Let me say, I had met a number of the people who were there before. At the kickoff event I had done my job going around and networking, but it is not as though I really 'knew' any of them that well. So here I was in Philly sitting around not really knowing a soul. But the thing I rapidly learned was that people at these festivals are really eager to talk to you if you were involved in something there. The first day I ended up largely talking to other heads of teams who I recognized from the kickoff event.
My film showed during the first screening group, which was at 1pm. I am glad that it did, otherwise I would have likely waited until later to actually show up at the event and missed a lot. But at the same time that came with a big drawback. I was not able to talk to people BEFORE my film to get them excited to come see it. Now maybe this is my own fault. Had I come up the night before I could have gone to the opening party and schilled to my hearts content. But, that would be another hundred some odd dollars for a hotel room, and another meal (at least) eaten out. One of the big things that I learned is that for people to come up to you and talk they need to be able to tell you were involved in the film. Since I was not IN the film no one recognized me. But the second day I wore the goggles from my movie all day. Suddenly I found that there were a lot of people who wanted to talk to me about my film and find out who I was. After all, I am not from around there and the film community there seems to already we really familiar and tightly knit. So big lesson, wear a prop that is iconic to your movie! Instantly you will make friends.
I also found that one of the best parts of the festival is that there is a group of film makers who have NOTHING else to do on a Saturday night besides sleep and be ready for the next batch of films on Sunday. These are the out of town film makers. We all had hotel rooms nearby and were there more or less by ourselves. It was a great opportunity to talk and get to know each other and have a few rounds of drinks. I was downright amazed at the people I met, they were literally from all over the country. I definitely made some new friends that night as well as found some film companies that I will be keeping an eye on for some fun and smart films in the coming months and years. As I see their work crop up I will be sure to post about it so others can enjoy their work.
By the way, as far as my film... The Schlonburger Certainty Postulator was nominated for Best Visual Effects, and won the Audience Award for its screening group. I suppose that makes it legit now? At the very least the recognition, and the praise I received personally, have encouraged me towards two different things. A new version of SCP (with some little editing clean up) has been uploaded to Withoutabox and I will be submitting it to festivals in the next few weeks. But the second and more important thing that I am doing, is starting work on my NEXT film:
Robo-Butler: A Steampunk Story
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