2 posts tagged “edinburgh”
...which clearly makes this a good time to talk about Edinburgh.
I think the highlight was a superb off the record talk from the Film Council's distribution & exhibition man, who was setting out a strong manifesto for the traditional film funding and distribution model to be scrapped. over 50% of the films released in a year never make it past 7 screens, and so I can buy his point that if you're not a blockbuster, the traditional "windows" of cinema->dvd rental->dvd purchase->pay per view->pay tv->terresterial don't make sense. To be fair to the studios, the length of these windows has been compressing markedly in the last few years. He pointed to a couple of examples where film-makers had funded films via pre-sales of DVDs direct to consumers, and other interesting things like collating data of where people want to see your film, and then arranging the cinema showing. I really enjoyed the Film Festival where I think I could spend all my time for 2 weeks given the chance.
Comedy was so so, I'm not as negative about comedy as Chris, but I think I'm getting a bit jaded. I like the compliation type affairs, with a few acts in one night - I did two of those, and it's interesting how much of a difference the MC makes. The first one had a really agressive guy, straight away picking on the audience, which I think made us more wary of participating with the actual acts... The second was Ed "Carphone Warehouse" Byrne, who immediately got the audience on side by shooting down the twatty heckler in the red wig. He really was a twat. (If you know any tall people who were in Edinburgh for the fringe who like wearing red wigs while being twats, then can you please through your next drink over them for us). Being a paid up geek, Jarred Christmas's geek show was quite good, and the first time I've been given weaponry to use against a performer in a show.
However, the lasting memory of Edinburgh this year was my first visit following the smoking ban, and I have to say that rocked. I could re-wear clothing without it reeking of smoke. I'm sure I'm getting health benefits as well, but the main thing I noticed was just being able to get home and not smell.
Anyway, until next year...
Like every smug London centric media type is want to do, I'm in
Edinburgh. At least I'm Scottish so I suppose I'm allowed to not feel
too bad.
This year I'm quite disorganised in comparison to last year, when i had a week full of bookings, and just dropped the things I didn't fancy. I've got about 6 things booked for the film festival, and beyond that I don't know.
It's nice being away from work anyway. Alas, the weather not quite so blue-skyed today.
Anyway,
tata
