This was my fifth visit to Cannes -I've been to the festival as a no-budget filmmaker as a producer on the film beach boys in 1998 and achieved no sales whatsoever! I went back in 2001 and had a huge party with my film Large -the party cost more han my fee for directing the film and was a fun affair at a villa just outside Cannes which had been made up to look like a set from the film -A trashed teenage party. Screening a film to 400 hardened buyers is a terrifying affair but it seemed to work and the film sold to 20 countries.
I've learnt the ropes on my last few visits -the main thing to do is not to get stressed if it seems like everyone is doing more business than you -a single chance meeting can mean so much so it is important as a producer to be there. Unfortunately, there are more time wasters than ever so it can be a bit dispiriting.
We had a very busy time with sales agent meetings on our feature projects -104 now have 7 feature projects in paid development. We were also promoting our short film scheme the Magic Hour in the short film corner and our development producer Michelle Eastwood had a short film in the official competition.
We always stay at La Bocca which is much cheaper than central Cannes and you can get a bus 1euro/ten minutes to the croisette very easily -there's a pool out there and its nice to chill out away from the intense hustle and bustle of the festival.
All in all it was a good Cannes for us and without coming away with any fixed deals, we certainly cemented some existing contacts and made a few new ones to follow up in the coming weeks and support us on our growing slate. Alex and I are keen swimmers so we're hoping to have a 104 films swimming gala there next year!