No sooner did it begin...

We made it through the festival, my internet frustrations were enormous, so I wanted to blog now that I am home.

I think this was one of the best festivals I have been to, the speakers that were presented were fantastic, they had a couple of new formats for presentations which I think came directly from comments of past delegates, there were far more social events during the festival, which is a great opportunity to meet people and discuss projects in a more casual atmosphere.  

It really is a personal decision as to what you want from the festival.  Some people are there to pitch their project to as many people as they can, some are there to investigate what commissioning editors from which networks would be most interested in a planned project, some are there to take in the fascinating discussions and presentations and learn more about trends in the industry.  This year I was definitely the later.  Sometimes the scheduled 10 minute Face-to-Face pitch is just too nerve wracking and I often wonder how much can the editors possibly absorb after the 20th pitch.  Luckily there are so many opportunities to meet in a more casual way or shop for the editor you want to follow up with later on.  I mentioned earlier that there were more social events this year, and much is said of the liberal consumption of wine, but most of the people that I want to follow up with later were found at one of these events.  The ticket being one that I am really quite good at, and that is to talk, talk to everyone.  It's just amazing how many like minded people and ideas that fit with yours are found this way.

I think overall it is inspiring and brings a bit of reality to the big dreams of big productions.  It brings reality to it in that it is not impossible, but you do it for the love of the project not because you are going to be Paul Haggis or Clint Eastwood sometime in the near future.  The commissioning editors are there to do their job and that is to look for new ideas, so pull them aside, get the card and commit to calling.  Talk about your ideas with everyone because everyone knows someone who knows someone else.

And when you have talked to all those people they make a point of pulling you aside and congratulating you on winning the CWC award, which is very nice indeed.