Yeah, I could think of worse places to blog.

I have taken time off from WongDoody this week to work at the American Film Market, which is basically a huge trade show that rolls through Santa Monica every year at about this time. The Loews Hotel is all abuzz with businesspeople, buying and selling their films. Booths are set up everywhere advertising film services (mostly film bureaus from different states and countries luring filmmakers with tax incentives). The luxurious beach-view pool is inundated with serious men in ties and jeans and serious woman in boots and sunglasses making and breaking lots of money (though not quite as much as previous years). And the free trade magazines, oooh the free trade magazines!

Theaters surrounding the Loews have been transformed into non-stop screening venues and of course they need people like me to stand at the doors of said venues and scan badges permitting entry. It’s a smart system they have- everyone has badges indicating who they are, what company they are from and what they do and a barcode. I scan their badge on their way into the movie and later the exhibitor can look online to see who popped in to check out their movie and who among them might be serious about a deal.

No, it’s true, my job is not glamorous. I am posted at the Fairmont Hotel, which has a series of tiny basement conference rooms that have been set up as 30-person screening rooms for the smaller scale, lower budget films. There are no windows in our hallway, we work the longest hours (8am to 8pm) and see the least excitement since we are so comparatively far from the Loews. We can go down there on our lunch breaks to see the flurries of activity, but it’s a 20-minute walk each way, so we really only do that once or twice, emptying our bags before we go so we can fit more free trade magazines to take back with us. We are not allowed to watch the films, and it’s hard not to get a little stir-crazy sitting in that boxcar of a hallway, but we have a good time with it, mostly because the Fairmont crew of 8 (which includes Keegan Uhl, director of Napoleon) are all good, funny people who genuinely like each other.

This is my second year at the AFM, last year having been at the Fairmont as well and despite it’s drawbacks, if for some reason I find myself in a similar station in life this time next year, I will do the same again. Why? Something happens here. I don’t know if it’s the never-ending nature of the days, or maybe the close proximity to the beach, or the person after person marching past that represents a higher point in my career that I would like to reach, but I read and write SO much here. I write and read and write and write. I make more progress on a script here in a few days than I have in months. Creativity flourishes, new ideas emerge, and not just for film projects. I found myself writing a short story the other day that if I can do it correctly, could actually turn out pretty funny. All day long I sit in my seat, writing furiously in my notebook, or standing behind it reading books and practicing shimmies to stay awake, taking my lunch breaks outside on a bench that overlooks the ocean, checking the email on my phone constantly for new developments in the Love Story pre-production. I visualize myself prowling the screening room halls with a badge that says something other than “Theater Staff” and giant posters of my films gracing the Loews balconies. It’s only a matter of time.

-Peace-