Better Late than Never, right?!
Darrien Gipson — Thursday, May 22nd, 2008
O.K, first let me say that Scott is soon to be fired from SAGIndie. It’s sad, I know, and I probably should have told him before I posted it, but he’s been warned. It is his job to keep us on our toes and blogging, and he has been woefully inept. And now, I’ve decided to blog, despite his lack of cajoling.
Eliza and I are in Cannes, France for the festival. It’s my 5th year(?) and Eliza’s 2nd. Eliza was here three years ago, and claims that she was actually a part of the Student Filmmaker Program that we schedule while in France. However, we don’t remember her, and we have no photographic evidence (her face was conveniently obscured by a hole punch in their yearbook). Still, others seem to remember her, and we hired her already, so it seems useless to question it now. Plus, I just fired Scott, so I can’t fire the entire staff. Who will answer the phone and pretend that I’m too busy to talk?
We’re at the end of our “tour of duty” here in Cannes, and it was, for the most part, successful. We only had a couple of no-shows – only one by an actress who shall remain nameless, but let’s say that Sarah Michelle Gellar will remain MY favorite slayer. If anyone disputes, they can bring it on. The weather in Cannes has been, in a word, sucky. Most days, it’s overcast and raining. Not terrible rain, but off and on showers. Come to think of it, the last time we had a lot of rain was the year that Eliza claims she was here as a student – coincidence? I think not. Beyond the weather, Cannes is Cannes. Movie stars, powerful executives, and skanky girls doing “yoga” stretches on the beach in bikinis (NOT cool over breakfast). What’s not to love?
Our programming has now become a thing of refinement. We go to Cannes every year to work with the American Pavilion Filmmaker Program. We bring in industry-ites (I love that word) to come for one hour and talk about themselves (never difficult), their jobs, and why they are so darn important to the industry. Where we once had a cast of thousands, we now only deal with a couple of dozen. But that dozen are really the top of their profession and the cream of the movie crop. Quality people, over quantity. And we mean quality: Craig Emanuel, Trevor Groth, Geoffrey Gilmore, and Bill Pullman, just to drop a few names.
And we’ve seen stars, my friends. We were in the corporate apartment (not ours, AmPav’s!) watching the red carpet for INDIANA JONES. It was fun and we got to see a bunch of people. You’ve really never lived until you’ve heard an announcer with a thick French accent try to pronounce Calista Flockhart. Comedy.
Come Saturday, we’re headed home. Full of stories, mostly made up but who will know? We’ve had a lot of wine and a lot of whine. We’ve cheesed for photos and cheesed for dessert. We’ve done Cannes and now we’re leaving her without so much as a note or a phone call. And if there are any pictures of us in existence, we’ll be using the hole punch on them!
