I certainly hope that some of the fellow filmmakers are reading this blog (especially the guys I met this past weekend - HI THERE!!!) - because I'm on a ride home from one of the most amazing film networking events I've ever been to. Not that I've seen too many, but I certainly have attended quite a few.
Because it certainly has been the most productive experience yet. AND because I learned a ton about budgeting, planning, funding& financing, taxes, legal pitfalls and other cool things. Business things. Things you don't learn simply dreaming. Things that were taught by very experienced practitioners in film industry.
Being interested in film production as their stills photographer is one thing, but at this point I'm involved in a very exciting project as a (wow!) a real filmmaker! I'm thinking about budgets, locations, production, crew, cast, investors, distribution and the whole thing. The details are to be revealed a bit later *wink*, as this post is not about that..
What I want to say is that it seems almost worthless to me now to go out to a networking "party" or similar type of networking scene. I'm not saying we shouldn't do that, but it has just been so much more productive in terms of networking. At the "party" there is always more people than I can REALLY remember in such short period of time; I almost never know who exaxtly I'm approaching - actor? Producer? Investor? Or may be it's a completely unrelated contact who decided to crash the event and will add to the spam in my email folder?
At the conference scene you sit in the same classroom, share same questions and at the end of the day have a strong feeling about who you need to talk to, and it is possible to even set up a breakfast meeting the next day, because you both are energized by new information, and can't wait to share what you learned with others.
Whether it is section 181 or tax refunds, international co-producers or film packaging, festivals or distributors...
Information you learn makes you so much more valuable to your network, and chances are - you might be able to do someone a pretty big favor by sharing pieces of it here and there.
That said, here is this conference's website. Brian Coposky is the ONLY organizer of this past one - he's done the seemingly impossible - all by himself! I hope next time he'll have a team to help. Hear Brian? Ask me when you need help next time as well - I'm in, my friend. I'm always in to help with a "win-win".
They had it in New York this time, biggest chunks of it were absolutely FREE, I'm sure that won't repeat again, as the costs need to be covered in order to maintain the event on a semi-annual basis. The next one will be in September in LA, and hopefully they will do it in New York again next year.
Tips that I picked up even in simple corridor conversations are invaluable - you won't find that stuff anywhere.
This is why I want to go back to a real school - real lectures, real people, relationships, conversations and mutual interests - yeah! Co-creation. Last time I took a virtual course was exactly what it was - THE LAST time I did that :).
I hope this will inspire you to get out there and meet all these exciting people - I thing you can't find anything more valuable and interesting in life anyway
Have a fanta-graphic (fanta-graphistic?) day!~
Irina
PS: look out for the pictures from the conference
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