“Location, location, location” is a time-honored mantra when it comes to real estate. So it’s fitting that AFCI’s Locations Show has relocated to the Los Angeles Convention Center where it will be right across the street from LA Live, the main venue for the Los Angeles Film Festival. Slated for June 15-16, the Locations Show for the first time takes place concurrently with the opening weekend of the L.A. Film Festival, which runs from June 14-24 and is produced by the non-profit arts organization, Film Independent.
With this close proximity and opportune timing, the hope is that the AFCI event will draw some top drawer execs and artisans from the Film Festival. Locations Show attendees too can get tickets to the festival, accessing a program which includes some 200 films from 30-plus countries, panel discussions and free outdoor screenings, among other attractions. The Locations Show meanwhile has 200-plus exhibitors, primarily film commissions, from 40 countries, along with its own lineup of panel sessions and speakers.
Now in its 27th year, the AFCI Locations Show is the largest worldwide gathering of film commissioners. Exhibitors showcase their wares and expertise–from locations to talent to incentives, services and resources–in order to help feature, TV, commercial, branded entertainment, web content and music video decision-makers navigate through varied lensing locations and options to find what’s best for their projects. Attendees have been strong in numbers and quality over the years, with execs, artists and location scouts surveying the offerings from the AFCI community and related vendors.
Lively discussion Beyond the dialogue on the exhibit floor, there’s valuable talk at Locations in the form of panel discussions and speakers.
Keynote speaker for the 2012 Locations Show is Paramount COO Frederick Huntsberry who on June 15 will address global piracy and how international industry professionals across the public and private sectors can unite to fight this threat. The session will examine how criminals are exploiting the Internet by misleading and redirecting consumers to fake or stolen products and services, adversely impacting the legitimate movie business.
Huntsberry’s keynote counterpart at the L.A. Film Festival is Chris McGurk, chairman/CEO of Cinedigm Entertainment Group, who on June 16 will deliver his address on the renaissance of independent film. The L.A. Film Fest keynote is recognized in the filmmaking community as the mid-year, state-of-independent-film address.
Among the Locations Show panel discussions are:
• “Doc U: Shooting Overseas–Making Your Doc on Foreign Soil.” (June 15) Documentarians who have traveled the globe team with film commissioners to discuss the logistics of overseas documentary filmmaking. Moderated by International Documentary Association (IDA) board member Senain Kheshgi, the panel includes documentary makers Laura Nix who shot The Light In Her Eyes (in Syria), Amanda Pope, co-director of The Desert of Forbidden Art (Uzbekistan and Russia), Till Schauder who turned out The Iran Job (Iran) and Katherine Fairfax Wright who helmed Call Me Kuchu (Uganda).
• The differences between U.S. and European films in terms of funding models, filmmaker approach, working practices, and choice of locations will be discussed in a session focused on The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. (June 15). Cean Chafffin, producer of David Fincher’s English language version, and a member of the production team on the Swedish version will be on hand to compare experiences in their respective film renditions of the best selling novel.
• “TV Commercial Focus on Latin America.” (June 15) The opportunities, challenges, cultural differences and alternative practices involved in producing commercials in Latin America will be examined by a panel that includes Cesar Ahumada of La Fabrica Films, Miggel Schwickerath of Miggel & Sun, Andy Rosenblatt of Metropolis Films, and Sebastian Leba of ParanaFilms.
• “The Future of Film Incentives.” (June 16) What will the film incentive environment look like in five to 10 years? Will incentives be diminished or enhanced? Participants include Lisa Strout, director of the Massachusetts Film Office; producers Glen Gainor and Randall Emmett; Joe Chianese, executive VP of EP Financial Solutions at Entertainment Partners; Amy Lemisch, executive director of the California Film Commission; and Joe Bessacini, VP, Film & Television Production Incentives, Cast & Crew.
Screening slate Now in its 18th year, The Los Angeles Film Festival will feature a mix of features, shorts, music videos. Woody Allen’s To Rome With Love will be the opening night gala screening. Among the highlights in the Galas screening section will be Lorene Scafaria’s Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, Ava DuVernay’s Middle of Nowhere and Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild. The film wrapping the Festival will be the world premiere of Magic Mike directed by Steven Soderbergh.
Directors with commercialmaking tie will also see their work gain exposure at the Festival. The International Showcase includes The Last Elvis (El Ultimo Elvis) from director Armando Bo, whose spot roost is Anonymous Content. John McInerny stars as a Buenos Aires Elvis impersonator who only comes alive when he dons the King’s clothes to perform. He tries to reconcile his dreams of glory with his dead-end factory job and an estranged wife and daughter who can’t live inside his fantasies.
Meanwhile the 2012 L.A. Film Festival’s Summer Showcase features: Big Easy Express directed by Emmett Malloy (half of The Malloy Brothers duo repped by HSI for commercials and videos), The Queen of Versailles directed by Lauren Greenfield (handled for spots by Chelsea), and Robot and Frank directed by Jake Schreier of Park Pictures.
Big Easy Express invites us aboard a train ride/traveling concert tour unlike any other with the likes of Mumford & Sons, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, and Old Crow Medicine Show.
The Queen of Versailles tells the story of a wealthy couple building the biggest house in America–a sprawling, 90,000 square-foot palace inspired by Versailles. When their business empire is impacted by the economic crisis, so too is their ambitious house project, in turn uncovering the innate virtues and flaws of the American Dream.
Robot and Frank stars Frank Langella as a retired jewel thief who befriends the caretaker robot his children have given him, eventually bringing the robot along on his illegal outings. The film is the first out of Park Pictures’ feature division.
The L.A. Festival’s Shorts Program also includes several spotmakers such as: Bryan Buckley of Hungry Man who helmed Asad; Matt Lenski of Supply&Demand Integrated who helmed Meaning of Robots; and Liz Garbus who’s with Warpaint, the commercial/branded content house recently launched (SHOOTonline, 5/7) by documentarian Morgan Spurlock, among others. Garbus’ Robots made the shorts cut at the L.A. Fest. Additionally Nadav Kurtz, known for his commercial editing exploits at Cutters, directed the documentary short Paraiso, which is also being screened in the Shorts Program.
Paraiso focuses on three Mexican immigrants who risk their lives every day rappelling down some of the tallest skyscrapers in Chicago as they wash windows. ParaÃso reveals their thoughts about working, mortality, and the people they observe inside the high-rises they clean.
Buckley’s Asad centers on the title character, a 12-year-old lad in a war-torn fishing village in Somalia who must decide between falling into the pirate life or rising above it to choose the path of an honest fisherman.
Lenski’s Meaning of Robots is about a 65-year-old man who has spent the past 10 years shooting an epic stop-motion robot sex film in his apartment.
Garbus’ Robots offers a glimpse at the playful evolution of robotics, posing the query, could a robot gain your trust?
The festival’s Music Video mix also spans several directors of note who are familiar to the ad community: Keith Schofield of Caviar for Duck Sauce’s “Big Bad Wolf”; Yuval and Meral Nathan of Acme Filmworks for Eatliz’s “Lose this Child”; the helming team Megaforce of Irene, Paris, for Is Tropical’s “The Greeks”; and Chris Milk of @radical.media who teamed with Anthony Francisco Schepperd on Danger Mouse and Daniel Luppi’s “Two Against One” clip featuring Jack White.
Furthermore the L.A. Fest’s Thunderdome event pits directors Daniels (on the PRETTYBIRD roster) against Walter Robot (part of the music video lineup at production house Wondros) in a competition featuring their shorts, video, clips and other projects. Daniels, a duo consisting of Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, directed this week’s SHOOT Top Spot for J20 fruit juice drinks.
Talk soup The L.A. Film Festival lineup of discussion sessions includes:
• On June 16, “Long Story Short, Short Films Big Ideas” will delve into the art and power of online storytelling with such panelists as Thom Zadra, head of business development for original video at Yahoo!; Amber Lawson, chairman of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ Interactive Media Peer Group membership; Jake Avnet, COO, WIGS; and Eddie Schmidt, director of Good Bread and exec producer of Beauty is Embarrassing.
• Coffee Talks return on June 17 with actors Jason Isaacs, Melanie Lynskey, directors Lawrence Kasdan, Catherine Hardwicke, screenwriters John August, Zak Penn, composers Rolfe Kent, Cliff Martinez, Michael Penn and others talk about various aspects of their craft. Coffee Talks are sponsored by the DGA, SAG Indie/Screen Actors Guild, BMI and WGA/West.
• “Capturing Ron Howard’s Imagin8ion: A Case Study From Canon USA” on June 23, will join some of the key creative and technical minds behind When You Find Me–a short film from Ron and Bryce Dallas Howard, presented by Canon’s Project Imagin8ion–for a special screening and discussion of the production. Panelists will include DP Andres Lascarsis, producer Kevin Chinoy of Freestyle Picture Company, and lighting technician Evan Pesses.
• And “Kodak Focus” on June 23 will spotlight Oscar-winning (Inception) cinematographer Wally Pfister, ASC, well known for his long-time collaboration with director Christopher Nolan. Pfister–who’s repped as a spot director by Independent Media–will discuss his craft and career.
