AFM 2000 - Day 1

Back in 2000 I had co-written a screenplay for Jenni Gold called Ready, Willing & Able. When the low-budget film was completed we tried to sell it at the famed American Film Market, where distributors from across the world would come to see what was available for distribution in their areas and countries. I wrote a journal of the odd and memorable experience. Over the next four days, I'll share that journal.

*****

AFM – Day 1
2/22/00

Excerpts from Pete's personal journal.

Ten bucks, two carry-ons and an e-ticket were all I had as I entered the airport for my 8:17 p.m. flight en route to California. I had 13 dollars when I got there, but my wife took three of them in order to pay for the privilege to leave the Tampa International Airport parking garage. The ten left wasn't enough to survive the next three days in L.A., but was all I had, since I had remembered getting everything for this trip, except cash! I decided to see how long I could stretch out the 10 bucks before succumbing to an ATM and their exorbitant fees.

About three weeks ago, Jenni and Jeff called me and asked if I would be available to come out to L.A. in order to attend to the American Film Market (AFM) and meet with some potential foreign investors about some re-writes they wanted to make to Adrenaline. After securing some vacation time from work and some understanding from my wife, they booked me on a flight out there. This year the AFM runs from 2/23/00 to 3/1/00. Due to some family obligations, I could only make it Wednesday thru Friday, so, in order to maximize my time out there we agreed to give me the red-eyes to and from L.A.

So, Tuesday night at 8:17 p.m. I took flight 1249 to Chicago. I arrived at O'Hare airport with just enough time to board flight 127 out to L.A. The flight from Chicago to L.A. was mostly empty, which allowed me to take the entire row of seats and attempt to sleep while trying to ignore the metal seatbelts digging into my back. I arrived at LAX at about 12:30 a.m. PST, which was 3:30 a.m. my time. I was exhausted, yet excited to be there. I knew this trip would allow me to forget the daily grind I left back in Florida and play filmmaker for a couple of days. It's these little moments of indulgence of doing what I want to do (filmmaking) that allow me to do what I have to do (my real job) without going creatively postal.

Jenni and Jeff got there about 10 minutes after I arrived. I was surprised to find it rainy and cold. This was L.A. after all, where it never rains, supposedly. Unprepared and without a coat, I shivered until I spotted Jenni's van approaching. Jeff was exhausted from working the past 36 hours straight finalizing a post-production gig, so he hopped in back and attempted to snooze on the ½ hour trip back to their house. Jenni and I caught up on everything and set out our plan for the week.

The primary goal of the trip was to finalize, as much as possible, the foreign investor's concerns about script changes needed to Adrenaline. Their original notes wanted a past love interest added from one of the existing characters. After some thought and a re-read of the script, I believed that this change would actually benefit the script. Jenni was more skeptical. She kept asking me "well, if they don't end up funding the film, would you still keep the changes?" I kept saying "yes" because it added a sense of normality to the group of characters and gave a more satisfying conclusion to the story.

I could tell she wasn't completely convinced, however she trusted me and we talked about our secondary goal, getting RWA sold to foreign markets at the AFM. The AFM is basically a market of middlemen. U.S. based international distributors (i.e., Showcase, New Concorde, New Line, etc.) meet with foreign-based distributors (or buyers). These foreign distributors buy the rights to the U.S. films and then try to sell it to their markets (t.v., theatrical, etc.) in their territories. RWA had a screening scheduled for Thursday at around 1:00 p.m. so our goal was to get as many buyers as we could to attend the screening.

We got back to the house after 1:00 a.m. PST, but I was feeling the 4:00 a.m. EST in me screaming to get out. After a quick tour of the house, Jeff pulled out the sleeper in a small sofa located in their front room, which doubles as an editing suite. After unpacking, I collapsed onto the bed.

Remaining Cash: $10.00