I just wish I'd had my laptop with me so I could have typed it up while I ate dinner or something, while it was all still fresh in my head. Because I feel like now no matter what I write it won't truly capture the energy and buzz I had going yesterday.
I went early so that I could go to the first master class of the day which was screenwriting. The guy who was giving the class was Ernest Thompson who wrote On Golden Pond. He wrote the play when he was 28 in about 3 days. Then a couple years later when the play became successful they hired him to write the screenplay, which he did in about 3 weeks. He won the Oscar for it. I ran into Avery there - the woman who directed Debbie's short - and we discussed that we were both interested in what he had to say, but for practical purposes we were going to learn what we needed to know from Debbie. Still it was a really good talk. He apparently does a lot of teaching so he's practiced and very good at talking about this stuff. One of the interesting things he said was that because he went to school for acting and was never taught the rules about playwriting or screenwriting, he doesn't try to follow the rules or formal structure. However a lot of the structure comes out anyway because that's just good storytelling. People were telling stories for millennia before anyone ever bothered to write down rules about it. So if you've told a good story you'll find that you probably roughly followed the rules even if you weren't aiming for the inciting incident at page 10 and the first plot crisis at page 33 and the second plot crisis at page 66 and wrap it up around page 100.
After that was the filmmaker lunch at the home of one of the board members. I remember this house and host from last time. It's gorgeous, right on the water, with enough land to have a tennis court. Mostly though it's a really lovely opportunity to hang out on the deck and talk to people. I talked to some of the festival people, the publicity woman and a couple of others. One of the others felt like I looked familiar so it came out that I was here with Passing. Whereas the publicity woman wasn't remembering me at all and was wondering if she missed the form I filled in. But we determined that I got a mention in the Imagine article so she hadn't missed me, phew. But she also realized she didn't know I was a returning filmmaker and she should probably add that to her list of questions on the form she sends out. Now counting me there were 14 returning filmmakers and she probably should have made something of that. So the next time I come back I bet I'll get more press from her.
I also talked to several filmmakers about how our films did and stuff, though none of us had seen any of the others. They were good conversations though and many business cards got passed around.
After that everyone went pretty much immediately from the lunch to the Quick Stop. There I ended up spending 2 hours talking to this guy Ed who is a volunteer for the festival who teaches video production at a private high school in the Boston suburbs. It was fantastic. We were just riffing off each other on what things we do with our classes, what's worked and not worked, things the students have done that we're proud of. He was also full of good thoughts on how to position myself for a university job. He sends his kids off to the kinds of universities I want to teach at so he was full of here's schools with good programs, here's up and coming schools it might be easier to get a foot in the door at, here's schools that are growing their programs. I'm probably going to go talk to his classes sometime in the fall.
From there everything that was scheduled for 5 o'clock I wanted to do. But it was after 5 before Ed and I realized what time it was, and that only because my phone was buzzing at me to feed the meeter. So I went to the shorts screening because I figured it would be less noticeable and therefore less rude to slip into that than a master class. And I might miss a short or two (turns out only 1) but could still get most of it. It was a pretty good block of shorts too. I've only seen maybe half the shorts screening so it's not an entirely fair assessment, but I feel like over all the shorts aren't quite as high quality as I remember from the last time I was here. Back when we were biking together a lot Brian used to say that at any given time on the trail there would be about 25% 1s, 50% 2s, and 25% 3s - 1s being better than you, 2s being about your level, and 3s being worse than you. That's a system that I find myself using for other things I do as well, like photography or films. When Passing played I felt like that 25/50/25 breakdown was about right. This time I feel like it's more 10/65/25. In yesterday's screenings I saw one of the 1s. Chronicles Simpkins Will Cut Your Ass. It was very funny and very well produced. It was the first film this guy has ever made, but he's been directing plays for a while it seems, and it was written by a guy he went to Yale Drama school with back in the day who now writes regularly for all sorts of TV shows you've heard of. I was happy to see it. I want to think that my films are getting better the more that I make, but I also want to be screening in festivals that I'm proud to have made it into.
I went directly from that screening to another master class on "community filmmaking" even though I wasn't quite sure what that would be about. I was kind of expecting it to be documentaries and how to get community buy in for fundraising and distribution. It was not that at all. It was Ernest Thompson again talking about his recent films, and Jay Craven talking about his film that was about to screen at 9. Both of them live in New England - New Hampshire and Vermont respectively - and both made features for little to no money. I think Ernest's last two films were really no money in that he didn't even feed people. He just spread the word to the local community saying I can't pay you, I can't even feed you, but if you want to learn about filmmaking come on out and we'll make a movie. The first one they did they spent 2 years shooting every Sunday. It wasn't the same people every Sunday, and I can't imagine how long his credits run for, but they did it. Then they did another in 18 days mostly straight through for anyone who could take vacation from their day jobs. It was very interesting to hear him talk about it, how he did it, why he did it, what he got out of it.
Jay on the other hand had a budget, but on the Hollywood scale it was next to nothing. He teaches at Marlboro College in Vermont and came up with a program where every head of department was a professional that he brought in, but everyone below that were students from colleges around New England doing it for credit. He said he's going to do it again next spring/summer so after I asked him if he takes grad students. He took my card and said he'd send me information and we could discuss the possibility. Not that he wouldn't, but that my school would have to accept the credit for me or else I wouldn't be eligible.
Regardless of any of that, at one point as they were talking I leaned over to Ed who happened to be sitting next to me and said "I want to be them." He laughed and nodded.
There were several things at 9 that interested me, but Jay's film - in the biggest theater in town - was sold out. And anyway I was feeling a little light headed so I went to dinner instead and then drove home.
Tonight I am going to go to the Best of the Shorts screening and then the awards ceremony. I'm not actually expecting to win an award, but I was nominated for a jury prize - I had to get them extra copies for the jury judges. With Passing that was several DVDs, this time I was a link to something they could download. But at least I know I'm in competition. I fully expect Chronicles Simpkins to win the audience voting. Not only was it a very good film, but he also had a lot of friends and family in the audience. That's ok. As long as the winners are 1s I won't mind. It really is nice just to be nominated even if winning is better.
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