And That was That

That is a picture of our midnight screening in SLC.

We got there just before midnight - Angus sick as a dog, I was really tired and Natasha had got sick too and bottled it. The theatre was a cool kind of fleapit from the 20s. They sold dvds - director ranked, foreign and cult - in the lobby and it was in what looked like SLCs version of Williamsburg. Mormom hipsters, there you go.

WE racked the sound up to 8 which helped and let the film go.

We had our first walk outs! Two couples during the sex scene. The theatre manager told me afterwards that one of them - a young woman - was so nauseous she had to lie down in the foyer while her boyfriend tried to stop her from fainting. He said the only other time a film had had that kind of effect was when they played 'Irreversible'! COOL!

We had good audience participation - yet again. The big moments seem to be Bluey getting done, the flare, and the Josh torture stuff.

Afterwards almost the entire audience stayed and we had a great Q&A session - just Angus and me. Really missed the others, especially having the actors on stage because so many people are genuinely fascinated to know how this was acted and because they come across so damn well. We had most of the usual questions - quite detailed and intelligent about the genesis of the script, where Donkey Punch came from, shooting and rehearsal methods etc. My 1st confrontational question - challenging the decision to include gore and asking me why I was so obvious and didn't rely more on suspense like Hitchcock. Think I answered well - and I did point out that if Hitchcock had half the chance he would have loved to have shot a sex scene like this. The guy was completely obsessed by sex. Interestingly, no one objected to that scene, at least not yet. One cool thing we're finding - people, men and women, really love it when these female characters fight back. Even when they're shredding guys up with outboard motors and burning them alive people REALLY root for these girls and Jaime has had a few 'Girl Power!' greetings after the shows.

Everyone always completely blown away by what we all achieved on our budget - shooting, cutting, sound design, music (which people LOVE), and the way it was all shot in schedule and to such quality. To all you out there - Nanu, Kate, Greg, Barry, Francois - well fucking done. You're being noticed.

OK. That was it. Sundance is over. I have no idea who's won what even though we spent a few minutes at their awards party before our screening. I'm off for a couple of days in LA to enjoy the attention, then it's back home and back to plugging away on everything else, a few swims at the Queen Mother, listening to the clanking heating and finally watching Season 4 of the Wire on dvd.

Peace out my droogies.

xxx

O

The 3rd screening happens at midnight tonight

Today we have our 3rd - and last - screening, in Salt Lake City.

This will be very interesting - seeing how a non-festival, non-industry - for Christs sakes, a Mormon audience - react to the film. It's just Angus and me left now. I'll intro the film, we'll watch it with them then we'll Q&A afterward. I'm thinking of reciting the Lords Prayer backwards into the mic as the lights come up, just to kind of break the ice.

If you read no more - it because we've been hunted down by a crazed Mormon lynch mob.

Meanwhile, today was beautiful --

The Second Screening

So we had our second screening yesterday in the Egyptian at 3pm.

I spent the morning trying to chill and hanging with filmakers. I've been meeting up with alot of people from Austin, Texas. There's a director I was at NYU with called Margaret Brown who has a documentary here called the 'Order of Myths' which everyone has been saying is pretty great. anyway, she's from Austin, there's a bunch of other films from there, I like chilli, Richard Linklater and Texas politics so I want to hag out with these people - and they're having a party tonight.

The screening was sold out. There were 100 people waiting outside for tickets. Here's Caroline Libresco introducing me before the film started -


For this screening, I didn't stay. Me and Val went for a cup of tea, then I came back for the last 20 minutes. I tell you what is cool - standing outside the auditorium and just listening to the sound echo out. Especially when all the thriller/horror stuff kicks in - screaming and music and bass rumbles. It sounds really intense and ominous.

The Q&A after was awesome. We had Jaime and Julian and David and Angus and the audience loved the film and responded with really smart questions about how we wrote it, how the idea was originated and the acting process. Julian actually referred to me directing him as 'a process' which made me very excited in the wrong sort of ways. But him and Jaime came off as being really smart and intense actors and people are really digging the quality of the performances and the hard work they did. It's just great. David is loving the mike and a captive audience - his answers turn into standup and I swear tio Gid he actually works the crowd. Someone wanted to know about distribution and if the film would get an NC17 - Dave answered "actually, we want a triple X".

I guess I should have thought about all this before we came but the NC17 thing is a big issue with this film - to be blunt, it's too hardcore for America. At least, the sex is. All the torture and mutilation - that's fine. But show a naked woman or - horror of horrors - a willy and you're a moral destroyer. What a country, huh?

Unfortunately we ran out of time on the questions, but there were lots of people coming up afterwards to say how much they loved it. Then me and Natasha went and met a very interesting agent from a very big agency who had a very impressive super sales pitch tailored to young independent filmmakers. This is fun, having people come after you after so many years when I couldn't get arrested. Now I know - and I do KNOW - all this is ephemeral, it can pass as quickly as it came, life is but a fleeting dream or whatever it is that Confucius or Buddha or Richard Nixon once said. But this is alright, and in a weeks time I'll be back in London trying to swing a Head and Shoulders commercial.

We all went to the Austin party - we actually got in! - in this incredible 6 story condo about 10 mins out of Park City. Some Texan high rollers showing their love for all their hipster filmmakers. And the Austin filmakers are kind of the definition of hipster, cords, grubby t-shirts, softened up metrosexual southern drawl and all. Then we all headed over to a party at the William Morris house, which was a completely weird mock Alpine edifice - like the Overlook hotel. It was quite crazy and by this time my head was literally reeling from sleep loss, andrenalin, cigarettes, high altitude and red wine. So everyone started to look like this --


We called a car and headed out but the director of Half Nelson had just arrived and Val and Julian freaked out and ran back in and almost bum rushed him. I think he was quite taken aback.

Back home, I crashed.

On the 24th...

I can't really recall what we did during the day. Oh yeah, I took some time out to go to some filmmaker events and hang out with other directors. That really is the best part of this, just kicking back with a bunch of people who are the only people who really know what you do and trading stories. It's really nice and establishes a sense of community. Everyone thinks directing is this super sexy Orson Welles thing, but really i's about suffering setbacks, having bad weather fuck up the shoot you've waited years for, dodgy cameras going wrong - and only finding out in post, and other boring shit like that. So...

... it is nice to talk with those who know.

Me and Natasha met a producer, I hung with some of the actors and I tagged along with them for a bit. Here's a picture of Julian midflow, attempting to blag a HD dvd palyer from one of the people at a hospitality suite. As you can see, there is no shame --



And here's a nice picture of Natasha, Jay and Angus. Jay is really good looking, but when you take a picture of him... he just becomes even better looking. All of them are like that, it's just a different world --



Then me and Natasha met with an agent in a big posh hotel that looked like an Alpine retreat. Then we had dinner at... A steakhouse (I had tuna). Then we went to see the new Alan Ball film 'Towelhead' with Valerie and Dave. I'm a huge Alan Ball fan, 6 Feet Under is so good and deep and epic i can't actually describe it. But this film was incredibly odd. I'm not really sure if I understood what it was trying to do. I think he understood what he was trying to do, but I don't know if he did it.

Then after that we went to the WarpX condo to party with the actors before Jay and Rob went home the next day.


Living the dream babay!

After the hottub --



Valerie looking moody in the dark --


And round the corner from the condo, just as we went back home --

What Happened Next

Wow. It's been a while since I last posted. At least, it seems like ages. I am literally unable to sleep more than a few hours before waking up bolt upright and full of nerves. Therefore I'm in a weird state of permanent brain craze.

After the press and industry screenings we did some interviews at a round table (have I already written this?) Then I tried to rest, but I couldn't. Then, in a weird half daze me and Val got dinner at Grub steakhouse but because I've eaten so much steak out here already I just had some clams and a salad. Then we went to join all the others at the World Cinema Party and guess what...... It was so overcrowded we couldn't get in. Here are some pictures we took while we freezed our asses in the cold for 30 minutes --



Then we all went to Mulligans bar where there were a bunch of industry people were having a party. I was gesticulating wildy during a conversation - as I like to do - and as I threw my hand back my finger connected with the eye socket of a fast approaching agent from Endeavour. By some miracle I didn't blind him, though he said it didn't hurt. That's where I am right now - I can mutilate these people and they pretend it didn't happen. Living the dream! Then we went home and I got at least 3 hours sleep.

This is a great review

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/film_reviews/article3253427.ece

Yesterday

It was the press and industry screening for Donkey Punch. I didn't go - was told NOT to go - but Angus went along and thought it went well. Also - there were some film festival programmers there and it seems like some very cool film festivals want to program the film for the future - more on that later.

Then I did some round table interviews with the cast and Dave. Dave and me also did an interview with Fangoria, going to be a 2800 word article - COOL.

From now on, I have had myself taken off the press breaks list. Too many friends have told me, in the interest of my already tenuous sanity, not to read your own press. However Dave forwarded this snippet to me and it is super duper triple cool --

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/297289


More later my droogies

Another picture of people getting pictured

See how post moden that is?

Oh yeah, I got sent to makeup for the first time. Now I now how it feels to be an actor. Valerie thought it looked rather good.

The Day After

So after partying late at WarpX condo I managed to get another 3 hours sleep before my eyes shot open with andrenailn.

Me and the actors went off to do a circuit of publicity pictures... which was interesting. Basically, publicist in tow, you get taken up and down Main Street, from one hospitality suite to another - ie. Entertainment Weekly, People mag etc - and have photos taken for their websites. Each suite has a portrait setup, an army on stylists and make up artists, and some free stuff - like a bag of skin product. And then you get your picture taken. This game is all about the stars so I got a few snaps and then the director is asked to leave and they photo the beautiful people and by god - is my cast beautiful. We also did a flffly little interview for the Ent. Weekly website - I've been so impressed how well the cast handle all this. They answer questions really intelligently and can be very funny too - they're great ambassadors for the film.

Then, thanks to Julian, I had my first experience of 'swag'. He enginered for all of us to get taken aound one of the 'gifting suites' where various flunkies trying to hawk lots of product so it'll be sported by stars, fill you up a big bag full of stuff. I managed to make out with a snowboarding jacket, a pair of jeans and some anti aging cream. When I had the cheek to ask for the portable GPS/mp3 unit that i wasbeing shuffled past I was told they had run out of stock... Bet that's not what they said to Josh Hartnett who was right behind us, eh? EH?

Anyway all that was pretty interesting - a side of things I've never seen before. As Jaime remarked, while we stretched back in the 1st class airline seats they'd imported to one of the suites, the more successful you become the more free shit you get given and so - all the freebies go to the people who can most afford it. A metaphor for our melting down economy perhaps?

Anyway, having completely sold out in the most venal way possible, I lugged my bag of goodies over to a reception for the Filmmakers. Lots of Sundance directors were there - mainly for the smaller really indie things not the big ticket fancy shows (those guys are Hollywood and get totally cossetted by their 'teams' ) and chatted to people who'd made things like documentaries on biofuels, and the controversy of the Japanese war shrine and experimental shorts. I felt like a total hack-sellout standing with the indiecore with my back full of free shit and a film called Donkey Punch but hey! It was great. Met some very cool people, including a a crowd from Austin which has a very cool indie film scene and hopefully they'll come see the film. In alot of ways this is the best thing about these festivals - just meeting other fimmakers and bonding and sometimes staying in touch.

Not much news yet. Definitely some people are very interested in the film - we keep getting stopped in the street by people who saw it or heard about the screening and thought it was ..."like, fuck man, fucking DONKEY PUNCH, man!.." - but it's early days. I've taken my self off the press list so I'm not reading any reviews but it seems like it's made its point and peope are talking. There's a press showing today after which we all do a lot of interviews so there'll no doubt be more stuff written following all that.

Getting lots of call from agents, which is nice. A bit like the number 211 bus - after 10 years of waiting, they all come at once.

And last night guess what? We'll failed to get into yet another party! Overcrowding this time and we were freezing our asses in the cold. So we went to a pub full of industry folck and got nicely drunk. And this evening.... I had my first proper sleep in ages.

A photo of me and Angus minutes before the screening

As you can see, we were very relaxed.

How it went

We had a packed house and a good audience - they all cheered and whooped at the right moments - ie when ever any of the boys got done. Some good laughs too though some of the stuff early on in the film may have been too slang-y for them to understand. Hardly nyone walked out - which is apparently quite rare for a Sundance screening. Then we had a grea Q&A after with all the cast and Dave and Francois and Des on the stage too. The cast were great and Dave was very funny, he answered a question, got settled on that mic - and for a moment I thought he was about to flip back into his standup routine. No crazy/angr questions... yet. Just one woman who demanded to know why there was no frontal male nudity in the film - there is. 3 cock shots, count em.

Off now for some press stuff. Will start to hear the response today as it comes in.

As Russell Crowe says to Al Pacino in The Insider...

Fuck it. Let's go.

9 more hours...

Here's the schedule:

5.30 pm we go to the WarpX condo for drinks and prep. DP memorial shoot in the hottub.

7pm We get cars to the Film Council party for DP, and some other films I fail to recall. (This is very nice of the UKFC as they will probably lose their taxpayer funding and find their heads on sticks lining Portland St in the public frenzy that results from this film)

9pm Dinner for cast, crew and execs

11.30 pm Cars to the Egyptian

12 am Showtime

14 Hours to go....

And I am bricking myself.

Sleep patterns have been bizarre, and enough possible scenarios flying around my head to make a quantum physicist weep. All I can describe it as is a strange mixture of andrenalised excitement and total fear.

Right, off for breakfast and a film.

Park City at Night

The Men behind the Music

This is Val with Francois le composeur and Phil our awesome music supervisor

Some more Pix

Valerie teaches Julian how to walk like an Egyptian

Hello my droogies... Jay and Rob in da house.

Meet the Nutters

More Sundancin

Ok, wattup since my last post?

Well... I finally managed my first blag, into a Miramax party. Me and two of my actors - Robert and Jay - were wandering up and down Main Street looking for an elusive venue when we finally gave up and just tried to crash the first party we found. The combination of repeating very loud, "I'm a director, these are some actors and we have a film here" combined with pretending to have been invited by the head of Miramax - the only name any of us could come up with to get in - actually got us in. Only the party had about 5 people and shut down 10 minutes later, leaving us back at square one.

So we hooked up with my friend Rebecca and some folks from a Peruvian film and drank lots of wine in a dive. Here's what I observed: it's great being a young British actor in Utah. First thing is, because they're really good looking girls just talk to them. Second, as soon as they open their mouths, the girls go totally bonkers. And third - once they say they're acting in a film people have half heard of... it's crazytime.

Some films... We went to see a high-end indie called 'Henry Poole Was Here' and it was utter garbage. The worst type of crappy cookie cutter indie film that gives indie films a bad fucking name. A mawkish, cliched combination of a young man with terminal cancer, suburban 'magic', beautiful mute girls, and spiritual checkout clerks and the power of miracles and... Jesus even typing this garbage makes me feel like a hack. Directed by Mark Pellington - who has done great work, namely the awesome Arlington Rd - this was abysmal and frequently lapsed into edited montages reminiscent of the mid 90s music videos he once directed.

After that - had a power meeting in an Irish pub with the films producers and sales agent and publicists. What did we decide? Alot of interested people will be coming to the film. Not all of them will like it. Hopefully the ones who do really will but... what about the nudity? The accents? Omigod. Really no one knows anything. But very soon... we will.

Another actor, Julian Morris, arrived with a bottle of rum (one cannot buy hard liquor in Utah, a dry state), his 2000 kilowatt smile and an LA publicist who's job is to get Julian a bunch of interviews and as much free shit as possible, known as 'swag' (according to J this stands for 'stuff we always get'). If you know Julian, you can picture this very clearly.

Another film - 'Mancora'. A Peruvian movie about a dysfunctional young guy who's dad has just committed suicide who goes on a road trip with his super hot sister (or is it half sister?) and her sleazy asshole boyfriend. He ends up shagging his sister, then he gets into a super hot threesome at a house party full of Peruvian hipsters, then he takes mind altering hallucinogens and does some stoned beach wrestling with the sleazy boyfriend. Sounds alright, eh? Well the photography looked stunning and the sex/party scenes were really well done - and I do feel like I can speak with a bit of authority here - but the characters were pretty flat and all in all it felt like Y Tu Mama Tambien without the soul.

And also... Dave Bloom and Francois the composer arrived this evening. Everyone has had some sort of nightmare getting to Park City, but best of all was Francois' American Airlines flight from Paris where halfway over the Atlantic the captain announced that they didn't have enough fuel and would half to make an unscheduled landing in New York. The rest of the flight involved alot of praying to many different gods. Anyway, we alll met up and went for a very good steak on Main Street. Meg Ryan was sitting at the table next to us, which is cute because she is here with a film they were shooting in Capetown exactly the same time as us - in fact, we shared the same bondsman.

The last 2 actors, Jaime and Nichola landed late last night so now... We are a full house.

Nice bit of hype...

... advance notice/ expectation management from the LA Times --

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-midnight19jan19,1,7334521.story?ctrack=2&cset=true

Tim to redress the party balance

Saw 2 more films today, and stood within 50 feet of some stars!

1st the new Michel Gondry movie 'Be Kind Rewind' which I was surprised to really enjoy. I was like the only person in all of Islington and Notting hill Gate to not enjoy Eternal Sunshine mainly because I'm a heartless bastard, and I avoided Science of Sleep like the plague because it looked like it was a festival of hi-end gawkishness and this one... Well it's very charming, has alot of stuff (ie anything with Jack Black) that is funny as shit and rally comes from the heart. The story of 2 luckless video store guys who accidentally erase the entire shops stock (because Jack Black is magnetised whilst trying to sabtage a power station) and then have to refilm every single film themselves on VHS thus sparking off a neighbourhood craze ... it's kind of Gondry's letter from the soul - a hymn to DIY, low fi genius that can bring people together and heal communities. If that sounds like it skirts with cheesiness - it does. But it was quite lovely too - I thought. Others in my party were not so convinced.

Then 'Smart People' the first feature by super amazing commercials director Noam Murro. This was a very funny character piece cut from the same cloth as 'Juno' or 'Little Miss Sunshine' all about a disfunctional, bittersweet family trying to get along. It was very funny - had lots of laugh out loud lines and beautifully acted. Didn't quite go anywhere - but a very enjoyable way to spend 90 minutes. And the awesome Thomas Hayden Church is hysterical - and gave good Q&A after. Paris Hilton was sitting in the audience and everyone leapt to their feet as one to gawk at the bloodless little minx.

Now, It is time to redress the party balance. Having failed to get into any parties last night, one can only do better right? A couple of the actors have arrived so perhaps their boyish charms will help my chances of slipping into a dodgy venue and supping at some unnameable sponsor brand cocktail while watching people in parkas go by.

Another Film

Just saw a very nice documentary called 'Up the Yangtse' all about the 3 Gorges Dam project and the effect it's having on the people who live there - ie, they're all being turfed out to make way for a brand new river. Director seemed very smart in the Q&A and there was also a very cool short before called Incendiary all about the LA fires last year. 2 of my actors have just arrived - Jay and Robert. Hopefully see them later.

Last Night

The 1st WarpX film 'Complete History ofMy Sexual Failures' premiered. I didn't go because it was sold out and they were using all their ticket allocation for people who really mattered - ie people who might buy the film and write nice things about it on cross media platforms. So not me. Which is fair enough.

I first went off to join a friend at a party in Main Street but -- they weren't letting anyone into the party, the list I was meant to be on didn't exist. So we went to another party - which hadn't started yet, and just as it was about to start my friend announced that he was fucking off to a private reception with some 'high Net Worth Individuals' in Der Vally, an event so exclusive I was not invited. Welcome to sundance baby! - give it a couple of days and hopefully it'll be MY crappy party that has the dodgy list.

Meantime, my friend Pete Shapiro, one of the producers of the U2 film gave me a couple of tickets to the premiere - apparently selling at a grand a piece - I was very tempted but it would have been SO rude. Anyway, after spending 2 hours of doing absolutely nothing in the freezing cold - I met Valerie for a big fuck off steak and a bottle of wine and we went to see the U2 3D premiere at midnight. The technology is amazing, it looks absolutely unbelievable. Even better than being at a concert because you don't have a bunch of idiots obstructing your view and spilling beer on you. If you like U2 you'll love the music, if you find them a little cheesey then... 'sing... for Mar-tin Luther K-i-ng".

More ltr.

x O

SUNDANCE!

Greetings from Park City.

We have arrived, after narrowly catching a connecting flight from Chicago with 3 minutes to spare and as part of that having to relinquish 2 bottles of excellent Scotch at the same airport.

Today I went to the directors brunch where

a) Robert Redford gave a speech

b) I ate alot of smoked salmon

c) I met a bunch of filmmakers

Came back to Park City and tooled up with tickets, invites, novelty items etc

Yet to see a film.

more to come

x O