SXSW 2010 - Day One

So, South By Southwest has ended. Friends have come and gone. I've finally gotten the chance to have a good night of sleep and time to reflect. Seeing I didn't really have the opportunity to write about my experiences while I was actually experiencing SXSW and that I'm not a paid writer who would make time for such a thing when sleep sounded so much better, I've decided to write a series of blogs that sum up each day and what I saw. This will all be focusing on the film side of things seeing as I didn't experience the music side at all save for the free She and Him concert on the last Saturday.

This is my first TRUE film festival experience. Sure, I've been to the Heartland Film Festival and the Indianapolis International Film Festival, but I only went to a few of the films on the schedules when those were in town. At SXSW, I was at the festival pretty much all day from the beginning to end. Also, I experienced this festival with a film pass. A film pass is basically a step below a badge in that pass holders get seated after all the badges in line are in the theater. It was at times a smart purchase, but at other times an aggravating one.

I'm going to try and keep all my thoughts limited. I don't want each and every blog to be too bloated. If I feel a love for a film or feel a particular part of the festival needs more attention, I will give it that. However, I don't want it to feel like a chore to read each blog. Thus, I'm going to keep them as brief as possible. I hope you enjoy!

The Films
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KICK ASS


...is a film I didn't get in to. However, I did wait in line for two hours to try. I will say that even though we didn't get in, it was a great way to see how the festival worked. Being submerged into the atmosphere by waiting in line for possibly the most anticipated film of the festival was really great. I got to see Christopher "McLovin" Mintz-Plasse and I had an overwhelming since of excitement being able to stand where I was, thinking about the week ahead.

One good thing that came from standing in line was seeing Nimrod Antal, director of Predators. I had worked on Predators for a day, but never got the chance to meet Mr. Antal. Thankfully, my friend Nathan Bayless had and Nimrod told us that he'd try to get us in to the Predators sneak peek that was happening that evening. We were cautiously ecstatic, to say the least.

I will say that it really aggravated me that evening when I hopped on Twitter to read tweets from various online critics that I follow who were bragging about seeing Kick Ass for a second time. How fair is that? Why not give us other people a chance to experience it, douches? Oh well. It'll be out in a few weeks anyhow.

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PREDATORS


After not getting in to Kick Ass, the wife (exhausted from the previous week) decided to head home and Mr. Bayless and myself meandered around Austin for a bit. Seeing how we were burned on the Kick Ass screening, we didn't know if we wanted to wait in line again for The White Stripes doc, but we did for a bit. That is until Bayless got a hold of Nimrod...who got us in to the sneak peek.

So, we rushed from the Paramount over to the Ritz on 6th street, told the people we were on the list, and were ushered into the theater as I laughed in the faces of the badge holders who had been there since noon (not really. I'm not a complete ass. I know that feeling too well to laugh in their faces).

What we saw were two trailers (one of which is online now) and a scene from the film where Larry Fishbourne (I will always call him Larry ever since I saw him credited as such in the Nightmare on Elm Street sequel Dream Warriors) decloaks in full Predator armor and surprises our heroes. The trailers gave me chills along with reluctant hope. I know Nimrod and Rodriguez really want to make this film something special, but I am still trying to keep my expectations low. The clip was pretty good. Some of the acting was questionable, but clips out of context (and without complete effects) are always a little off. It will be cool to see it fully realized in the complete film in July.

Then we got a Q&A from Nimrod and Robert, got to see the animatronic head from the original Predator (who is making a come back in this new film), and got some nice goodies to take home including a SXSW exclusive poster signed by Robert Rodriguez (which you can see above).

In short, twas nice!

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Even though I didn't get to experience the films I wanted to on opening night of the SXSW film festival, it was truly great to go to what I got to go to and being immersed into the experience head first. It was a hell of a start to a hell of a week.