DIMI NAKOV: CANNES DAY THREE 2012

CANNES DAY 3

18th May 2012

Its Friday and as any friday its more to look forward to then any other day of the week.Everyone is looking forward to the weekend and more so to tonights celebs red carpet appearances and movies to be see if you can get IN...

Today was a bit rainy and we had to take out our umbrellas so i suggest if u are coming to Cannes get a small umbrella with you.There is sun and there is rain for sure every year i have been told.That can vary.

Also impressive cruise ships are here in the Cannes Harbor all the time.

I have a small surprise for you later in the day and will post it very soon.

So after breakfast and shuttling myself to the La Croisette i dropped off my laptop at the NZFC Office and headed off to my first meeting of the day.

Every morning i walk along the beach to get to the office and i see the cleaning crew singing and cleaning the beach and there was a guy as well who was searching for jewels and coins in the sand. Everyone here is looking for their own treasure.

Some treasure their jobs,their possessions like cars, mobile phones and houses and we as filmmakers we treasure art and movies.So there are so many treasure in our lives we intend to neglect like family and love and friends.I feel so happy right now being here and at the same time i miss family and friends even more.

At 9am i attended a Short Film Corner Breakfast.There were some soft drinks and some croisants but the main focus of this breakfast is for the selected short film makers to meet sales agents,distributors and TV/Festival Organizers or Reps.

We were around 40 filmmakers and about 8 guests we can approach and sell our work and get their details and contacts them later.This breakfast was one type of pitch sessions any filmmaker should know.Its called Cocktail Pitch where the person has around 30sec to gain the interest of the potential buyer and then within few minutes with Q&A to finish it off and move on to the next buyer and so on.

There 3 Basic Pitches:

1) Cocktail Pitch as i mentioned above

2) Formal Meeting Pitch - 3min to 4min Followed by discussions up to 45min

3) Public Forum Pitch - 5min to 10min -Combination of Producer/Director/Writer Talking about the project

Some people were telling their life stories and their struggles and it was and i saw it in the buyers eyes painful.You can imagine if u have to listen to 40 people 10min life stories.We will be there whole week and the buyer will only think where he/she can buy a gun to blow her's/his head off..haha

Thank god i see things like that and i learn how to collect my thoughts by not doing what other do.I am sure make mistakes but at least i dont push a buyer to commit suicide.haha

SO that was fun.I managed to approach all of them and just before the 2hours lapsed.

I went around and placed few more promo cards of BlindSide,JOAS,Hollowing Screams,From Earth to Icarus etc. There are lots of promo paper floating around.We are definitely not saving the forest around here.I guess you have to do whatever you have to do and try to be on top of things and promote ur project anyway u can.

I have few strategies and will apply them as i go each day and test their success or demise as i follow each reaction of how i present each project i am promoting.

After short two hour brake following the Short Film Corner i headed to the Pitch Training Session with Ido Abraham.

Now that was interesting. After we had the Short Film Corner Breakfast and we experienced one of the types of pitches we had the training session which confirmed or improved our understanding of how and what is in the pitching involved.

We pitch everyday we are just not conscious about it.When we get conscious about we intend to have a brain freeze or black out or some weird body language. Thats because we havent practiced it and its not yet a part of our behavior unless its naturally imbedded in us we have to get more practice in order to get better at Pitching.

Well those are all smart and wise words but i had to get up in front of all 20 people who were part of this training session with Ido and pitch one of our projects.Just as an exercise.It was tough and I got some good feedback and some criticism.I have an areas to improve and with more practice i am absolutely sure i can get it right.

Practice, Practice, Practice.

Well we finished in 2pm and i was so hungry so i ran,well had to kind of dodge people to get to the nearest food court and get something to eat before BLINDSIDE's Screening Premiere.

I went outside and there were some group of guys break dancing and entertaining the crowd.It was awesome.I feel like if i try some of those moves i will be spending the rest of mys stay here in a wheel chair.haha

I managed to get a full room of people to watch BLINDSIDE and it was great.Now i am looking forward to book another screening time if possible.Its usually only one screening per Film and only if there are some spare screening time in the second week of the festival then i can book another screening time.There was very good feedback about the film.I was happy with everything everyone said and their suggestions for improvement and so on.

I am very happy.

After the screening i went to see BAD KARMA with Ray Liotta and Dominic Purcell from Prison Break and Blade Trinity etc.

No comment about the film so far.haha

Then after the film i had to eat something.I was so busy all day and didn't had a chance to have proper meal.Just quick snacks.

So i went outside and found myself a nice restaurant near the beach and the hotels and had some awesome samon paninni and some tea and croisants.Delicious.

After dinner i went for a walk and saw some celebs leaving the theatre and walking around and paparazzi taking shots and stuff.Also saw at the Carlton Hotel The Dictator big promo entrance where Sacha Baron Cohen stays.

After a nice long walk and very busy day i was looking forward to give a nice hug to my pillow and fall asleep with a smile on my face for the very busy and productive day.

There are parties everywhere.I get invites all the time.I had to miss quite a few so far because of my long days and early starts.Lots a work to be done and there will be time for parties i am sure of that.

But i managed to make an exception and got myself to the Mozilla FireFox Party.Its called FireFox Flicks.

For my surprise Edward Norton came and started speaking about Mozilla and what this Internet Browser Engine does and how its developed and how it helps the consumer,not the retailers.Very interesting talk so enjoy the video bellow.

I met lots of nice and very talented filmmakers and trust me we are not alone.There are many of us and we all deserve to be here and have the chance to mingle with like minded people and share stories and exchange contacts.