The 2010 San Diego Film Festival

This past weekend, I attended the San Diego Film Festival.  This is a great festival to attend; great films and documentaries, fun parties and no attitude.

Unfortunately, halfway through, I got sick and spent the rest of the weekend on the couch.

But, I wanted to give you a run down of the films and docs I did see:

Films

Morning: The story of a couple dealing in the aftermath of the death of their son was the opening night film.  Written, directed and starring Leland Orser, the film shows how 2 people deal with death. It’s at times funny, sad, horrifying and uplifting. It also stars Jeanne Tripplehorn, Laura Linney, Elliott Gould, Jason Ritter and Kyle Chandler.

A Little Help: Produced by my friend Joe Gressis, this won the Best Feature Award at the festival. Directed by Michael Weithorn and starring Jenna Fischer and Chris O’Donnell, it tells the story of a woman who gets caught up in a series of lies in order to take care of herself and her 12-year-old son.

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Independent Producer/Director Zak Forsman’s advice to actors

This post is one of three in a series of posts from the San Diego Film Festival. If you ever get a chance you really should go. Great films, great people and incredible access to filmmakers.

The festival is in — and I would have posted these sooner but I had some major audio issues and transcribing the panels were difficult.

Zak Forsman is a writer, director and producer of independent films. His films are mostly improvised which makes all of the performances look completely real.

Take a couple minutes to read what he said on the panel. It’s a peek on what the other side is thinking… and if you look at it from an actors perspective, it can be excellent advice.

Zak Forsman:
How many filmmakers are in the audience?  Because that’s about all I can share.  I can’t really share the actor’s point of view on this.  But I can tell you some lessons I’ve learned and some of the experiences that I’ve had and what I’m hoping for.

The key thing that I’m looking for with an actor is whether they’re able to internalize direction and actually make a change.

So, we provide them with 2-3 pages of sides.  They’ll come in.  They’re asked to read it however they’ve prepared it, and if that goes well enough and we like them, I’ll give them an adjustment that could be ridiculous.  It could be off the wall.  But I would like to see them chase a different objective using the same words to see if they can truly internalize my direction and be authentic.

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