As you know, my first night I saw Leaves of Grass. Here's a trailer. And here are part one and part two of the q&a following the screening. Last I heard it was releasing wide in July. I'll definitely be seeing it again. By the way, I missed Kick Ass, because it screen at the same time, but I've since seen it and it rocks!! (Here are the words of Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Chloe Moretz at their panel.)
Saturday, March 13, my first full day, I started off the day gently... with blood and gore at the Directing the Dead: Genre Directors Spill Their Guts panel. Quentin Tarantino and Eli Roth were supposed to be there, but they ditched at the last minute, even though hundreds of people had already been waiting for hours to get into the panel. Those guys have class. But, since Tarantino wasn't there, the other directors actually got a chance to speak, which was awesome! Ti West, Ruben Fleischer (his Zombieland is awesome!), Scott Weinberg, Matt Reeves, Robert Rodriguez, Neil Marshall were great speakers. Here are clips of the panel. 1 2 By far, my favorite part of the panel was this section where Matt Reeves talks about being true to source material when making adaptations. Also, I got to speak to Ti West later in the day at another panel, and he was very friendly and kind. All in all, a great experience.
My next panel of the day was The Kids Are Alright: Jay and Mark Duplass Plus. Their film Cyrus showed later that night. The Duplass brothers direct is a way that is completely opposite of how I like to direct. They know the goals of each scene, but the dialogue, mood, pace, and blocking of a scene changes dramatically from take to take. I like to plan every angle and every shot, but I did like the idea of casting actors you can trust and giving them freedom to be creative and spontaneous and allowing them to use their intuition and stretch their acting muscles. Cyrus, the story of a single mother (Marissa Tomei), her new boyfriend (John C. Reilly), and her clingy grown son (Jonah Hill) was amazing - both surprisingly touching and surprisingly funny. It opens on June 18. Go see it! (Here's the trailer.) My favorite part of the screening, though, was during the q&a when Jonah Hill heckled the audience for not asking good enough questions! Hilarious! (For the whole Q&A, see 1 2 3 4 5)
Also that day, I saw the short Star Wars: Retold, where a girl who has never seen any of the Star Wars movies gives her analysis of the films based on the bits she's seen. So funny!! This was a warm-up to The People Vs. George Lucas which was a brilliant documentary full of great interviews detailing the amazing rise of George Lucas' fandom, and then their spectacular turn on him. Definitely check it out. Also, if you like Star Wars, check out Saber, starring two of my Twitter "friends"- Rileah Vanderbilt (the brunette) and Clare Grant, (the blonde) who is now Mrs. Seth Green. Awesome!
Sunday, March 14, I went to some interesting panels, but, by far, the highlight of the day was the Jeffrey Tambor acting workshop. (SXSW hasn't posted a clip of this panel, but here's a bit of the '08 workshop.)
The feature I saw that night wasn't very good, but the short before it, Always a Bride, was hilarious!
Monday, March 15, I went to two of my favorite panels, but neither are posted online. One was how to use storyboards in direction, and the other was how to plan for sound ahead of shooting. I wish I could share! March 15 is a sad anniversary for me, so I went home early that night to watch Chuck and go to bed early.
Tuesday, March 16, began with the MacGruber panel. I didn't see the film, but the panel was awesome! (Including a fun NSFW cameo by Seth Meyers.) I also really enjoyed the Filmmaker War Stories panel.
That evening, I saw World Peace & Other 4th Grade Achievements, which was outstanding. It's preceding short, Diplomacy, was also outstanding. That was a really good session.
Wednesday, March 17, was my last day of SXSW, but I ended with two great films, and by meeting one of my favorite singer/actresses! The first film was a documentary called For the Sake of the Song: the Story of Anderson Fair, and it chronicled the life of an amazing music venue in Houston. I wanted to see it because Lyle Lovett, one of my favorites, was interviewed in it, and I walked away with a deeper understanding of Texas music and a desire to go to this place myself someday.
The second film of the night was Get Low, the story of an old man (Robert Duvall) who wants to cause a stir and maybe find a bit of redemption in his final days. Sissy Spacek plays his old friend and former sister-in-law, and her daughter, Schuyler Fisk, is one of my favorite musicians and actresses. Since I'm apparently all bold now, I approached her, told her how much I loved her music, and asked to take a picture. I admit, I wasn't quite as cool as when I approached Edward Norton, I was maybe a little enthusiastic, but she was very gracious.
All in all, it was another great festival, and I am already making plans for 2011. Wanna come? :)
