JESS: actually to be precise Beadie the producer, Maxyne Franklin from Channel 4 and I are leaving Monday. We decided to roll the whole Sundance experience into the 'lets drive around the US in a convertible' experience so we are flying to San Francisco and saving the airfare to Utah by driving to Park City in a, you guessed it, big fat American convertible.

This week I've been investigating very warm socks as Sundance which is always pretty damn cold, being a ski resort and everything, is particualrly cold and snowy right now. I have spread my bets on the sock front - one pair of red ski sox, one pair of very expensive hiking socks which sound a bit too good (level 3 unique heating retention system?) and two pairs of boot liners. The producer and director haven't bought any socks yet because they have been wasting their time trying to finish the film. The post production schedule got crushed once we got accepted in November. Ideally we would have finished all the post in December but come the 8th of Jan (with our first screening on the 22nd) we were still in the offline arguing the merits of different ways to structure the second half. Eek.

The great thing about being an exec is that you still get to go sock shopping even when the deadline is screaming down on you

24 hours ago there was no film. I was weeping and Rupert was roaring because at the very final post production hurdle, the transfer to create the Sundance master had resulted in some curious comedy side effects. Due to a shift in frame rate, we now had a film that had stretched by three and a half minutes and a sound track that had drooped in pitch by 4%. Not good. In fact not watchable. So after a fairly frantic Thursday afternoon the problems were fixed (I haven't even asked what the bill will be, this is so beyond money) and this morning I had in my hands the final finished Sundance cut of Unknown White Male. The tape is as we speak, about to go to snowy Utah wrapped in a love nest of bubble wrap and I am going to lie down on the office floor on a sea of our beautiful film posters. And sleep.

Okay its a bit confusing cos lots of different people are coming to Sundance so here's a quick run down on the plan

1ST WAVE

Beadie (the producer), me and Maxyne (from Channel 4). Traveling by car from San Francisco. We have just been informed that trying to drive a convertible to Park City is really really stupid as it will get stuck on the snowy mountain roads (assuming we don't overheat in the desert) and we will have to get airlifted out. Hurray. What started out as a casual road trip has just become an ultimate sports challenge! And we'll be blogging the whole way.

2ND 3RD and 4TH WAVES

Rupert Murray the director is flying straight in on the 22nd, Shamir from Shooting People the 23rd and Shooter co-founder Cath is bringing up the rear arriving the 24th. She is our cheerleader. She is going to walk up and down the high street with a big sandwich board carrying the film poster on it - putting her years selling discount golf equipment to good use. And I'm not dead sure which day Katie Speight from Channel 4 is joining us but the last spot in our Condo's hot tub is reserved for her.

So once we have joined forces the idea is to take the place by storm, meet everybody, talk up the film, stalk the journos, meet the distributors and try - with the help of our fab NY sales agent Josh Braun from Submarine NY publicist John Murphy - to get a deal which will put the film in US cinemas and set us up nicely for taking the film to the Berlinale film market next month.

The crux of our campaign is our very nice badges. I loved those Corporation badges that Tom from Metrodome did - but you know I think I love ours even more. We have 1000 of them in the suitcase and we don't intend to bring any home. The posters are also really really beautiful - design work all done by the very talented guys on Tony's team at SPIN in Brixton. Thanks to him for doing us really proud. I'm not sure if I'm joking about the sandwich board - it would be the best looking sandwich board ever and people might give us spare change too.

Okay it's 1am and I need to pack my warm socks and meet the other road-trippers at Heathrow at 9am.

JESS: Beadie turned up at Heathrow carrying our first Sundance freebie - a huge Salomon coat (thanks Salomon) which she is lending to me to surviving the arctic Sundance conditions.

Here's a picture of me being zipped into it by Maxyne in the departure lounge - mmm toasty.



So after we flew (don'tcha love Virgin Atlantic?) we picked up our car (more on that from Beadie) and and are now holed up in our nice hostel doing emails. Lots of American TV channels including HBO are keen to view the film - lots of English and US distributors too including Miramax which is very encouraging but of course no one except us and our sales agent has seen the film yet so all that promise could turn to nothing. The trick seems to be to create a word of mouth buzz around the film - which I guess has to start before people see the film or we'll just have an empty cinema and a bucket of broken dreams..





Beadie bagged a top bunk.

BEADIE: 10 hours of small children kicking me in the back. Jess and Maxine snoring on either side. nice. You have gotta love long haul. Well we finally arrive and San Francisco looks verrry pretty in hazy winter sunshine. The man at the Alamo counter thought we were bonkers to be attempting the drive to Utah under current climate conditions in a convertible. I thought it was all hysteria and then news just came of an avalanche in Park City...



Eeek.
But just look at the car, I mean would you trade it in for some prissy safety first SUV?? I think not. So sorry mother, we are going for it.



Anyway having negotiated out of the airport we headed straight to the Golden Gate Bridge before the sun went down and then checked into our dorm. I am now greeted by a nightly storm of Sundance emails. Several from my very lovely 'Guest Services Coordinator' Pablo who issues mind boggling lists of instructions about what to do and where to go on which days at the Festival. Then there are half a dozen party invites for morning, noon and night which imply February is detox month. Then there are the requests for spare tickets and 'screeners' (that would be preview tapes) from distributors and film companies from the US and now Europe, all trying to get in to see your film first. It's impossible to tell how serious these guys are or if they play the same game with everyone. I am hoping to have a debrief with our Sales Agent Josh Braun in the next couple of days so we can go through all the interested players and work out the strategy.






.

Good morning Britain!

We're up and about - at the first sign of sunlight at about 8.30am we whipped the top off the convertible for those all important shots of us cruising around playing the Clash and waving our £1.99 plastic British flag.



We had breakfast with Malcolm who lives in SF but is subscribed to UK Shooters : He has just produced a great called Following Sean which is at Rotterdam festival about a week after Sundance. He was very nice and knows some people who will be at Sundance who might be able to help with the film that he is going to call for us.




Here's a picture of Malcolm and Beadie happily trading Hi Def experiences.



Malcolm very sweetly showed us around the cliffs and took us to the beach - and took a photo of us being total tourists at dead man's point..




Big thanks to Simon Cameron for his contribution yesterday to the diary - suggesting we keep the convertible and keep going, around the world in fact. Nice. Check it out in the comments under Beadie's last entry below.




And all Shooters coming to Sundance - email us if you are going to be there (sundance@shootingpeople.org) whether you are going with a film or just going down there to see what's happening. And STAND BY for the announcement of the Shooters house party. Our condo is your condo.

And now we're off, heading through Yosemite - expect some very pretty pictures tomorrow.

JESS: Driving from San Fransisco to Yosemite national park takes about 4 hours. You go through a few hours of flat flat grass lands and then the foothills start as little bumps and curves before the really big mountains loom up. One really werid thing - it was misty almost immediately we left San Fran and kept it up for hours getting more and more foggy as we hit the foothill so I thought we would arrive at Yosemite not being able to see our hands in front of our faces. We had to slow right down, every car had their head lights on and then suddenly, but really just like flicking a switch, we were out of it and it was a beautifully clear sunset. We climbed up and round the next hill and then suddenly has a view back on where we had come - the sun going down over a valley of fog as far as the eye could see. Took some pictures which never do landscapes justice, but they give you some idea.






















As soon as we turned into the national park there was snow in the headlights. Maxyne slammed the breaks on and Beadie and I tumbled out in our T-shirts for the first snowball fight of the trip (I think I won) and then dashed back into the car. About 15 miles inside the park we checked into the lodge in the dark. You have to sign to say you know the rules about the bears - you can't leave any food or any rubbish in your car - and they show a great video in reception of bears tearing cars apart for a mars bar. Apparently they are so good at breaking into cars they don't bother to hibernate anymore. They should try Hackney - more cars and it's a lot warmer.



i love my white wellies

Woke up this morning and we can see the landscape - it's what the Americans call awesome and for once they are right. We are surrounded by high rock faces dappled with snow and cut by waterfalls - ah.





There is no mobile reception here but for some reason internet connection THANK GOD. The plan now is to drive east right the way through the park and out the other side and head for Reno. The big question is will that road be open today or will we have to detour back round to the west.

Cath helpfully forwarded this to us:
YOSEMITE Road status: 18 Jan 2005
Snow on roads.
Call 209/372-0200 for most up-to-date conditions
Carry tire chains in your car and be prepared to use them (even if you have
four-wheel drive): chains may become mandatory at any time.

BEAD: So more hustling emails this morning begging tickets. I went online to the Sundance site to check out the situation and found we have sold out for every screening - even our first iffy Salt Lake screening at 10.45pm. All gone! Did an impromptu excited jig round round the room.
Other news - the Oprah Winfrey show called wanting to find out about the film. How bonkers is that.....

Meanwhile I am still waking up at 2.00am. Finally went to get tea for everyone at 7.00pm for fear of dying of boredem. Decided to try out the fantastic Salomon jacket wearing only my pj's in the early morning sub freezing conditions here in the Valley. It worked! Got the tea, the man in the cafe didn't suspect a thing and I was warm as toast. No pictures I am afraid of this event. Too shy.





So now we head north towards Nevada and Reno. The cunning plan is to go gambling and re-coup everything that Rupert and I have staked on this film. That would be more funny if it wasn't quite so serious. For here are the facts in black in white: Channel 4 gave us £180k to make this film. But shooting on HD and 16mm, factoring in the numerous foreign filming locations, a very long filming schedule, archive costs - we have ended up spending an awful lot more. A lot of that is on the plastic fantastic. Much more has been deferred. We owe so much to a handful of key people who have worked long and hard on the film over the last six months, for nothing. I know this is meant to be the very essence true spirit of indie film making. But we have bills to pay, and we can't do this for much longer, let alone expect other people to. Anyway these are some of the things that I think about between 2.00am and dawn. Wish me luck on the black jack table.

Check this out - email just in from Josh our sales agent:

Latest is that today's Variety article identified four titles (with accompanying
pictures) as the "hot" docs - "Unknown White Male", "New York Doll", "Education
of Shelby Knox" and "Why We Fight"....this is good and bad - good for obvious
reasons but bad because too much hype might lead to unrealistic
expectations....anyway a high class problem.

I jumped around some more...

So you must be wondering 'what are they playing in the car?' Good question! We are a 2 ipod car, bristling with poddie accessories - we got ipod socks in different colours, we got the charger that goes in the lighter socket, the cassette tape with a wire, the radio transmitter thing, the cable that plugs you into a stereo. And we have a little case to zip them all into.



We are really prepared on the music front


Jess's Sundance road trip playlist:

Should I Stay Or Should I Go? - The Clash
Jeepster - Mark Bolan
Dancing in the Dark - Bruce
Dancing With Myself - Generation X
Boys Don't Cry - Cure
Absolute Beginners - David Bowie
Oliver's Army - Elvis Costello
For Those About to Rock - ACDC
Golden Year - Bowie again
Theme from Grease
ABC - Jackson 5
But I Feel Good - Groove Armada
Are You Going To Be My Girl - JET
All Day And All of The Night - Kinks
Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
Don't Believe the Hype - Public Enemy
19th Nervous Breakdown - Rolling Stones
I Can See Clearly Now - Johnny Cash

Beadie's roadtrip playlist:

Dreadlock Holiday - 10cc
California Girls - Beach Boys
Jive Talkin' - Bee Gees
I Know but I don't Know - Blondie
The Lady is a Tramp - Buddy Greco
Road Rage - Catatonia
Dreaming of You - The Coral
Runaround Sue - Dion & The Belmonts
Been Down So Long - The Doors
Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps - Doris Day
All Shook Up - Elvis
Yeh Yeh - George Fame
Beware of all the rude boys - Henry Buckley
The Passenger - Lou Reed
I Idolize You - Ike & Tina Turner
I want you back - The Jackson 5
Me & Bobby McGee - Janis Joplin
Personal Jesus - Johnny Cash
California - Joni Mitchell
She will be loved - Maroon 5
Lithium - Nirvana
Pretty In Pink - The Only Ones
Fifty Ways - Paul Simon
Raspberry Beret - Prince
King Of The Road - Roger Miller
Not Fade Away - Rolling Stones
Oh Pretty Woman - Roy Orbison
Young - Ryan Adams
Everyday is a winding road - Sheryl Crow
Master Blaster - Stevie Wonder
Could well be in - The Streets
Free Fallin' - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
Boulevard of Broken Dreams - Tony Bennett
My Generation - The Who

The house party play list is to follow…

Bead says:
Okay so the pass was closed so we had to treck back east and round Yosemite. Picture this: we are sitting up on back of an open top car. There is a brilliant blue sky and sunlight pouring over the stark rock faces of one of the finest valleys in Gods creation. We are wrapped up in puffas, scarfs, woolly hats. There is great music pouring out of the stereo. This is a moment I will treasure forever. We wrench ourselves from the park at midday and Max does an outstanding stint at the wheel, covering a ballsy six hour ride over the border into Nevada. I notice the snow is banked up a metre on each side of the road and we are not even at the high points. Humm. I think we should get snow chains (okay mother).





En route I speak to Josh (sales agent). We discuss the Variety article. It' s big but Josh isn't all pleased. He wanted to control the hype over the film, preferring to generate a slow burn at the festival but now we are so out of the bag. Everyone will have read the article. Everyone will have huge expectations. But for the publicist (Jessica) this is all good news and makes her job a whole lot easier. It's a funny business.

Meanwhile Jess and I pass the time battling out on the ipods. Bonus points are judged on how happy our driver is. It's a subtle thing, judged on finger taps and spontaneous bursts of song. This road is very dull but the time passes. The music rocks. We are very pleased with ourselves. This is road tripping proper. We pledge to do this again soon. Perhaps for Rio?

Max says:
Finally found a place we can smoke at the bar in America so now seemed like a good time to write my first blog! Having started the day with the FANTASTIC news about Variety and a hearty breakfast








we've found ourselves in the bright lights big city of Reno via an icy swim in the Mercer river which saw Beadi our beloved producer swimming across the lake in her pants, top respect, I managed about 3 strokes and came out screaming but it gave me the brain shock to figure out we should be wearing doctors white coats as we give people their Unknown White Male hospital wristbands when they come see the film in Sundance. Slot machines call… have to pay for this trip somehow.

We've had a few cheap drinks in the casino we are staying in and the digital camera has broken so you can't meet our new casino friends.

here is the last picture taken by the digi (RIP) it's the carpet in our room - speaks volumes.
Tomorrow's first priority - buy a new camera!

Or How I Got To Wear Albert Maysles Glasses And How You Can Too:

I met Albert Maysles at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam or IDFA in November. The god-daddy of American documentary (Salesman, Grey Gardens, Gimme Shelter) - was at the pitching forum looking for funding for his latest project and when it was his turn at the table I was the moderator whose job it is to try to squeeze a commitment out of those commitment-phobic commissioning editors (takes one to know one).

Albert has such a nice way about him. For those that haven't seen him, he's a little guy with soft white hair and trademark black frame glasses. Anyway he was sauntering around waving and smiling at everyone, making everyone sigh, taking little snoozes at the forum but always waking up with a smile on his face and encouraging word for the young filmmakers in particular.

Anyway so he's pitching his project, which is a personal film about career and his philosophy as a filmmaker. He has a promo reel, which is fascinating not least because you get to see Albert at different stages in his life. He changes quite a bit but the glasses don't. He finishes and it's a piece of cake to get him the money because the commissioners are queuing up to give him the big love. I'm sad I'm leaving Channel 4 and won't be able to join the commissioning party on this one but I do offer to put in a very good word to Peter Dale the Documentaries boss if Albert tells me where he gets those glasses. He quips right back that if I do that, I can have his spare pair.

Two weeks later I get an email from his office - Albert has located his spare pair and what's my address. I panic. I didn't think he really, really meant it and I want them really badly but I can hear my mother's voice in my ear telling me that it's too generous and I should tell the nice gentleman to keep his glasses. I email back but Al is quite sure and I get sent them.


I can see clearly now!

And we have them with us on this road trip and are collecting portraits of people seeing the world through Albert Maysles eyes - meet Gary who brought us our breakfast at the Circus Circus Casino. And here is one we took back in San Fran of lovely Malcolm.

JESS: So you want the good news first or the bad news?

Well the bad news is that we got a phone call this morning from the major european sales agent we wanted to help us do european sales at Berlin, to say they have passed - they just didn't think the film had enough potential.

The good news is that the Evening Standard Sundance coverage has placed our film at Number 2 in terms of hot tips - that's across all films and one place above Steve Buscemi's film!!!

So it's time for us to leave Reno - the weather looks v bad - so first stop is to get those snow chains that the nice man at the rental place said we weren't allowed to use on their cars. Safety First!

I leave you with a picture of Beadie and Max comparing their bruises - they are playing a car game which involves trying to dead-leg each other alot. Well, it can get kinda dull on route 80.