American Film Market 2008, Day 6
November 10Th 2008, reporting from Santa Monica, California, at the 2008 American Film Market, overall, the market has seen slightly lesser crowds from last year, and slightly more unhappier faces. From walking around the corridors in The Loews Hotel and Le Merigot Hotel, and visiting all of the offices of various International production companies and distributors, we witnessed a vast presentation of thousands of titles, but little movement for acquisitions from distribution entities. Anyhow, it seems like a better selection of films from last year though, where it seemed the market was overwhelmed with primarily Horror and Gore movies. There were lots of cool animated feature film projects this year, and a nice variety of Action/Thriller-esce films. There was a slight presence of some new and innovative ideas in the distribution process itself, even our own presence garnered well respected attention. A few new distribution opportunities in new media, which encompasses such things as on-line distribution and video on demand were in sight.
As far as movie deals, we have not garnered all the necessary information to provide you with the data yet, but we will update this site often, so stay tuned. From roaming the reasonably filled hallways, and trying to glance over all of the badges, it seems that probably the very best deals were at the top tier level of the industry, and did not quite have so much the trinkle down effect. Seems the presence of the many Independent Films that were in competition seem to offset the few distribution opportubities that were there. There was a slight beefy presence of International product and distribution entities, but many 2008 AFM players were still left on the bench, still awaiting to be called to the plate by that great distribution deal waiting to happen, but it seems like more and more, distributors are tightening their line-up and not taking any risks.
And by risks, we mean star power, the business of Hollywood seems once again, and especially in these tough economical times, to be more and more relying on what it knows best.
And speaking of star, we spotted Terry O’Quinn, one of the stars of the Hit Television Series ”Lost”, on the coffee line trying to decompress and get some Joe. We managed to get a video interview with Terry, talking about his early days in the industry as an actor, his new successes on Lost, and his new Feature Film Project to be shot in Ireland.
(Exclusive Interview will be soon available on our site www.TheIndependentReporter.com)
After lounging in the comfortable leather seats alongside the huge windows in the back, that over looks Santa Monica Pier, www.TheIndependentReporter.com cameraman, Benjamin J. Stern notices what looks to be Kevin Sorbo of Hercules Fame. A little later Oscar Award Winner Adrian Brody was spotted in the lobby.
After a day of hard pressed networking and our own pitching of ideas, we are winding it down, we notice many actors and actresses networking and selling themselves, we even managed to take a few headshots, and who knows, maybe we might be doing an interview with them next. Overall, the past 5 days was filled with the conventional twitter and buzz that usually befalls the event, but on the 6Th day of the event, most deals, if any, have been met and a few companies are preparing to exit. The influx of half-festival badges and day-badges start to take prominence and what is left of the remnants of vast new networking opportunities will soon be chewed away by the new waves of market goers.
The industry as a whole may be in need of a change, and new great ideas in Independent Film and Distribution seems to be feverishly lurking amongst the horizon, but some would say The Hollywood System would like to keep them there, and they have a road block on these new ideas, mostly because they will probably also eliminate some of the profits and benefits associated with their standards. This is one of the reasons why we gave birth to The Independent Reporter, to have some what of an alternative voice for these new innovations. We managed to Interview the Godfather of Independent Cinema and Independent Film Distribution, Lloyd Kaufman, founder of Troma Films, Lloyd is now the president of The American Film Market. Lloyd spent decades producing and distributing his own line of Independent Films, so we spoke to him to gather some insights into the state and future of Troma Films and Independent Films in general.
(Exclusive Interview will soon be available on www.TheIndependentReporter.com)
