild’s national board today approved a joint negotiating agreement with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. The vote was strongly in favor of re-merging for preliminary talks with the AMPTP later this year: 78% to 22%.
The vote was not unexpected. In late January, the SAG national board voted 82% to 18% in favor of a resolution pushing the national executive director and president to seek joint bargaining with AFTRA under the terms of Phase One. That deal, first agreed to in 1981, gives SAG and AFTRA 50-50 weight on the negotiating committee.
Night One of SXSW was exactly what it needed to be: Texas-style relaxation mixed with guns-firing-in-the-air excitement. The “Kick-Ass” world premiere stirred up endless lines around both sides of the block behind the Paramount Theatre. And the “Predators” event at the Alamo Drafthouse afterwards, with producer Robert Rodriguez and director Nimrod Antal showing off sneak-peek trailers and footage from the film, was fun, informative, engaging … and full of schwag!!
Yes, every attendee walked away with one of those little lights that projects the tri-point red gunsight that the predators use to target their prey, a black T-shirt sporting about a dozen of those red tri-point designs, and a limited edition one-sheet for the movie, signed by Rodriguez.
Check out Borys’s Heat Vision for the scoop on both events. But here’s one photo with yours truly hanging with the original predator design head, which creatures designer Greg Nicotero brought along for the Q&A.
Well, I’m on the ground in Austin, sizing up the schedule for the next few days of screenings. The weather’s glorious, and I can see the Texas flag flying from my 11th floor Hilton hotel room.
I’ve been here a few times for the screenwriter-centric Austin film fest, but this is my first SXSW. Tonight’s a big night, with the world premiere of Matthew Vaughn’s “Kick-Ass,” followed by brand new footage from Robert Rodriguez and Nimrod Antal’s “Predators.” Stay tuned for Twitter and Risky Biz bursts from the scene.
You gotta love any trailer that begins with Fugazi’s Ian MacKaye saying: “An unlocked door means that occasionally you might get a devil comin’ in. But a locked door means you got a thousand angels that walk by.”
So here’s the trailer for the documentary “Barbershop Punk,” which premieres Monday night in Austin.
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Distribution deals were never the point of the SXSW Film Festival, and that’s still true at its 17th edition, which began this weekend.
