About the Author:

Tze (pronounced "Z") Chun is a writer/director working out of NY and LA. His short film Windowbreaker played at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. His feature film You're A Big Girl Now is currently being produced by Jeremy Kipp Walker of Journeyman Films (Half Nelson, Maria Full of Grace). He was asked by this blog's editors to send some dispatches from attending IFP's International Co-finance market No Borders. He hopes he does a good job.

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Took three days off my job in LA and took the red-eye back to NY to present my project You're A Big Girl Now at IFP's international co-finance market No Borders. Spent a Saturday walking around Soho and Union Square with my girlfriend, then picked up the thirty-five pound box of scripts, lookbooks, and project overviews that William Morris messengered over to her office (I didn't want to make her carry it… I'm a gentleman). My producer Jeremy Kipp Walker is in Arizona shooting Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck's follow up to Half Nelson and can't make it to IFP, so I've decided to go alone, but armed to the teeth.

Today is orientation day! Feels like my first day at school. I even got hazed by a couple of the older writer/directors. Good thing I don't have any milk money to steal. At the kickoff brunch, got to see the ever wonderful Susan Boehm and Amy Dotson, who run No Borders and Emerging Narratives, respectively. If you don't know Susan and Amy, they're the ones been working round-the-clock to put the market together. Also saw Durier Ryan, who wrote the piece in 25 New Faces about me.

At noon, Susan gave us some pointers and the co-presenting partners (list here) give a small speech about what they do. The gist is that if you're from any country other than the US, you can get a lot of money to make your movies.

Some familiar faces. Michael Kang (The Motel, West 32^nd) and his producer Jamin O'Brian (who I met at Tribeca All Access this year) were there with their new film Sea of Tranquility. Jamin met the writer Chris Newberry last year at Emerging Narratives! Also, Priyanka Kumar, also a TAA alum, was there with her project The Flicker's Dance.

DAY 2: Monday

All of the No Borders projects have some financing in place, so the conversations are less pitch-oriented, more about where you hope the project will go, what distribution you'd like for it, how you came up with the budget numbers, etc. Most of the time, the companies have requested meetings with you for a certain reason: subject matter, budget, or the filmmaker's previous track record.

Since my film is a modestly budgeted Cantonese-language period film. I found myself mostly in meetings with companies with equity financing or a film fund in place who were looking for a slate of films for the next year. Also met with a few film sales companies that wanted to take a look at the script and possibly advise about preselling foreign territories. I try to keep my pitch short, show the lookbook, discuss the budget and potential audience for the film, then ask some questions about the company I'm pitching to. Even if this project isn't right for the company I'm pitching, it's good to keep in mind who they are, what they're about, what type of projects they get involved in.

Some new faces who skipped orientation showed up yesterday. Sophie Barthes (fellow 25 faces and 2007 Sundance shorts alum) and my producer's partner Paul Mezey were there with their project Cold Souls. Oh, also this morning, John Hadity gave a great talk on international co-financing where he explained different type of financing – equity, supergap, gap, primary, mezzanine, and… vestibule?

I brought too many hard copies of my script. My back hurts.

DAY 3: Tuesday

Second full day of meetings. Met up with Cinetic Media madman Dana O'Keefe, who AD'd a short film of mine five years ago. Also, Alex Orlovsky (Half Nelson, Blue Valentine) of Hunting Lane. This is my second day of nine half-hour meetings, but I feel fine, I think. One of the great things about No Borders is that the companies choose to meet with you, and not the other way around. Because of this, there's a near absence of the Creative Executive glazed-look reaction when you're pitching. These are all companies that are truly interested in finding out more about independent film and independent filmmakers.

At night I went to my one extra-curricular event, run by the Florida Film Festival. I'm also keeping up with my day job as a staff writer on Cashmere Mafia. Calling my sometimes writing partner out in LA. Started missing NYC for the first time.

DAY 3: Wednesday

Started missing NYC hard. Just two meetings set up through IFP. Met with a London based distribution company that might want to put up half of the budget in exchange for China distribution rights. Trying to follow up as I go. Had to run back home to pack up so I could get some sleep before my flight tomorrow. Didn't get to say goodbye to most people. Gave Susan a huge hug. I think she was initially worried that Jeremy couldn't do the meetings with me, but said she got some positive feedback about my pitch and presentation.

All in all, a fantastic experience meeting with all these companies in one place. Really inspiring to see all these producers, filmmakers, and production companies making interesting films. Filmmakers that I'd admired from afar and got to meet face to face. Companies whose logo I would see in front of some of my favorite films.

DAY 4: Thursday

Took the 6am plane back to LA and was back in the writer's room by 10am. Trying hard to edit all my posts and realizing what a bad writer I am when I'm tired. Hope they make sense. If they don't, e-mail me.