So I experienced my first (virtual) film festival last week. If you want to know how I felt about it, please refer to the title of this post.
The timing of said festival played a large part in this somewhat impulsive trip to L.A. It was not, as I previously wrote about, the only reason we came out here, nor was it even the main reason. But it was a major part of the calculus, and now that it’s over, I don’t mind confessing to a certain amount of disappointment.
The first disappointment was the “virtual” part. At the time that we were planning this trip, it was still undecided whether the festival would be in-person, virtual or some combination of the two. By the time that our flights and accommodations were booked, it had already been announced that the festival would be all virtual. That seemed like not great news, but workable. My feeling was that if I could make a good connection virtually, I could at least follow it up with, “Well, as it happens, I’m actually in L.A. until next month. I’d love to get together so we could …”
Alas, those connections were not to be made, which was the main disappointment here. (My script also did not win in its category, but that was a much smaller disappointment — my goal was networking, not having another laurel to post on my social media feed.) I took advantage of every opportunity I could to talk to folks, including speed networking and sitting down at virtual “tables,” but mostly I was just chatting with other writers and content creators who are in the same boat as I am. These conversations weren’t bad, mind you; some were downright pleasant. And, yes, I know, I know. You never know who you’re gonna meet or where a conversation might lead or blah, blah, blah. But the fact is, I know plenty of artists. I don’t need to expand that part of my Rolodex. It’s industry people I need to meet.
What was I expecting from this festival? Realistically, not much. After 18 years in the New York theater scene, I’ve come to accept that most events being peddled as “great opportunities” turn out to be much ado about nothing. But that doesn’t mean I wasn’t hopeful that some concrete connections might have been made. It doesn’t mean I can’t feel disappointed that — for me — the event was a bit of a bust.
So what now? Well, the good news is that this experience hasn’t sent me backward — it just didn’t propel me forward. So I’m no worse off now than I was before. (And a trip to the beach this past weekend has already done much to restore my good humor.) I have a few strategies for making connections that I’ll continue to pursue while I’m here, and they’ll either pay off or they won’t. If the former, great! If the latter … well, either way I’m heading back to Knoxville in a few weeks with summer classes to teach, a musical to direct and nothing to prevent me from continuing to write and continuing to put myself — and my work — out into the universe. There are worse things.
Geoffrey Scheer 