But there was a different energy this year. And in retrospect - now that I've had a month to reflect (and to finally write a post on the festival; wish I wrote more often but I when duty calls, I answer) - maybe the energy didn't come from the festival itself but from the banner year that Texas film is having. Whatever it was, it made for a memorable fest.
Halfway through the festival I landed a free lance gig editing panels for SXSW Interactive. So not only did the fun end prematurely and I saw way less movies than I had initially planned, the time I had to publish posts got eaten up by some uneventful panel cutting. That's the trade-off with such a large festival in your own backyard: There's work to pick up during a solid two week period. (And if you're a free lancer, you know it's hard to turn down work when it's this abundant.)
So what do I have to add to the post-SXSW reviews so many bloggers and critics have already provided for the past month already? Honestly - probably not much. But I got all these photos I took and they need to go somewhere...
This will be the first of a set of free-association, summative posts about the fest as I experienced it. You won't find any movie reviews here. Just impressions and fuzzy memories. And some photos!
Where's The Swag?
The earliest sign things were going to feel different this year came when I picked up my badge and received my tote bag. As long as I've been attending South By I always look forward to the tote bags. I have an unhealthy collection of SXSW tote bags and I devise a variety of "practical" uses for each one whenever my wife suggests I have too many. (The recent controversial Austin Bag Ban has actually turned into an inadvertent enabler to my bag-hoarding habit).
This year the festival established a satellite location to shorten lines at the Convention Center. Good move. There was hardly anyone at the Long Center when I arrived, so I had my badge within ten minutes. But this location didn't have the festival guide in stock. Normally, when you receive your tote its full of flyers about parties and screenings and there's a copy of the +The Austin Chronicle inside. This year all I got was the pocket guide, so my tote felt a little... light and superfluous:
This wasn't really a big deal, but I felt it was emblematic of a few things: How the fest has always embraced innovation and thusly gone all-mobile (I had already downloaded the SXSW App to my iPhone, so a missing program book is not a real issue). Conversely, how much it feels Film has been overshadowed now by Interactive. (I read an article on IndieWire in which an interactive attendee was quoted as saying, "There's a film festival here?") That's not a knock, seeing as I saw several good films and the premieres of each of the films I was a part of was handled with care. Less swag in the film bag just felt indicative of a paradigm shift that has long taken hold.
The opening night of the fest I opted to skip Burt Wonderstone, a wide release, and instead opted for the much buzzed about Upstream Color. After Upstream Color, I walked the four or so blocks to the opening night party, held at Buffalo Billiards. This was the first time I can recall arriving at the opening night party before its kick off time. I was surprised to see the length of the line. I figure most attendees were at the Paramount finishing up Wonderstone so getting to the party ahead of them would be an advantage.
Instead, the advantage came not from arriving early but from running into the right peeps at the right time - fellow filmmaking partners in crime who included producer Jason Wehling (The Retrieval), Jonny Mars (does he count as a name drop now?) and Girls star Alex Karpovsky (that's for sure a name drop now!). Apparently, Karpovsky could not walk from the Driskell Hotel to Buffalo Billiards without being stopped by a fan and take a photo. He was gracious with his time and obliged them each time. It's just strange to be that close to that level of fandom when you know someone from movie sets or Austin film parties or from driving them to the airport at 8 in the morning (after you've been up all night shooting)...not from their fame.
Before I knew it Karpovsky led us into the bar just moments before they let everyone else in. I don't know exactly what happened; I think someone told him he was on a VIP list so he led us in like we were part of his entourage. It was almost a joke since Karpovsky is a guy who doesn't much march down the street with an entourage - he usually marches to the beat of his own drum. But I wasn't going to complain and I followed the rest of the group in. Just walk in like you belong.
All it did was get me to the bar about five minutes ahead of everyone else. Not that big of an advantage when you are soon elbowed out of the way for attendees clamoring for free drinks.
That first night I closed the party down. Ran into friends I don't see often or hadn't worked with in a while. Ran into a few folks I only see come festival time. Most conversations were up close with very little eye contact - you're leaning into each other's ear the whole time so you can hear each other. There was a BATES MOTEL promotional green screen set up near the bar. Attendees took photos on a bed holding messages or staging each other's murders. Behind them the Bates house or motel would get superimposed. It was strange a promotional tie-in, but kinda entertaining to view from a distance.
You have to pace yourself at festivals like these. The first night of the festival led to five straight nights of never getting to bed earlier than four in the morning. It was fun, for sure, but as a result I missed much of the conference and many a morning movie. I was lucky if I was out the door by noon.
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