Here's the first review I've seen for TIMECODE, the Mike Figgis movie, plus all sorts of wonderful commentary about this Yahoo! Internet Life Online Film Festival. Check it out... It's a jewel of a coverage...
Chrissypoo here with a review of the first day of the Yahoo! Internet Life Online Film Festival which is held March 22 - 23 in West Hollywood, CA.
After finally finding a place to park where I wouldn't get towed (it's West Hollywood where 75% of there city budget is from parking fines), I arrived at The Standard Hotel which is about as trendy as you can get on the Sunset Strip. So trendy and "cool" that behind the registration desk there is a live girl in a large aquarium in a bathing suit. And that's her job!
The Yahoo! Internet Life Online Film Festival should be called the Yahoo! Internet Life "We're not Hollywood, but secretly we really want to be" online film festival and trade show. Besides being way overbooked, the festival is a mess of disorganization. Add to this the Hollywood Types are very bitchy about this. I haven't heard this much bitching and groaning since Whoopi Goldberg hosted the Oscars last year!
The two hotels involved are The Standard and The Chateau Marmont and the first floor suites are like a mini-trade show. You walk the halls and enter suites, here a speil by some of the employees, grab a hat, t-shirt or slippers and a vodka drink, and head to the next suite. I like to offically rename the suites the Hype Suites. The bullshit flys right and left. And there is a lot of liquor around so you don't crack up in there faces. But I digress.
The first event of the day was the kenote speech from Peter Guber. Of course, since the event was held in the smallest theater at the Directors Guild of America building, so I couldn't get in. So back to the suites for some more Skyy vodka.
The first event I attended was the panel "Bringing Hollywood To The Web" which was held in the FutureBar of the Standard. There are no chairs, but mattresses laid out, so it looks like a love in. The room was hot and crowded. The panel was moderated by Eugene Hernandez from IndieWire and the panel included Frank Biondi Jr. (former head of Universal), Rick Hess (Propoganda Films), Kevin Wendle (IFilm), Todd Harris (Hitplay.com), David Wertheimer (Wirebreak.com), and Scott Sander (Sightsound.com ). Frank Biondi Jr. was the most polished and treated well by the other panelist. Of course, they have to be, his new company has $50 million dollars to invest in film sites. What I took away from this panel that the main problem with Hollywood is that instant worldwide distribution. While Hollywood sells films for each territory and country, a film on the internet can be accessed worldwide. One panelist said that in his company they have a development meeting at 10AM, come up with an idea and by 1PM the film is on the web. This explains why shorts and films on the web generally don't have strong stories. Kevin Wendle said that the real goal is to create a satisfying experience for the end user. I got the feeling that noone really knows what they are talking about.
I left early to see my first film "HOME PAGE", a documentary directed by Doug Block. Shot in Video, this film starts with Doug Block's obsession with people's home pages. After a few interviews, he is led to Justin Hall, a Web Ethics teaching aide at Swarthmore College who has a home page where he reveals everything about himself. Doug interviews Justin's friends, roommates and girlfriend. Justin embarks on a tour of America to promote the web, but cuts it short to take a job with the former editor-in-chief of HotWired, Howard Kheingold. Justin revists HotWired where he interned. Doug then focuses on an employee of HotWired whose wife had an online affair with another employee. The film was interesting and Justin is certainly a compelling subject. However, I was distracted by the shaky camera shots and the length of the documentary. It was in desperate need of editing. I thought it was interesting how the filmmaker put himself in his own documentary.
I then went to the shockwave.com and CrapTV.com happy hour feature Matt Stone. While a panel spoke the usual bullshit about the internet filmmaking, I drank some more and visited the Pop.com bungalow. Steven, Jeffery, Ron and Brian were not there.
WARNING SPOILERS BELOW!!!
Finally I went to the TIME CODE premiere by director Mike Figgis.
The film takes place in Los Angeles at a fictional studio/production company Red Mullet Films. We start with Alex's wife, Emma, talking with her psyochotherapist. We meet Rose (Salma Hayeck), an actress and her lesbian lover Lauren (Jeanne Tripplehorn). Rose has an audition. Lauren has flatten Rose's tire of her car to force her to ride in Lauren's limo. There relationship is on the rocks. Meanwhile, Alex, a alcoholic and drug addicted executive at the Red Mullet arrives late for a meeting. There is an earthquake. Emma calls Alex and informs him that she is leaving. At the meeting, another executive informs the director of the film that Rose is auditioning that it must be cast in 2 days. Lauren secretly plants a listening device in Rose's purse. When they arrive at Red Mullet, the limo parks outside the building and Lauren listens to her girlfriends every word. Rose meets with Alex, but not for an audition. Rose is having an affair with Alex and they make love in the screening room while the rest of the company is screening dailies. Lauren listens. After the dailies end, Lauren hears Alex and Rose make love. Rose was sleeping with him to get an audition, but Alex doesn't deliver. The executives gather to hear a pitch from Anna Powell and Joey Zee. The pitch is for a movie very similar to the one were watching. Alex finally joins the meeting. Aftershock. Anna continues to pitch to the stunned silence of the movie execs. Emma has a fling with an actress that was also auditioning. Meanwhile, Rose has bumped into the director who instantly decides to read her. He loves her. Rose goes out to the limo with the great news and Lauren reveals that she has planted the listening device and she knows about Alex. Lauren walks into the Red Mullet and finds Alex. She pulls a gun and Rose tries to intevene. All the executives leave. She shoots Alex which is filmed by Anna. Emma calls Alex who, in his last breath, tells her she loves him. Lauren escapes and the stunned executives console each other.
If the story seems to ramble, it is because it told on a grid of four movies running at the same time. The films run simultaneously and the sound comes up are goes down as the director wants you to focus on characters. It is like watching Eating Raoul on four screens from the viewpoints of different people. A person in screen 1 may call another character's cell phone in screen 3. The earthquakes happen on all four screens at the same time. There are no edits. It was a little hard at first to get the story and follow the narrative, but once you get used to it, it becomes easy. I felt that the ending was a little contrived. The executives leave the room as a group, literally. No one calls the police and the security guard seems to only comfort the execs. Of course, Anna filming the murder seems odd. This is not for a mainstream audience, but a wonderful experiment. The title refers to the timecode on the digital video cameras that were used.
I talked to Mike Figgis afterward. All the cast and crew had digital watches that were synced and it was filmed straight through for sixteen days. They rehearsed the camera movements so when characters passed each other, you didn't see the cameras.
The after party was very light on the food. However, there was a second premiere party in the penthouse of the Hyatt that rocked.
Well it is time to go to day two. Chrissypoo
