In the end, my filmmaking partner P_ and I each made one phone call to producer’s we knew had traveled to Cannes.

The feedback from my former producer H_, a past attendee and award-winning short-film producer at Cannes, was that I definitely should go, although she was concerned that it was already too late, seeing as Cannes had started the day before.

I remember her specific advice was to wear comfortable shoes, as there was much walking to be done, and to hang around not at the Hotel Majestic, where people and film business conspicuously hung-out, but at the little hotel just behind it.  It was to smaller, more discrete retreats that true film biz heavyweights would congregate for an after-work tipple.

H_ also sighed that meetings took weeks in advance to set up, so there was little likelihood of getting a meeting at this late stage.  Nevertheless, H_ felt it was mandatory to attend Cannes, if only as a learning experience.  She said “In the first year you attend Cannes, you won’t do any deals, but you will learn a lot.  You have to have a first year sometime, so it may as well be now.”

That was enough for me.  All along P_ had stood beside me as I made the call.  After I filled him in on H_’s advice, it was his turn to call his contact.

Judging from P_’s responses as he spoke on the phone, it sounded like P_ had a very different relationship with his producer contact.  P_ was evidently in a much more junior position in the view of the person on the other end of the phone, and the advice sounded part sermon, part lecture, part scold.

Practical Tip:  For those who are new to “the Biz”, it is common to get this kind of condescending attitude.  You will note I never assumed P_ was an incapable producer – just an inexperienced one.  I was confident with my guidance, and our mutual eagerness to learn, that we could do a sufficient amount of the producing to get the film financed.  In retrospect I am sure I made the right decision.

Again, the contact advised P_ it was too late to attend Cannes seeing as it had already started.  Again, the contact affirmed that Cannes was a very important destination for filmmakers, however, the contact implied P_ was too junior to be attending such a lofty event as the Cannes Film Festival.

On the subject of meetings, yet again, the advice was that it was too late to book meetings.  That should have been done months ago.

On the basis of these two phone calls, and Sh_’s advice the night before, P_ and I decided to proceed with booking tickets to Cannes straight away.

To be continued…