SOME GUY IN THE EMERGING VISIONS PROGRAM (P. 3)

By Adam Bowers in News
on Friday, October 7th, 2011

Well, Emerging Visions is over and I’m back in Los Angeles. I thought I’d go through the day as it progressed so it’s like you were there with me; like you’re Patrick Swayze in my Whoopie Goldberg-esque body (which may soon be an accurate description of my physique).

The day started with… well, technically, my day started with me getting my umbrella caught in a sidewalk grate. But, for Emerging Visions, it started with a breakfast where we each stood up, introduced ourselves and shared the “craziest thing we’ve ever done” while making our movies. I talked about when, for my first movie, I purposefully bombed a stand-up comedy set without telling the audience (because it would have been too painful to tell them I meant to have killed).

Then, filmmaker Doug Liman gave a keynote address on working within the indie world as well as the studio world. He made a lot of interesting points about doing everything you can to do what you believe is best for your film. I’m assuming he specifically means that it’s okay for me to spend two weeks before every shoot curled up in a ball, sobbing. Like I tell my producers, it’s for the good of the film!

After that were the “mentoring sessions,” the centerpiece of the day. My mentor was Philip Seymour Hoffman, who, in addition to writing, directing, and working in theater, is widely considered an actor so skilled in his technique that he could make the Shaggy Dog look like Air Bud (I’m almost positive everyone gets this analogy). He was really down to earth and had a lot of advice to offer, his main point being: do what you feel most compelled to do, whether it’s a decision as big as which project to devote your time to, or as small as whether or not to let your actors laugh between takes. I, myself, feel that the most conducive environment to film comedy in is one of icy cold silence and fear.

Then, we had lunch, where I ate food (I know it sounds crazy, but it’s true), followed by some more discussions with amazing filmmakers. Joe Berlinger talked about his documentary work, and Jon Kilik discussed the importance of not compromising in your efforts to work in the “industry” (by which he did not mean, I found out later, the steel-wool industry). That definitely seemed to be the theme of the day, and from my experiences, the motto of much of the independent world: not compromising. I’ve, personally, taken that advice so far that I’m virtually impossible to date.

The final event of the night was unlike any panel I’d seen before: four industry professionals heard pitches from five filmmakers selected from the program and gave feedback on what they liked and didn’t like. I didn’t participate, presumably because people find me “off-putting” (I’m quoting my mom here). But, the filmmakers who did were great at handling such an anxiety-producing task. I imagine that, when they pitch their films to people in the future, they can look back and say, “At least I’m not doing it in a room full of people.” Of course, they don’t know that, in the future, people will spend their lives in gel-filled pods to serve as an energy source for our robot overlords (for those of you who didn’t get that reference, yes, I’m talking about Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo).

After that was a post-program reception where I made sure that anyone who thought that I seemed approachable was instantly proven wrong.

Then, I said my goodbyes, walked toward the subway, and got my umbrella stuck in a grate.

In short, it was a great day that I feel really lucky to be a part of. Everyone I met, whether they were on the IFP/Film Society staff, fellow filmmakers in the program, or someone in the middle of mentoring the crap out of a person, was great. They’re definitely people I want to keep in touch with, and not just because I’m a Machiavellian sociopath who uses human beings like pawns, but also because they all seemed like really cool, nice people.