I really feel for the people who travel a lot. It’s not something I would enjoy doing unless I am in business class or first class all the time. Those buggers have it very comfy there. haha
Well we made it team!!!
Now we are in Cannes.
So what’s the latest update?
After 23 and a half hours flying and another 5-6 hours running around the airports I arrived in Cannes this morning, 15th of May 2012 around 9:08am.
From Nice I took a bus which dropped us off right in the middle of Cannes. That was good. It cost me 26 Euro from Nice and return, so two way 26 Euro for the bus.
Then I took a cab from Cannes to the hotel where I booked accommodation. The hotel is only 4km from the festival, but I was buggered and couldn’t be bothered to walk to the hotel with the luggage.
Well, I did take a walk later. It’s worth walking along the beach and stopping at all the shops. If I had money would spend a bit on souvenirs.. haha
Earlier that day I had some funny feeling that something always goes wrong. I don’t know if I’m jinxed but when I arrived at the hotel and handed over my confirmation of the booking for the room, the receptionist went out the back. It took her quite a few minutes to come back out.
I waited and waited and then I thought; please let me be wrong and nothing is wrong with the booking. The lady came out and said. “Well, when we tried to charge your account the transaction didn’t go through and so the booking was cancelled. But since you are here, and if you can pay the full amount, then we have a free room and you will be ok”.
I knew my account was fine so it must have been some error when they tried to charge my account, so I paid the full amount, which was close to 1,200 Euros for the whole duration of the festival. That was like a huge, huge, weight off my shoulders and I felt so thankful that things worked out anyway.
To be honest that made me so happy. Now it’s around 10:30am and I just almost had an heart attack with the accommodation which got solved and now I am starving, but decided to unpack and have a shower and then hit some french place and have a feed. Then I would go get my badge and a bag full of info for the festival etc.
By 5pm I managed to get it all sorted and now I can get into editing the final bits of my 45sec showreel for Le Pitch on Wed 23rd of May 9:45am. I will prepare 3 projects that I am happy to pitch and will decide in the morning which one will be the lucky one.
Also have to do final prep for all promo material for the few projects we want to get some attention from film professionals.
It was a busy pre-opening arrival day in Cannes and I can feel my eyes are closing slowly. I must be running on adrenaline the last few hours. A good dinner and early departure to bed is in order today.
Tonight I will try to get some invites to more workshops and events so I can mingle with more people and see what we can can work on in the future with some of them.
Will be back soon.
CheersD
Bellow are the links of My daily updates from all Day i spend in Cannes:
BLINDSIDE will have its world premiere in Cannes Short Film Corner 2012.
I managed to organize a screening in a Cannes screening room for BLINDSIDE and I will try to organize multiple screenings. The screenings are available only to people with passes and access to the festival beyond the security.
The Premiere screening is 4pm on the 18th of May in the Short Film Corner Screening Room.
Only a few spaces are available, so anyone that wants to be present must contact me and has to have access to the Cannes festival and be wearing his/her badge ID.
I cant believe it’s actually happening. This is my first international flight since 2002 when I arrived in New Zealand with my family.
Last time I was on airplane was in 2009 when I was on my way back from the South Island in New Zealand after we just finished filming Malcolm Law’s successful adventurous and phenomenal fundraiser 7in7 Challenge, where he ran the seven great walks of New Zealand in 7 consecutive days, 361km altogether. So I am about to board the aircraft and I forgot that I have survival tools in my hand luggage. Again the last time I traveled before 2009 was in 2002 as I mentioned above. So I completely forgot about the whole security thing and I got stopped by the security search team while my back is passing the X-Ray and they started pulling out items/tools I had from my hand luggage and I counted 12 of them so it was a bit embarrassing and funny to the rest of the queue seeing a little eastern european looking guy getting his bag presenting quite a few tools. Since we were going to the bushes and all great walks are quite remote I thought I will get all tools I need to get by just like Bear Grills from Man VS Wild only way worse prepared version of that. haha
So this time no problems and only laptop and some usb sticks and cables in my hand luggage with my passport and boarding pass.
Auckland Airport 14th May 2012
Checking in at AKL 14th of May 2012
I am now at Singapore Airport waiting for my next flight to Paris.Here is 20:07pm Local time which is quite late in New Zealand.My next flight is in 23:00pm Local Singapore time so i have few hours to kill.I am quite tired after 10.5 hour flight and sleepless night before from excitement.
I have free internet here at the singapore airport for 4 hours so thats awesome.Also it was handy to have international power adapter so i can charge my laptop.
I have cut 90% of my 45sec showreel while flying from Auckland to Singapore which i will present as part of my pitch for Le Pitch workshop on my schedule while i am at Cannes.So on the next flight or even before then i will try to finish off the 45sec showreel and have some sleep if possible.
It’s been an intense few months since we found out that our short film BLINDSIDE would be part of the Cannes Short film Corner as part of Cannes Film Festival 2012.
First came the initial joy and happiness after reading the email of accreditation for the Short Film Corner and then came the question of possibly getting to Cannes. The first thing I had on my mind was “How do I get there? I can’t afford it. How much would the trip cost?”
Then I checked the prices of airfare and accommodation at Cannes. To get to Cannes and have accommodation I would need around NZ$6,000. The airfare was around the NZ$3,200 from Auckland to Cannes and Accommodation was around $2,200 for the whole 12 days that I would stay there. Usually everyone who visits Cannes for the festival books tickets and accommodation 4-6months in advance to get the best prices. It was a pleasant surprise for all of us that we managed to make it happen.
Thanks to Kay Rayner, Jonathon Rayner-Burt, Phil Greeves and Chantal Rayner-Burt an IndieGoGo fundraising campaign was created at the beginning of April, and with the help of friends, family and fans of BlindSide, we managed to collect half of the amount by 2nd of May just 12 days before I was to take off for Cannes. I worked very hard to collect the other half of the funds I needed and I managed to do so just in time.
My parents helped me with deposits and expenses for the promo materials I am taking to Cannes to promote future projects we have worked on.
I am so grateful to my parents and family for helping me over the years to follow my dreams and become a filmmaker. Right next to them are all my friends, who I love to bits as well, and I am so thankful for their help every day on set and off set, and for their continuous support and encouragement.
THANK YOU EVERYONE.
Now my bags are packed and I hope I haven’t forgotten anything I need for my trip. I thought I would be able to relax a bit before I set off but all the excitement and butterflies in the stomach and happy but nervous feeling are keeping me hyped up and not giving me the chance to relax as much as I’d hoped.
Well, I will have a 10 hour flight from Auckland to Singapore from 12pm tomorrow midday. Then follows a 13 hour flight from Singapore to Paris and then a short flight from Paris to Nice. From Nice I catch a train, or a bus, or any kind of transport, to Cannes. I will be looking forward to a nice sleep I guess after 23-24hour flights.
I will be in Cannes around 9am on the 15th of May. Just the day before opening of the 65th Cannes Film Festival 2012. I will have a nice sleep I hope and then who knows? The next day I go to reception, collect my pass and get to work.
THANK YOU SO MUCH.
This is my first time ever going to Cannes, or to any festival at all. Also, this is my first time out of New Zealand after me and my family arrived in Auckland on 23rd of November 2002 at 14:30pm. I remember that day like it was yesterday. My parents worked for years very, very, hard to get our family to New Zealand to start a new life and give us opportunities in life. It was very hard on my parents to achieve this and I am so grateful for what they did for me, my brother and my sister. Now it’s our turn to make them proud of what they did for us all those years. Mom and Dad, thank you so much. You are the best.
So now back to the topic I started;
I have registered for a few workshops at Cannes. As an accredited filmmaker I received quite a few emails with workshops and events which I had to register for and I had to be approved for me to be able to attend. So far all workshops I applied for I will be able to attend and my schedule is getting quite busy. Since this is my first time I am trying to do as much as I can while I am there.
No time to waste.. haha
I will do my best to keep everyone posted with what’s happening each day and share some photos every day I am there.
A local film-maker who self-funded his latest project by working as a camera operator and runner will see his hard work pay off when it screens at a prestigious short film festival.
BlindSide, a self-funded independent short film, will be screened at the Cannes Short Film Corner as part of the Cannes Film Festival 2012 in May.
Dimi Nakov, the film’s director, said he was “reluctant” to enter the film into the prestigious festival.
“Cannes is very prestigious and I wasn’t sure how a low-budget film like this could afford the submission fee. But in the end, we submitted it and were really surprised that it got in.” he said.
BlindSide, which was shot over nine weekends, focuses on a white middle-class family embroiled in domestic violence.