Yesterday was my first full day here and somehow or other I managed to screw up all of my meeting times and yet miraculously arrive on time! Don’t ask me how, I’m still wondering that myself (on both counts). The downside of arriving on Saturday evening is that you can’t collect your accreditation until the following morning, and without the pack that comes with the accreditation, I was feeling a little lost yesterday. My first meeting was at 9 am - at Club de Cannes with a finance expert, who I hope will be involved with FNA for Pissheads (and beyond).
Now Club de Cannes is not a well known meeting venue and nobody seemed too sure where it was... “I’m sure it’s one of those little places on the beach”, “No, it’s a tennis club”, “Isn’t that just the name? It’s on the beach”, “No they guy I’m meeting is playing tennis there - so there needs to be a court!” Anyhoo I left ridiculously late for a meeting in a venue that I had no idea about, Janos tried to book me a cab, but it being Sunday morning, he didn’t have any luck - so I hobbled down the hill and managed to flag a taxi near the Town Hall which got me to my meeting just in time. ‘Twas a success and hopefully I’ll have more to report here soon.
Next was a hike to the Palais to collect my pass and then onto the pavilions for a coffee and a catch up. Didn’t see anyone I knew so I settled into the American Pavilion and ordered a coffee. Loads of time before my 12 noon meeting at The Grand Hotel... except my 12 o’clock meeting turned out to be 11:30! So off I was hobbling through Cannes once again - made late by my own crapness and the failings of changing time zones! Got to the terrace with a couple of minutes to spare, but it was fairly crowded and I realised I had no idea what the producer I was meeting actually looked like! Fortunately we did hook up and again I think the meeting was a success - she laughed at the Pissheads scene anyway and had some great ideas on how to articulate who our target audience is... again hopefully more of this soon.
Had a fab lunch (well the meal was minging) with La Heel, but the company was grand, before rushing off to see the Jon Reiss talk in the Short Film Corner (I hope he doesn’t think I’m a stalker, last week I travelled 300 miles to see him and now here I was in the South of France). Had a quick beer with Chris Jones and Judy Goldberg of Living Spirit Pictures and hooked up with more of the Geordie mafia for the walk back up to the Old Town where I am staying.
More to talk about tomorrow.
POST SCRIPT: Back in the American Pavilion and a Baldwin (not Alec) is standing 3 feet away from me!