My Impressions of the 2014 Austin Film Festival

I arrived in Austin for the Film Festival on Thursday, October 23 and departed on Monday, October 27. During that time, I participated in six Festival panels, workshops and roundtables, met dozens of GITS followers and Screenwriting Master Class writers, connected with a bunch of screenwriters and filmmakers who work in the business, and in the process killed off whole legions of brain cells. Here are some random impressions of my overall experience there.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 24

My first session was at 9:00AM, a roundtable on The Art of Business and Film. This was set up as a sort of speed dating thing where each of the professional guests would sit at a table with about 6 attendees, answer questions for 15 minutes, then move onto the next table. Seeing as I don’t drink coffee, am not a morning person, and generally don’t get done throwing up until noon, I think I acquitted myself with a small measure of honor in stringing together at least a few coherent sentences along the way. I met some great folks from all around the world of whom I’d say about half actively follow the blog. Lots of questions about how to break into the business. That’s easy. Write a great script. Next!

My second session was at 10:45AM: The Sanity Spectrum, moderating a panel featuring screenwriters John August, Richard Kelly and Jim Uhls. We delved into three of their movies, Big Fish, Donnie Darko and Fight Club respectively. These talented writers covered a lot of territory in our 75 minutes together. Here is one bit of business from each writer:

* John said he invented the Will Bloom character (played in the movie by Billy Crudup) as a way to provide a narrative framework within which to explore the elder Bloom’s fantastical stories, the focus of the Daniel Wallace novel. Try to imagine the movie Big Fish without that father-son relationship. That right there speaks to John’s talent as a writer to create such an emotionally resonant subplot which also provided an arc for the narrative.

* Richard revealed that Donnie Darko originated from a story he’d read about a big hunk of ice falling off an airplane wing, then crashing down onto a house. We delved into his creative process, how some of the key narrative elements emerged from that first inspiration, but what really intrigued me were some religious themes Richard consciously had at work in the story. That fit with my take that Frank acts as a sort of Old Testament prophet with his proclamations about the end of the world.

* Jim confessed when he read a galley of Fight Club, he was immediately drawn to the material even though he never thought the project would ever result in a movie. Too many screenwriters had passed on it, the story seemed impossible to film. At best, he thought his script would be a good writing sample. In the end, Jim’s script + David Fincher = classic movie. Speaks to the importance of writing stories we are passionate about.

My third session was at 3:15PM: Surviving Your First Year. This was screenwriter Eric Heisserer’s inspiration and I was happy to accept his invitation to participate as co-panelist. It was great to meet Eric in the flesh after years of intersecting with him virtually online. We covered a ginormous swath of information and advice which people really seemed to appreciate, but what I’ll always remember is this. About an hour before the panel, I saw this flit across my Twitter feed: The announcement of a pitch Eric had sold to Sony. This provided me an opportunity to prop punk Eric.

During our session, we were talking about ways to learn about the business, and I said, “You should be following online news sources like the Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Deadline and The Wrap.” Whipping out my iPad, I said, “In fact, let’s just check the newswire. Okay, so here’s a good example: ‘Sony Picks Up Supernatural Thriller Pitch ‘Exposure’”. Of course, that was Eric’s sale. Laughs all around… but Eric gets the last laugh because the check is going to him!

Bright readers will note: That is three sessions in one day. Which explains why I skipped the annual barbecue gathering that night to take care of blogging, SMC, a script project I’m working on, and preparing for the next day’s sessions.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25

My first session was at 10:45AM: Status Quo. This panel, which I moderated, featured three screenwriters: Craig Borten (Dallas Buyers Club), Tom Schulman (Dead Poets Society), and Jim Uhls (Fight Club). The basic idea here was to look at characters who rebel against The Way Things Are and I came up with a series of narrative movements — Establish Status Quo, Start of the Rebellion, Influence of a Provocateur, Rebel With a Cause, Transformation, Push Back, Death, Resolution — which spanned across all three films, albeit used in different ways. One takeaway from each:

* When I asked Craig about Rayon, played by Jared Leto, Craig said she was wholly fictional, one Craig created by asking, “What type of character would be completely opposite to Ron Woodroof (Matthew McConaughey)?” That led him to the transsexual Rayon.

* When I suggested to Jim that Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) can be seen to be a physicalization of Jack’s (Edward Norton, Jr.) shadow, dark impulses within Jack’s psyche, Jim agreed. As long as Tyler fit into the narrow confines of Jack’s world — Fight Club and friend — Jack was okay. As soon as Tyler expanded into Project Mayhem, then traveling all around the world, becoming the leader of a movement and less of a friend, that’s when Jack began to push back.

* Tom told a funny story about an unnamed movie directed by an unnamed director. Upon delivery of the shooting script, the director noted the Act II ending plot point happened on page 93. “It has to happen on 90.” So the director asked Tom to think of his favorite scene in the script. Tom did. It matched the director’s. The director said, “You have to cut the scene so we can get down to 90 where Act II is supposed to end.”

Tom resisted, even going so far as to say he would go to the studio to protect the scene in question. The director said fine. So Tom got a letter from the studio stating the scene must be in the movie.

Guess what: When the movie was shot, the scene did not end up in the film, despite Tom’s protests and even the studio. Speaks to the power of a movie director. Also speaks to the downside of blind adherence to formula.

My second session was at 4:30PM: The Signature Gesture: A Workshop in Expressive Writing. This was something Mary Coleman, Senior Development Executive at Pixar Animation Studios, and I concocted at the 2013 Austin Film Festival. Since movies are primarily a visual medium, why not have a session in which we focus on gestures as a way to communicate visually.

We showed a 5-minute clip of notable gestures in movies, discussed the concept in general terms, then pulled back chairs, creating a circle in which 40+ writers each shared a gesture from a person they knew. Mary did an amazing job nurturing folks to embrace their physicality and it was amazing to see writers actually getting into it. At the end of that part of the session, we put gestures to words with me writing down suggested scene description of gestures onto a white board. All in all, a big success.

But there’s this: The condo where I was staying had a defective bathroom door. I had already locked myself in on Friday, but after that had done a good job remembering not to close the door all the way… until 20 minutes before this session. So here I was stuck in the bathroom. My cell phone on the other side of the door. Nobody else in the condo. I finally wrangled my way out, but only after bruising my hand. Not the best way to start a workshop! In fact, I’m using a gesture right now at the memory of that bathroom door. See if you can guess what it is!

Only 2 events on Saturday. Could I relax yet? Nope. Because the next day involved a really important session.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 26

My only session of the day at 3PM: A Conversation with Whit Stillman. I am a big fan of Stillman which was pressure enough. The movie we would be discussing — Metropolitan — is a favorite I still remember screening for the first time at the WGA Theater in Beverly Hills. But the bigger deal was this: It was just Whit and me on stage. I slaved over each of the panels I moderated, but this one really gnawed at me. I spent many hours screening, then re-screening Metropolitan. Watching interviews with Whit. Reading feature articles. I wanted to be uber-prepared to do he and his debut film justice.

The conversation was awesome. The audience and I learned a lot about the development, writing and production of Metropolitan. Turns out Whit was inspired by the early John Sayles movie Return of the Secaucus Seven. The parallels are spot-on. Another influence: The Big Chill.

I probed into the story’s four main characters: Tom, Audrey, Charlie and Nick. Whit went with these character studies, even with my psychological analysis of Nick and the noxious character Rick Von Sloneker, how the latter is a projection of Nick’s own repressed power trip.

Afterward Whit told me it was one of the best interviews he’s ever had. He said, “You seemed to know more about the movie than I did.”

I invited Whit to a Black List dinner that evening. Since he had a bad cold from a trip to Poland to receive an award, I didn’t expect him to show up, but he did. It was great Franklin and the Black List team had a chance to spend time with Whit. He is a unique talent and we are lucky to have him as a cinematic storyteller.

Later that night, I could finally relax. As GITS readers and SMC writers bought me several rounds of drinks, I sat in the Driskill Hotel lounge blogging away while chatting away with screenwriters. A fun finale to a rather frenzied festival.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Reflecting upon the weekend, I’ll say this: The Austin Film Festival with its focus on screenwriting is like Woodstock for screenwriters. I’ve described my little corner of that universe. I was so busy, I barely had a chance to socialize let alone attend the live script reading of “Flarsky” by Dan Sterling or any other session. However if you were to go, you’d not only hear and see great things in the official presentations, you’d also rub elbows with pro writers who are willing to share their insights and inspiration with you in one-to-one conversations.

So here’s to Austin Film Festival 2015. I hope to attend… and to see you there!

If any of you made it to this year’s AFF and feel so inclined, I would love to read your comments. 

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