Reflections on TIFF 2008 E. Jane Thompson
Industry Centre > Blogs > Reflections on TIFF 2008 | E. Jane Thompson
Posted by E. Jane Thompson
on Thursday, September 18, 2008.
Categories: Film
Our team (NSI Features First folks writer Katherine Collins and producer Daniel Bekerman) went into the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) with momentum.
In under a year and a half, we’ve developed a script for The Berliner Complex that’s close to shoppable. Our writer Katherine was about to attend TIFF’s Talent Lab. Our producer Dan had line-produced Toronto Stories, which was about to premier at the festival and getting all kinds of buzz in particular for its remarkable production value. We were the poster kids for NSI’s Features First promo ad this year. A further boost came the day before the festival opened when we received positive word from a development fund, keeping our record of financing success at 100%.
Trepidation
What I left out of my first TIFF blog was that part of me was dreading the festival. So many people, so much sociability; distractions; conflicting agendas; business needs versus creative needs; events versus screenings; and films I needed to see versus films I wanted to see.
Even finding time to work through the listings of hundreds of films on offer was a challenge. I was concerned I’d be just plain overwhelmed by it all and lose focus. Dan and I talked about it all and in our final meeting with coach Mickey Rogers, we worked out a plan of attack.
And you know what? It all worked out.
Meeting success
The quick positive responses to our pre-festival email requests for meetings with international sales agents translated into two meetings and a third one in the offing post festival.
With a bit of email follow-up we secured the first meeting.
We spent half a day in pursuit of the second. It began at a company brunch where we learned our contact wasn’t in Toronto after all. We were redirected to someone else. By then, we’d missed him at the brunch, but went on to attend the screening of a film the company is selling.
We spotted our man in conversation outside the Varsity Theatre – and walked on by, not wanting to disturb. But as we reached the top of the escalator, Dan muttered something and reversed. We made a cold approach. This vice president of sales and acquisitions readily agreed to a meeting which we set up on the spot.
Both our meetings proved to be just what we wanted – opportunities for low stakes, friendly face-time with people with whom we may one day do business.
In both cases, the people we met were pleasant and approachable and viewed meeting us in exactly the same way. We learned from them among other things how best to follow up and when regarding The Berliner Complex.
Festival surprises
A surprise of the festival was the number of information-packed, advice-laden casual conversations Dan and I had. Our pitch quickly became second nature, effortless. The sodden Canadian Film Centre barbecue was the scene of countless encounters as we sheltered in a tent drinking martinis. So caught up in conversation were we that we missed the last shuttle back downtown.
A film highlight
In the midst of everything I saw a film that shook me to the core. Steve McQueen’s Hunger, about life inside Belfast’s notorious Maze prison and the highly emotive events surrounding the 1981 IRA hunger strike, is startling in its unflinching portrayal of filth, hatred and brutality and in its awful beauty. It is as much performance art as it is cinema, as Michael Fassbender, playing strike leader Bobby Sands, wastes away to a skeleton. Someone has described Hunger as a meditation – an apt descriptive for the film’s single minded focus and intensity.
Berliner update
Our perfect financing record has been broken. The day TIFF ended, we received notice that a development fund had turned us down. Sigh…
We’re mid-draft and Katherine is back at work on the script; Dan and I are reviewing our timeline - critical for the fall and our next move redevelopment financing.
NSI on the web
Views expressed here are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Screen Institute - Canada (NSI).
Comments
Login with Facebook
You can post comments using your Facebook account by clicking the button below.
Login with your NSI account
Sign in to add comments or join (it's fast and free).
The views expressed here are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Screen Institute - Canada (NSI).