In attempt to get myself as much good press as humanly possible, I will be writing a little daily piece here telling my story, my failures and triumphs, and all the hell and happiness that is my experience with my film “Monday” in Park City this year. Already an outsider, being at Slamdance rather than Sundance, I figure what better way to really seal my outcast status by walking FilmThreat readers through all the mistakes I’m about to make while hiking up and down Main Street.
PARK CITY – January 22nd
Started the day off right yesterday by emailing 100s of press people all over the world with not only my press release, but also the piece I wrote yesterday for Film Threat.com. The latter was not only a complete mistake but made me feel so embarrassed that I had to tell everyone on Main Street what I’d done to see if there was an upside to this. People claimed there would be an upside, but I haven’t seen it yet, that’s for sure. Haven’t seen a downside yet either, so I’ll shut up.
I then proceeded to humiliate myself in front of Christine Vachon (Boys Don’t Cry, Far From Heaven), which others on Main Street also told me was not so bad, but after debating whether I should say anything to her, I bucked up and went to talk to her. (I think the line at the Egyptian watched me walk up and down a couple steps while I was debating. Ah how I love it when others witness my neurotic behavior.)
Christine was standing in front of the stairs up to Slamdance and I went up and told her something I can’t even remember hoping to have an actual conversation with her. Hoping to invite her to my screening, hoping to lay the groundwork so that someday I could maybe possibly have a shot at working on something with her – and her reaction was pretty much blank. I naively thought maybe she’d remember me from other times we’d met, or that my managers had sent her my stuff, or that I’d met her other times at Sundance years ago when my ex-boyfriend, Adam Ripp, produced a film called “Public Access” that won Sundance. But clearly nothing I was saying was ringing any bells so I just said “Ok, just wanted to meet you.” I think she said “OK” to me three times and that was it. I didn’t give her an invite, I didn’t tell her I had a film, I didn’t even ask her about her new film. Not a good idea for Heidi to cold-call walk up to people.
Can’t wait to see what other mistakes I make this week.
I had a good meeting about future work with a producer. I met a couple other producers who were all very responsive, most of whom I’d known from “Chi Girl”. I have yet to run into even 1 of the distributors that I’d contacted before I came up here. Hm, is this a good or bad sign? Not sure.
Our screenings are pretty much sold out at this point, which we’re very pleased about, and that is mostly thanks to Kurt Hahn and his friend John Artigo. I can’t be totally certain if they’re excited about the film, or if they’re just using it to meet cute girls. Probably a little of both. And I’ll take it. There are plenty of cute girls up here right now, and I’d love it if they were all at my screenings.
My lead actress Ele Keats, and my DP Alice Brooks, arrived last night and we managed to make it to the Method Fest party. Loud funny music, not much conversation. We did run into the infamous Chris Gore for less than 3 minutes, looking dapper but not offering to put us on camera any time soon. Another friend tried to get us into a second party down the street where we stood outside freezing and were reminded that we’re not only outsiders by being at Slamdance, but we’re also not celebrities with any real pull…anywhere. We were walking up to the illegal parking spot 10 minutes later and on our way home.
Saturday night seemed to be a mix of Salt Lake City frat boys yelling that they were going to get wasted and that they saw some celebrity in the cold that they probably hadn’t even really seen, along with people who were just trying to get from one party to the next without crying from the cold. Us.
My husband, Joe Kraemer, scored a film that is premiering at Sundance tonight called An Unreasonable Man, and sadly I don’t think I’ll be able to find tix for my whole crew or I’d take them. It’s supposed to be great, and I’m hoping other doc filmmakers will approach Joe when he arrives this week. Missing Joe terribly. When we had “Chi Girl” here he did all the work. Tirelessly handing out fliers on Main Street and talking to EVERYONE about the film. He ended up going to the hospital once in Park City and twice on the way home, from exhaustion. I can’t wait til he gets here so I can drive him to the hospital again.
I stood in line at the grocery store with the girls last night for close to an hour and all I could think was – I just want to sell my little movie and make another one. I just want to sell my little movie and make another – I just…yeah…
