Sundance Day 3 & 4: Stephen Colbert, Seth Green, pitching Harvey Weinstein, and Yo La Tango

Days are blurred. So much has been happening every day... here are some highlights:

Last night, our Associate Producer Bob Odenkirk got us into this party. Bob has been so nice- he introduced me to several different people at the party and was actually pitching the concept better than me.

I hadn't eaten all day, so I went to the free food, which looked really good. But before I could get food, someone spotted John Leguizamo and I had to get out of the line and pitch him. John didn't think he had any money, so a woman offered to buy him a credit. But then John found $3 and ended up buying not only a credit for himself, but also a credit for the lady who was going to buy him his credit. that was pretty good karma for her.

i went to take a picture of john, but my camera was completely busted. the screen had broke; i was totally bummed. Then I saw Todd Oldham (our recent $100 Executive Producer) and he introduced me to some friends who all bought credits.

Then I introduced Todd and Bob who had never met; Todd is a big fan of Bob's work. It felt pretty absurd to be introducing two celebrities to each other; they both seemed pretty excited to be working together on The 1 Second Film :)

It was so crowded downstairs; I finally got a little food and brought it upstairs where Craig and Ja had secured a table. Without realizing it, they had sat right next to Stephen Colbert, from the Daily Show. I was feeling shy and didn't want to pitch him- I just wanted to eat. But Craig gave me that whole "Jump in there and get that monkey" speech; that usually really gets me riled up. But I was still feeling hesitant. I just didn't feel like interrupting an entire table of people. All I wanted was to eat my free fancy food.

but Craig and Ja were persistent; it turned into a vigorous game ofgame of 'Steak House' (a version of rock-paper-scissors based on this website). Instead of Rock, Paper, Scissors, you play Moist, Meaty, and Juicy, with accompanying hand signs. I lost (meaty beats moist), then I won (moist beats juicy). We were all screaming "Meaty! Moist! Juicy" in an attempt to see who would have to go pitch Stephen Colbert and friends The 1 Second Film.

It's best 2 out of 3, so we were about to settle it when Stephen and his wife ask us what in the hell we were doing. So we just sort of started the pitch from there... It was actually really fun and we were all laughing. it's always nice when you stumble on a new way of doing the same old thing. We sold $11 credits to Stephen Colbert, Kent Alterman and Evelyn McGee. We mentioned that we would try to add their credits to IMDb, and Stephen said that he really hopes IMDB adds his credit to his listing. We asked him to say something to IMDb on camera and he did. then i tried to take a picture with my busted digital camera sans view finder and it came out like this:

kinnda cut Stephen off in the corner, but got a nice shot of Craig's hand, Evelyn (Stephen's wife), and Kent Alterman, who turns out is a really big film producer outside of just his $11 contribution to The 1 Second Film.

Then I went downstairs and met up with Justin (www.MCThis.com) who got his 'Short-Circuit' rig together; we went around and projected some 1 second making of video on the walls and the roof. Nobody knew what was happening.

After a long night, I went home and stayed up even later editing footage from Sundance. Today I finished editing the footage and managed to post it on-line. I love having this laptop! Then it was off to a meeting with the Sundance Channel; I showed them what we have been up to.

A while later, Bob got us into another party, where I sold a $42 credit to Seth Green! This was very satisfying because my friend Cameron, who animates on Seth's stop-motion series, is one of my biggest critics of The 1 Second Film. Cameron actually HATES this project. He thinks it is a total waste of my time and that I would be better off to focus my efforts on my other projects. I have a couple of friends who make no secret of their dislike of this project- or maybe they are just embarrassed for me as I have become somewhat of a pan-handler. Anyway, now Cameron's boss is one of our producers, and i thought that was sort of funny. Seth was really nice.

Then I got into a conversation with a really nice lady. She gave me $5 and then handed me her business card. it was Emily Hubley! Whoa! it was another Brett Ratner moment (when I first pitched Brett Ratner, I had no idea who he was until after he signed his name on my clipboard.)

Anyway, Emily is a brilliant animator and I am a huge fan of both her work and her parent's. (Emily did the animation for Hedwig and the Angry Inch). We ended up talking for another hour about animation and the devotion you have to give to a moment, and how these animated moments become a record of the experiences and the feelings you have while making them...

I was also surprised to find out that she had seen one of my films (The Box Man) :).

My video camera's batteries were running low, so Justin and I headed back to the condo. On the way to the car I pitched Penn from Penn and Teller but he said he didn't have any money. Maybe he will PayPal us...

We got home, charged our gear, and went back out with Justin's rig. We were something of a spectacle, projecting footage of Andy vs. Tom on the walls.

Craig and I ran into John Bernstein, one of our Producers from Boston, and John asked us if we pitched Harvey Weinstein who had just walked by without my noticing. Harvey Weinstein? So Craig and I ran after Harvey and did a walking pitch.

Harvey sort of smiled at the idea and rolled his eyes when we offered him an Associate Producer credit for a buck. But then I dropped a few producer names and Harvey's assistant asked for one of the fliers and said they would check it out. our work was done. Im 100% sure we will never hear from them again.

We went back to projecting on the walls outside of the absurd line of frat boys hoping to get into the Snoop Dog party. soon the police ordered us not to project on the walls, so that was that. Then we ran into Bob Odenkirk on the sidewalk and he brought us with him to a small house party.

There we met Georgia Hubley who is Emily Hubley's sister. (Georgia is also the drummer for Yo La Tango) Georgia bought a $10 credit and is now one of our Associate Producers! i got to explain the whole concept to her, which was cool because they are one of my favorite bands. Their music has been the soundtrack to most all of my road trips, and many other such moments in my life.

I also met Dany Wolf, an Executive Producer of Elephant, who said he would buy a credit on-line. Justin and I ended up giving Emily, Georgia, and Ira a ride home.

Most memorable moment of the night was while driving home after dropping them off. It was about three in the morning, and we were passing this abandoned lot covered in snow; there i saw a lone (drunk) man jumping up and down on the frozen puddles, just stomping on them over and over. He did a big jump and the ice broke, and he fell in up to his shins in freezing water.

He started screaming: "I'm walking on thin ice! I'm walking on thin ice!" And he kept laughing to himself and trying to break through another frozen puddle.

I love stuff like that.

So that was it for the night. Oh yeah, Craig said he has a $500 Executive Producer on the line. And CalArts called me; somehow they knew I was out here. There is an alumni lunch tomorrow. Might be interesting.