Lone Star International Film Festival - Day 4 “Page 17″
by Pete Wann
Saturday was the biggest day by far of the entire festival. This was the day that the big names were scheduled to be on panels discussing their craft, and that the who’s who of the festival would be in attendance. As it turns out, MOST of the big names made it to their panels.
Jeff Tremaine and Rick Kosick at the “Jackass” panel discussion.
After our interview, Jay Chandrasekhar and Paul Soter had just enough time to have lunch at 8.0 and to beat feet down to UTA for their panel, “Directing My First Feature.” Jay was the moderator, and Paul Soter, Jason Sinclair Long, D/FW filmmaker Blake Calhoun, and Fred Durst were scheduled to attend. Fred Durst didn’t make it, and no one is really sure where he was.
Blake Calhoun brought a local perspective to the “Directing My First Feature” panel discussion.
Jay Chandrashekar moderates the “Directing My First Feature” panel discussion.
Following the Director’s Panel was another on the art and future of the Jackass series of films. I wasn’t so interested in this one, but PeteG is a fan of those guys from way back when they were doing Big Brother skateboarding magazine, so he attended the panel. These two panels were the best attended of all, since they had the highest star wattage in attendance, even without Fred Durst.
Jeff Tremaine at the “Jackass” panel discussion.
After the panels, PeteG and I went back downtown to kill some time until the shorts series that included both Andrew Disney’s and David Newsom’s shorts. All of the short films were very good, I thought, and David’s in particular could easily be made into a feature, which is his plan.
While we were killing time at the Saucer (I’ve spent more time there in the past 5 days than the past 5 months), Pete and I got into a discussion with Jason Sinclair Long about filmmaking and screenplay writing. We learned just enough to get the moviemaking bug, so who knows, maybe you’ll see a short film from the West and Clear guys someday.
Jason Sinclair Long discusses screenwriting/storytelling techniques that can make a first film affordable at the “Directing My First Feature” panel discussion. Jason was a cool dude.
After the shorts, Jenna (who had come downtown to go to the movies with me) and I hurried to get into “Watching the Detectives,” Paul Soter’s directorial debut, starring Lucy Liu and Cillian Murphy. We both really enjoyed it! It’s sort of your classic “guy meets weird girl and is forced to choose between his comfortable life or one of adventure” story. Of course all of the performers were excellent, and Paul wrote a really great script for them.
Last but not least, by far, was Saturday Night’s party at Club Embargo. Johnny Reno’s band The Rumblers (with special guest Robert Rodriguez on guitar) played an amazing set, and were joined for a few numbers by T Bone Burnett and Harry Dean Stanton. As much as I hate Embargo, it was an awesome venue for this concert. At midnight the place pretty much cleared out so that folks could pile into minibuses for the trip out to the Rave at Ridgmar Mall to see Robert Rodriguez’s 1994 film “Road Racers.”
Jenna and I decided that we were too bushed to sit through another feature length movie, so we called it a night and headed home.
Saturday was definitely the “money day” for the festival. Most of the big name stars (except for Martin Sheen) were in town by now. Some of them, including the Broken Lizard guys, were just walking around on their own in the perfect weather taking in the sights and talking to people.
Tags: Blake Calhoun, Fred Durst, Jason Sinclair Long, jay chandrasekhar, Jeff Tremaine, LSIFF, paul soter, Rick Kosick
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