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.