Day two, and the festival hit full stride with the first full day of of panels and screenings filling downtown Austin with crowds of people always on the move to something new, something better. A few highlights:
The Directing the Dead panel, which included Ti West, Matt Reeves Conference rooms 18 A, B, C are combined into one today, with fans packing in to see Ti West, Robert Rodriguez, Matt Reeves, Ruben Fleischer, Neil Marshall. Scott Weinberg moderated, and offers topics for discussion such as battles with the MPAA, nudity, the prevalence of remakes, and the spirit of mentorship in the horror genre. We livetweeted the event here, but here are a few points that stood out:
Seems like the trick to get past cuts and harsher ratings when there’s a lot of blood: all 3 filmmakers darken the blood in the MPAA review print
Rodriguez mentioned a masters of horror dinner that John Landis and Guillermo del Toro host every few months where they invite genre directors to join them, eat dinner and discuss their craft. What we want to know: how do we get invited to this dinner, and are the menus horror-themed?
Scott Weinberg theorized that the mentorship so common amongst horror directors is due to the fact that horror directors are, first and foremost, horror fans, and they want to see the completed films of other directors, so they help them. That strikes me as quite true, especially given the discussions I’ve seen happening between filmmakers in panels and the hallways in between here at the convention center.
Ti West really stood out on this panel, with perspectives that seemed a little different than the others on the panel, One quote in particular stood out, as he was discussing the prevalence of remakes topic: “”The responsibility as a filmmaker to make the movie, beyond coolness. The audience’s responsibility: if you know a movie’s going to be stupid, DON’T go see them opening weekend!”
There was a small Kick-Ass press conference in the afternoon, which we also livetweeted. A few notes:
Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. do seem thrilled with the film and with how involved the filmmakers let them be; they had the chance to fight for things they believed in and filmmakers absolutely included and considered their ideas every step of the way.
Matthew Vaughn addressed the growing comments by concerned parents regarding the youth of Chloe Moretz and her inclusion with a film full of harsh language; first, he notes that haven’t seen the film yet, they should see if first. Also, he was intrigued that the concerns seemed to focus on the use of crude language, when her character is involved tremendous amounts of violence. He is always dedicated to creating a safe set, whether the actors are 8 or 50.
