Cannes Hugh Dig It?

Back in Chicago, I’ve had some time to reflect on the experience of Cannes. All-in-all it is a bit like a chocolate bon-bon – outside the gooey, sweet goodness of celebrity and glitz; inside, a hard nougat of global film distribution. Now for a few things we learned the hard way:

-- Many thanks to the Producer for a great deal on a hotel up the coast. It would be a hard decision whether to do that again or try to scoop up an apartment or alternate, probably more costly housing situation closer in Cannes. The trade-off is significant since buses stop at 10 and trains stop around 1 AM.

-- The 200 bus is marginally more reliable but it takes three times as long and chances are good you’ll be standing. Trains are sporadic at best but get you there much quick… though you can end up standing on a platform for an hour waiting for a “retard” (that’s shorthand for “delayed”) train while the bus is wending its way without you.

-- I’ve covered the Short Film Corner in an earlier post and would only add that I found the “cocktail hour networking” pretty much a waste of time. Pick up a list of the on-site distributors, make up some personal packets with information on your film and drop it in the on-site mailbox – and then talk to ever random person from your flight in to the people at the next table in the café.

-- For quality networking, buy an access pass to the U.S. Pavilion – they’ve got daily events, like the Francis Ford Copolla talk on film that are worth the price of admission and the networking there is better than the in Short Film area. If you can register for the Kodak pavilion pass, do – but here you get a lot more hardcore dealmaking going on and it’s generally closed to special invitation breakfasts and the like. I learned a good bit about what festivals to enter and next steps for a short film here.

-- Check out the rest of the International Village too; the Brits are always fun to talk to and the Irish had some quality materials. The filmmaker I spoke to from Wales was able to set up a meeting with the filmboard of Wales for potential matching funds on his feature. As one would expect, the Swiss booth was the tidiest.

-- Underneath the escalators in the pavilion are two flat screen TVs; at first blush, you think, they are both broadcasting the same live feed of whatever is happening on the red carpet or in the press conference – except on is in English and one is in French. Bloggers and journalists who may have been denied access to the briefings congregate here to get the latest and greatest.

-- It’s worth strolling through the upper pavilion where studios are hawking their films for distribution. Don’t expect a lot of conversation when they learn you are NOT a distributor – but in general, you can get in to some of the screenings of their films if they’ve got enough seats available.

-- One of the most comic moments came the first day we were there – on the lower level…. Exhibitors and other hoi polloi were streaming in to the pavilion around 9:30 or so. A magazine stand was set up and each day is filled with the daily Variety. That particular morning, the delivery person had just finished dropping off stacks of magazines. We passed by the rack and noticed a few people hurrying over to grab – and I mean grab in the sort of way manic early morning Christmas shoppers grab – the magazines. A feeding frenzy began as the new people in the pavilion saw a flurry of arms and magazine covers. “What the hell is going on?” I asked the Producer. “I thought they were just Variety magazines.” Curious and trooper that she is the Producer dove into the melee. For a moment, she disappeared completely and I thought I’d have to go in after her. But she reappeared unscathed, hair slightly disheveled, holding a copy Variety magazine. “Does it contain the secret to eternal life?” I asked. She flipped through a few pages and outside of some reviews of the previous days films, it gives a fairly comprehensive schedule of ALL of the films being screened during the day…. But what I’ve learned since is that in front of the big glitzy hotel across the street from the Pavilion, every morning two attractive young women, impeccably dressed, stand handing out the very same magazine. You can find it in a half dozen other places too! General word of advice: avoid the feeding frenzies and look for the women on the Croisette.

Rereading some of this and it can souns rather banal and trivial. I’m sure there are greater lessons learned that I’ll come remember later or have internalized in some way -- whether it's finding out how to get access to the badge that will get you access sorts of insights or just where to get off the bus. The experience was well worth it though – and I’d like to think of it as a preliminary run for the next time.