Cannes, Day 4

Half of my trip has just been me staring at a map. And walking and getting lost. And laughing to myself. And talking about "this would make a great story," but I'm assuming it happens to everyone.

So after getting lost this morning, I saw Sandy and Kathy at the Train station. Said bye :( and then went over to the Palais. It was quiet. So I took the opportunity to go to the screening area, grabbed about 12 fliers 

And went to watching short films. I must've watched about 50 today overall between the small screening booth and the screening rooms. Fortunate to be in the area at the time (more on that later).  I made sure to email the ones I saw in the booth, and stay behind and talk to the filmmaker about their film. Always lending a kind word to them. 

The best thing about being here and having access to the entire film catalog:

Learning. 

Like I have watched every type of short film possible. And each time I take something away from them. It blows me away really how much great stuff is out there. Doesn't discourage me either that tons of them are really damn good. Makes me want to work harder than I already do. I won't ever pretend to know anything really. Always room to learn. One thing I have figured out is that I will never touch a camera again. Ever. Like I don't want to do cinematography. There are people out there that are simply fantastic at it. I know for my next film I found someone who I believe is a game changer. 

So Filmmakers, I can't stress enough how important it is to talk to everyone you meet. And to be nice. Aka not an asshole. You never know who you will meet. I've talked to everyone. Garbage man. Security guards. People standing there. French. American. Brazilian. British. Chinese. Italian. German. Korean.  If you are able to talk and your hands work, we can talk and you can take my business card and vice versa. I have collected nearly 700 new contacts/friends in 4 days. I can't stop talking to people. This is just half:

That's how Met a lady from Paramount. Being myself, laughing. Telling jokes. Hell why pretend to be someone else. I gotta be me, and so far it's working out. I've been asked to submit a treatment (a long form thesis of a project you want them to read). And I will. Soon. Like as soon as I get to my laptop. 

Also, don't look like a bum. Sure you're a poor filmmaker, oh boohoo, but you can wear a nice shirt. Pants. And look presentable. I don't particularly like the look, but it has served me well. This is Cannes, not a country back road film festival. Any film festival you're also selling yourself. Keep that in mind. 

I ran into Malcolm again, kid is cool. Really cool. The American Pavilion has been memorable. Like I've met incredible people there. Don't be pushy. Just talk and casually bring up what you do. It works. 

The Last Dance wasn't supposed to screen. We didn't understand how the screening rooms worked as we thought we had to pay. And that wasn't the case. You reserve them. As I was in the screening area today, someone cancelled in the 12 seat theater and the lovely French woman was like we have an opening and no one waiting. I was like "um I'll take it!!!" So I jumped on it. More in a bit.  

So from my screenings today and being around the Palais, these are a few of my favorite moments: 

1. The last Rose - two Brazilian students made this. And I loved it. Black and white. Subtitled. Beautiful. We are now friends, they are wonderful girls. 

2. "82" - 6 minute short. Holy crap is this amazing. Really beautiful. Well shot. This thing blew me away. The kid lives and works in London. Yep. Awesomeness. 

3. The Marche Du Film sign - love. 

4. Ultramarine - British film student movie about depression. Damn thing made me shed a tear. So good. So brilliant. Cinematography was excellent. 

5. Lapsus - I think this director may think I'm stalking him, but I just love the movie. 

6. Titanio - this girl was in my pitch class and she was brilliant, as is her film. Best gift at the festival by the way: 

Full of candy and a small story. Gives me an idea of what I want to do for my next film. 

7. The pastries - yeah I gained 1 of the 10 pounds I've lost. (No joke, I've lost the equivalent of a 4 week old baby). 

8.  People- they beg for tickets out in front of the Palais. 

9.  People part 2 - paparazzi camp out for  hours to get a shot of a celebrity.

10. I tend to forget how obsessed some people are about celebrities. Like just to get a glimpse. We had to walk a mile out of the way to get to the other side of the Palais today. 

So the Last Dance screened. I originally had 12 people sign up. 27 total showed up and jammed into the room. People stood, some sat on the floor. I was shocked. 

Afterwards, we got a standing ovation. Like everyone said it was amazing and that we must've had a huge budget and I was like, um no. It was only 15k, which isn't a lot. 

Best parts mentioned numerous times:

1 the kids - all of them. Loved you all. They kept asking about them and how is it working with children.

2. costume design - you, Haley Peterson. You rock. 

3. How long did casting take, they all look similar. 

4. The production value was amazing. 

And my favorite...

5. What are you working on next?

By far An amazing experience. We, yes we Arizona, had a movie screen at Cannes. I was approached about distribution  afterwards, but we need to cut some minutes out of it. 

Talked to Touscoprod today. That was great. They are a crowdfunding platform. Really great. 

Honestly. I've met so many great people here. I can't imagine what would've happened if I didn't come here to Cannes. My life is changed forever. My love of film is reinvigorated. I just enjoy it. I want to do more. I want to get better. This just pushed me into another level of motivation. 

Finally, tonight's dinner was at a place called Le Grill, in Nice. I had la piece du Boucher covered in gravy, a salad, a piece of chocolate cake with coconut sprinkles, and two bottles of the mini wine. 

Au revoir. 

Tomorrow: Cannes day, 5 the finale. 

Cannes Day 3

So today was another wonderful day. Filmmakers: sign up for as many seminars/conferences/networking events as you can when you go to festivals. If you can't get in, go anyway. Try to do as much as you can. Also talk to everyone. 

I had a breakfast with industry professionals this morning to talk about distribution of The Last Dance. Great info. Lots of great info. Will be talking to a

few via email about it later. (The view from breakfast) 

Forgot to mention that I saw Emma Watson at the Palais the other night. I swear she looked at me. 

We spent a lot of time in the American Pavilion today. Best part, we met a US distributor/acquisitions who has amazing titles under her belt. We also met a few Filmmakers (one won an Emmy last year) and they were just so nice. 

Take Business cards from everyone you meet. Every card I have grabbed (nearly 700) they will get a personalized greeting from me, next week once the festival has been completed, as I want to keep in contact with them. What's the purpose of grabbing a card, just to have it? No. Network. 

We saw a lot of small screenings today. "Touch," and "Doors," and "Hypothetically," and "Exit," and I think that's it. Best of the group, Touch, and Exit. Both amazing. 

This was happening as we were downstairs:

Really a lot of interacting with other short Filmmakers. Was asked to partner up with a Philippine prodco today. That was cool. Went to a meeting on crowdfunding. Kickstarter, Touscoprod, and an Arabic crowdfunding platform spoke. Pretty cool info. 

Everyone that has heard of our company, Future Legend Productions, said the name is brilliant and unforgettable. They love it. 

Just missed Jennifer Lawrence. 

Not much after that. Know your area people. It will save you time. Like Cannes. The buses stop running early on Sunday. I had to walk 9 miles to get back to my hotel. Would've been a lot quicker, but Chuck is a complete camera whore. 

Tomorrow I have a meeting with Touscoprod actually. Cannes Day 4 will be another great one. 

Cannes, Day 2

So today was awesome. Got up, made my way down to Cannes from Nice. Got to Cannes and it just started pouring. Badly. Like someone was throwing buckets of water on you.  Yay. 

I got down to Cannes for breakfast with Sandy and her sister Kathy at 8. They didn't answer their phones. So then I went to the American pavilion. Now this place is for Americans to connect and feel at home, sort of. Except they don't accept American money. In the American pavilion. I was hungry and no euros. So I had enough for a coffee. Which was good because it was freezing. I sat there for an hour and then got up and went to the Short Film Corner to mingle. 

Wise choice. 

No one was there at 8. I went in and watched other Filmmakers short films. Then I went around and talked to the LA film commission. A few companies that buy films (specifically short films) and got them interested enough to watch The Last Dance. 

Then I hung up our posters. 

Which was awesome that there was even space for them. Then I waited for Sandy, still nothing. She overslept and missed her seminar. Traveling forward in time messes you up. 

So I went to the Pitch Training. Where they teach you to properly pitch to companies. I took notes. Lots. And waited to pitch In front of the crowd. It was nerve-wracking. You may not believe it, but I'm notoriously shy. 

So I got on stage. Took a few breaths, and pitched the movie The Tent as if I were in front of producers. 

Now after everyone's pitch, the moderator would come on stage and solicit feedback from the crowd. He then would give feedback. There was none from the crowd. My pitch, was spectacular. The moderator only had one suggestion, smile more. Said it was one of The best pitches he had ever seen. 

Apparently, he wasn't the only one. A company that had came by, approached me about it afterwards. Don't want to jinx it, but thy were amazed. I'll leave it at that for now. 

So Sandy finally showed up. We took photos in front of our posters 

And we had a blast. Amazing really. Best part about the corner, meeting new filmmakers. I have met over 600 Filmmakers. Loved Meeting them. We were invited to a small screening of this stop motion project called, Creamin. Loved. It was spectacular. It's all part of the networking. Two more tomorrow.

I went and took a nap on a table in a crowded room afterwards. 

From there, we walked the city. In the rain:

Then we went to dinner, thanks Kathy for dinner.  I'm always down to try new food.

Escargot, chicken with lavender honey,  lemon and olive oil. And for dessert chocolate cake with creme anglaise.  

Now. Relaxing before bed. 

It's been a long. Great day. I know ok vague about who approached me about my short film, but know once something is in place, you'll know. 

Tomorrow: Cannes day 3. Breakfast meeting with several film professionals

Salut! 

Cannes, yes. Day 1.

 So the day started out crappy. Stupid trains. Hotel so far that I probably won't spend much, if any time there. I am kinda pissed about it. They told me it was near

The train/beach. It's 10 miles north. BLAH. 

So I got into Nice and one of my longtime friends met me here:

She was in Italy and came up. Worked out because she had a friend from London here and they met up. 

Finally got to Cannes via the train. Let me explain how breathtaking it was.  Like a million little breathtaking moments jammed into one big moment. Yeah. I need new lungs. 

Red carpet:

Amazing. All the stars and premieres here. I am not even trying to get into premiers.  

So for any filmmaker, first thing, go get your accreditation.  You enter the Palais, and go down to the check-in counter. You get a swanky badge like this

Both my sister and I! And we got a "swag bag" 

Full of books and blah blah. Now the next

Thing, we went to the American Pavilion. Lots of Americans here (cost a fee) and I already lost my badge. Haha. I have to get a new one tomorrow. Great networking. Met Malcolm Baity here, I wrote a letter to get him an internship here. Wonderful kid

Saw Tobey MacGuire come out of a hotel, passed right by him. 

The big discussion here: lack of black Filmmakers. (Which bodes well for me actually) but the biggest problem is, less than 1 percent of the Filmmakers here are black. But that's because not a lot choose to direct. Again, bodes well for me. 

So from there, I went to a Film Score symposium. Amazing. What they did is, they brought in a live orchestra, put a scene from several movie:

Girl with the pearl earring

Harry potter and the deathly hallows

Twilight (blah) 

Etc

And what they did is, the original composer played the score first to the actual scene as it played, and then other composers played their rendition of the score. I was amazed. Like blown away. I want my film scored like that someday. 

From there, I walked with Sandy and her sister Kathy (my sis too) an we walked the palais and also the beach. Gorgeous. 

And there were for the festival, like places for us to be (this is where each country has a tent you can go into and network with your fellow countryfolk):

Finally I saw this, and loved it

A two story carousel. Fantastic. 

So the train ride back to Nice, met 4 amazing Australians:

Made the train ride funnier and amazing. They invited us to Monte Carlo and its so far we can't go. :( Damnit! 

Now I just got lost again on the way back to the hotel so I'm writing this blog. Haha. Also I'm going to French drunk tonight. And I have early meetup for breakfast before the meetings start. I have to get a new badge. Tomorrow I have a pitch meeting and then I'm going to different production companies and pitching movies. (Prayers that they buy one, or all). 

Note: I had nothing to do with the jewel heist here. Maybe. Interpol! 

So that's Cannes day 1. Tomorrow is more intense. And oh yeah, I dressed up. 

Tomorrow: Cannes day 2. 

Paris day 1

So I landed in Paris, local time 1:40, Arizona time, 5:40am. I slept like 2 hours on the plane. Um hello, all you can watch movies!!!! So I watched:

Hansel & Gretal witch hunters - not as bad as everyone claims 

Live free and Die Hard - again, I saw it in the theater and loved it. I laughed so hard in a few parts. Glad they had complimentary earplugs. 

Wreck it Ralph - um video games plus John C Reilly. 

I've flown first class, but never international. 3 course meal at midnight. Plus wine (no joke I had like 2.5 bottles by myself) and movies. I wrote a bit. 

I got off the plane, now if you don't have euros when you get here, well you're like me. I won't do that again. Next time prepared. That line was stupid long. 

Got my first Chuck photo from an airport lady who was asking question about ads and stuff. Score. 

The train to see the Eiffel Tower was a pain. Took an hour, but then again I'm an idiot. Totally worth it. 

I stayed there for about 2.5 hours walking around soaking up the beauty that it is. I'm in awe. Seriously. I stopped and had this delicious treat:

So, question, white people. Why have you been holding out on the Nutella business. That crepe plus Nutella, holy Santa clause crap. Amazing. 

I've been asked if I'm a "futbol player" at least 20 times. I should've dressed like a bum. 

I don't speak French but I will say this, a smile and basic greetings will get you far. People are more willing to be nice to you if you try. Plus I keep squeezing their butts and saying OUI. I kid I kid.  

Finally I'm on the way to the Paris Austerlitz station to catch the overnight train from Paris to Nice to start Cannes. Disappointed that my cab driver doesn't drive like a maniac. He's normal. Ugh. 

This place is gorgeous. I am fairly certain I want to come back so I need to work harder this year and do this again. I'm going to take a year of French lessons and also another language. I would like to learn as many as possible. 

Next stop: Cannes  

Stuff and things on the way to Cannes

So I'm off to Cannes now. Sitting in my 2nd airport of the day (Houston) and before I delve further, I want to take a brief moment to thank everyone who helped me get to this point in my life, whether it was monetary (thank you all who donated to the cause out forth by Marianna) or verbal support, or a "get your ass in gear and do this," yeah...

(If you know me, you know I have a love affair with post-its).

Secondly I know it's been said to "enjoy it" but I'm viewing this as a business trip. FLP, Me, and Sandy. We are a business first. Geeks second. But I'm enjoying it. Some of my friends came by Houston international and took me to lunch. Best time ever. 

So I have written 8 movie pitches out. Yes one is The War, the other is The high school movie, and a few other ideas. I'm aiming to push these in the face of investors to draw interest for our films, hopefully monetarily. 

Just found out my mancrush, Ryan Gosling is at Cannes. Guess who is going to be my new Best friend? 

Also I have one more airport (the stupid Atlanta one) to go to before departing tonight. France is tomorrow. I have an overnight train from Paris to Nice so me and Chuck Norris will see the country and start our trek to Interpols most wanted. 

I kid. I kid. But seriously.  Hope you all are doing well! Thank you all for being my friends and stuff. Mostly the stuff. 

Fear.

Fear.

I have it. All of it. Can’t even lie about it. Not sure why, but it’s been there since the day I hit “Send” on “The Last Dance” to a few of my trusted friends, you know the ones that will tell you the truth no matter what. Normally when I write something, I immediately hate it. I push it to the side and let it stew in its misery for a week or so. But this? This was different. The whole experience so far has been different.

I don’t lie, so when I say I’m scared, I mean every syllable. This is coming from a guy who went through chemo twice and wasn’t the least bit scared. Not one ounce. That to me was survival.  Deep down I knew that I was going to pull through it.

Making a quality film is a childhood dream.  Like most kids say “I want to be an astronaut,” or “I want to be a policeman,” I knew I wanted to make movies. Sure, I’ve directed things with varying levels of success and all have been learning experiences.  As with everything in life, I knew you couldn’t just run in “GUNG HO” and expect everything to be great, but that didn’t stop me from trying. You have to plan, execute, and plan more. Which, if I’m continuing this path of honesty, that is why in the past I can admit I’ve failed.  My lack of planning and my lack of execution is the reason why.  When I sat back earlier and thought about it, that was it. Boom, nailed it. It’s not that the material wasn’t any good; it was because there was an obvious lack of planning and execution of those shoots, and that lies squarely on me.

But…I’ve learned from it all.  Because if you don’t learn from your past and your mistakes, then what are we working towards in life? I’ve failed because I know that I have not done the little things to become great.

Everything I’ve done in life has seemingly led me to this moment. Right here, right now. There is no question or doubt about that. Besides being a dad, being a filmmaker is THE only thing I truly enjoy doing. So yeah, I’m fearful. I’m scared. Terrified even. But I feel terrified in a good way. I am however, afraid that with all of my planning that I will someone not live up to what “Dream Marcus” nailed flawlessly. Yes in my dreams, that dude nailed it. But also, this is a tribute to someone who meant a lot to me and I owe it to her to do the best job I can possibly do.

As we all know a team is only as good as the person leading it. And this is the first time I’ve had a team that I’ve hired that truly relies on me to know it all. For the time and effort each of them are personally contributing, I do not want to let them down. I respect each of them tremendously and they deserve my full effort.

”It’s not even about the career. I have shpilkes now and I have a career. I think it’s my fuel, basically—my nervous stomach. That’s what keeps me honest, right? And a little bit humble, in the sense that when I make a movie, I never think I have all the answers.” - Steven Spielberg

 I have always had a love of Steven Spielberg, he is THE best. He is my guy. I admire him on so many levels. 

So if he gets nervous, I can be assured that it is indeed a good thing. But the key to all of that was that he never thinks he has all the answers. And neither do I. I was told on Wednesday that if you’re not nervous that’s when you should be worried. And I suppose on anything else I’ve ever worked on, I haven’t been.

One of my favorite quotes ever happened to come from 2006’s Rocky Balboa. “You know I think you try harder when you’re scared.” Which if you think about it makes total sense, and I guess that’s why I’m trying harder than I’ve ever tried before, because I’m scared.

When this whole experience of making “The Last Dance” is over, after we as a team of artists have been dragged to so many film festivals and are tired and worn down, I’ll look back fondly at this and I will be grateful for the fear. Because without it, I know I’d still be an unprepared mid 30’s guy who expects it to “be easy.”

So yeah, I’m scared as hell, even though I don’t show it. But I know at the end of the day even though this is “The Last Dance,” for us as a team, the music is just starting to play.

Disclaimer: This may not make sense to anyone, but I have to write to clear my brain.