Tribeca 2011 Daily Recap: April 27th

Because I was running late today, I unfortunately had to skip my customary breakfast ice cream. Instead today started right up with an early screening of GRAVE ENCOUNTERS by The Vicious Brothers. I was thoroughly surprised by this very fun flick. While I love the found footage genre, I much prefer TV shows like GHOST HUNTERS to found footage ghost (or demon) films like PARANORMAL ACTIVITY. While there really isn’t anything original in GRAVE ENCOUNTERS, the execution really makes it worthwhile.

Following the screening, I made my way to the Doha Film Institute Filmmaker Lounge for an interview with Rider and Shiloh Strong. I was really looking forward to the interview, not just because I grew up watching BOY MEETS WORLD religiously but also because I truly loved their short, THE DUNGEON MASTER. In fact, in the 30+ minutes that we spoke, we never talked about any of their previous work except for their first short film, IRISH TWINS. (We didn’t even talk CABIN FEVER despite it being one of my favorite horror films)

It was an honor getting to speak with the brothers Strong and I want to thank them for being so gracious with their time. They were also kind enough to sign some Tribeca Film festival programs for us to give away. I’ve already posted a contest for it HERE so be sure to check it out.

Since the interview lasted longer than I thought it would, which is always cool, I missed the press screening for THE GUARD. Ironically, after the interview I ended up having a nice conversation with THE SECURUTY GUARD of the filmmaker lounge. After that, I made my way to the SVA Theater for the Tribeca Talks panel, THE BUSINESS OF ENTERTAINMENT.

It was an interesting panel but I expected something quite different. It was billed in the guide as a panel with a “focus on financing films in the 21st century.” I expected them to talk about modern film funding techniques like crowdfunding and what low-budget filmmakers struggling to raise money should do. Instead they talked mostly about VOD, how easy it is to get distribution nowadays because of the digital revolution and how that’s making it easier to get funding as well. As a no-budget indie filmmaker, I can say neither of those statements are true for filmmakers at my level. If you would like to see the panel yourself, it is available in the online screening room.

After the panel, I spent a few minutes in the press lounge before finally heading home. I will work on getting some more reviews up tomorrow, as well as at least one of the interview videos. I will also be sending in some questions to Dick Maas, the writer/director of SAINT, so if there is anything you want me to ask him, let me know. You can read my review for SAINT right HERE.

Jerry Cavallaro  – www.StuckLikeChuck.com