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Sorry, I have been backlogged on festival blogging. I’m currently in Hong Kong attending the Filmart and HKIFF (more on that later), so back-to-back-to-back film festivals have definitely taken a toll on me. But, this is what I do, and to be in the now when it comes to indie films, you have to attend the South By Southwest Film Festival (SXSW), and this recent edition was another solid year of eclectic films, lots of Texas BBQ, and of course, tons and tons of film and interactive panels.
So I decided, as a gift to myself, that I would take a relaxing journey to Austin for SUNSET STORIES’ world premiere screening at SXSW 2012. I thought it would be a great way to unwind and reflect on the journey of the film, not to mention take in the beauty of the southwest. Plus, it was a straight shot for the most part through the 10E. Simple. Easy breezy. Until I got stuck on the side of the road for over six hours in the rain…anyway, like any film journey this seemed fated. It was long, hard, grueling, but my goal at the end was worth all of it. After being rescued, I soldiered on to Austin, well in time for the screening that night.
The rest was a BLUR. A bunch of our team and our two leads, Sung Kang and Monique Curnen, made it out for the screening that night at the Alamo Ritz, an amazing theater that served food while you watched the film. That may be annoying for some, but I thought it was comforting and completely reflected the spirit of the festival. If you ever make it there, try the fried pickles! The screening went well – I was told it did. I kept coming in and out of the theater, to check in but couldn’t stand to watch the film with an audience just yet. From the places I did catch, the audience laughed and were engaged. Our Q&A was fun and entertaining. For some reason, Sung Kang managed to talk about his fabulous hair and I had an experience that brought the BETTER LUCK TOMORROW screening from a decade ago back to full circle – but I’ll leave that for another blog entry.
Ernesto’s back to write about his new film SUNSET STORIES, which will have its World Premiere at SXSW on Saturday. The film’s executive produced by our own Justin Lin (with Sung Kang starring) and the first feature to go out under our YOMYOMF Films banner. Ernesto will be sharing his journey with the film on a regular basis.
From my previous and only entry, I had this grand plan of blogging on the experience of making micro-budget films, going into detail using my first feature SUNSET STORIES as an example and chronicling our long journey up to our premiere – then the realities of micro-budget reared its ugly head and set in.
In a matter of about two weeks we had to finish the picture edit, re-write, re-record and edit in the voice over, prepare titles and title animation, have a new score composed, color correct the picture, edit the music sound, sound mix and finally playback to our screening tape. This doesn’t even mention the publicity and promotions materials and logistics of making the festival screening happen. I won’t bore you with those details. In all, it was a Herculean task, to say the least, especially with what little budget we had left.
Again, we were scrambling, begging, pleading and promising our first born to anyone that would help us. And as of yesterday, everything is finished. It was probably one of the hardest things I’ve experienced in my whole life, and the only thing running in my head, over and over again: I WILL NEVER EVER DO THIS SHIT AGAIN.
The photo above is the Alamo Drafthouse staff’s Christmas card from last year. We at YOMYOMF love the Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas based in Austin, TX. We’ve written about this amazing theater chain here and here. Several of Justn’s films have played there, including a great festival screening of FINISHING THE GAME at the always badasstastic Fantastic Fest. The Alamo Drafthouse founders, Tim and Karrie League, are personal friends of mine and foodie fanatics. They are part of the fanboy and cinema braintrust that has made Austin a major destination point for films and also transformed our pop culture lexicon into the new mantra that, “yes, the geeks HAVE inherited the Earth.” Cinema is their business, and they mean it. Since 1997, they’ve implemented a “no talking” policy during screenings and they fully enforce it. This has expanded to use of your cell phone, especially texting.
I attended South By Southwest this past weekend and was so jazzed at the convergence of innovation and new ideas at the interactive and film conferences. Some of the quick highlights:
- Opening Night film was KICK-ASS and it was, well, kick ass! One of the best comic book movies ever and totally no-holds barred. Chloe Moretz as HIT GIRL is a starmaking performance. The countless fanboys in attendance vowed to save themselves until the 11-year old turns legal.
- Other highlights were COLD WEATHER, a mumblecore detective story, BEIJING TAXI about three laborers living in China leading up to the Beijing Olympics, and A SERBIAN FILM, one of the most fucked up midnight movies I have ever seen. Catchphrase from that film, “newborn porn.” Yeah.
