A Practical Guide to Cannes - Convincing my partner
Tuesday, May 12th, 2009I had made the decision to go to the Cannes Film Festival then and there, in Sh_’s living room.
The only hurdle now was to convince my filmmaking partner P_ that he should be going too. This was not going to be easy.
I had already noticed P_’s penny-pinching ways. Even in our first meeting he had not purchased himself a coffee, asking instead for tap water at the café where we met. I had wondered then what would happen if I didn’t buy anything either. My guess was that he would still refuse to buy anything at the café, despite using their chair, tables and waitstaff’s time.
In the ensuing weeks I would test this theory to come to a singular conclusion. P_ would indeed refuse to buy anything, leaving the onus upon me to pay for something so we didn’t get moved along by an angry proprietor.
Another P_ ‘party trick’ was to load up on his favourite “goon wine” (the cheapest cask wine he could find) and get drunk on the cask wine before going out. A true “Cadbury” man, it didn’t take much to get P_ drunk. A glass and a half of alcohol was sufficient to change his behaviour completely. Whilst P_ would normally keep his high opinion of himself in check, after a whiff of alcohol, his lofty self-sentiments came thick and fast. Self-serving comments and then insults would soon follow. The annoying thing with P_ was that if you made a rejoinder, his uncanny memory and shameless ersatz behaviour would mean the rejoinder would be used against you the next time, or he would copy your wisecrack word-for-word and claim it as his own.
Sh_, whom P_ had submitted parts of our script complained P_ had stolen his lines that Sh_ himself had used in his pick-up forays.
I knew I had my work cut out for me trying to convince P_ of parting with $3000 for what may well have been a fruitless trip.
Fortunately, for all Sh_’s snarky comments, he was at least consistent with his own argument that we should be in Cannes. Although Sh_ did not volunteer any arguments that would encourage P_ to make the trip to Cannes, I was easily able to force agreement from Sh_.
Y: P_, what’s $3000 compared to getting our film financed. If we want our film financed we have to go to an international market like Cannes. Isn’t that right Sh_?
Sh_ (reluctantly): Oh….. Yes.
I could see Sh_ was bewildered by my audacity. In his mind he was asking himself the question: “Is Y_ really going to fly out to Cannes after it’s already started?”
After nearly four hours of continuous, but never angry debate, P_ finally agreed that he needed to go too.
There was one check I myself had to make before I felt 100% confident myself. I needed to make a phone call to an upcoming producer, H_, who had a year earlier approached me to make a screenplay I had shown her into a feature film.
She had already some success at Cannes, but only at the short film level. A film she produced had been submitted into the Uncertain Regard section of the short film competition – still a major accomplishment considering the hundreds of entries they receive.
What was unusual about this request was that it came some six months after I had initially approached her with the script. Belatedly she called me telling me I had a “unique voice”. I was skeptical of her change of heart, noting it had come just two weeks before a deadline for original screenplays from emerging filmmakers.
I hesitated before making the call. Although we had not had crossed words, I was disappointed by her earlier vacillation on my script.
Still, it was no time to let the past concern me. I had to make an important decision on whether to spend $3000 on plane tickets and expenses flying to a place I had never been before. I also had the added responsibility of my partner’s $3000 investment, as well as our combined time.
In the end, the decision was easy. It was only one phone call.
To be continued…
