No thoughts on last night’s show really, other than a wonderful wellspring of joy as Tilda Swinton, one of my favorite art-house starlets, took to the stage for her little golden shiny man. I thought the Viktor & Rolf muse would’ve given a teary emotional speech, giving everyone in the audience a much needed refresher course on auteur cinema in the process. But she did something far better - taking the piss out of the whole event by completely having a sense of humor about winning and exposing the silliness of the ceremony in general.”I have an American agent who is the spitting image of this—really, truly the same shaped head and, it has to be said, the buttocks. And I’m giving this to him because there’s no way I would be in America at all,” she said, comparing the Oscar statuette to her agent, Brian Swardstrom.

In the first few minutes of “This is a Business,” our protagonist decides that freedom is for him, and that since freedom means being your own boss, it’s time to start his own business. Our protagonist is Turtletaub, a man with a mind-numbing job who yearns for more. Turtletaub will spend the rest of the film trying to decide what his business will provide, which doesn’t sound like much fun to watch, but absolutely is. “Perhaps I will create a product or provide a service. I’m not sure yet. But whatever it is, it will be good… for everyone,” says Turtletaub, who wastes no time in renting out a puny office space and hiring a staff of two. Ernesto, a surprisingly resourceful day laborer, is his assistant. Baltimore, an enigmatic and possibly delusional salesman, is his… well, salesman. Much to the shock of Turtletaub, money starts pouring in, and he still has no idea what his business does.
“This is a Business” establishes its quirky, slightly surreal brand of comedy from the get-go, and gets a lot of mileage out of it by the final frame. It’s peppered with funny characters like Turtletaub’s endlessly optimistic wife who, struggling to distinguish herself from the other gift wrappers at work, searches for inspiration by constantly wrapping various household items. That being said, not everything in the film works. There’s a head-scratching subplot involving the Jews for Jesus and an air vent that never quite comes to fruition. And for some reason, the characters all start cursing about halfway through, which sounds totally out of place given the overall tone of the film. But whatever. It’s a good film with a good message, and the characters are very memorable. Can you dig?

My official “new best friend” of the Month (can I start a calendar?), Brian Lui , created his own blog just to recap his awesome experience at Big Sky. Read his rundown here .

The first time I saw Portishead live was in 1997. I guess ten years really does fly by, because I was 17 years old then, and worshipped the entire musical output of Bristol. So yeah, that does pretty much mean I was a trip-hop fan - though I will now call the disgustingly named musical genre bummerhop instead. Anyway, it seems they are back with another delicately titled album: “THIRD”. Portishead are scheduled to appear on the main stage at Coachella on Saturday April 26, 2008, which promises to be a wonderful performance of slit-your-wrist music (and really, isn’t that your favorite kind?). Portishead are: Geoff Barrow, Adrian Utley and Beth Gibbons.

Two nights ago at Soho House Bob Alexander spoke on the Alternative Modes of Distribution panel held by Jonathan Russo of IFP (BIG THANKS to Jonathan for reaching out to me for this) and moderated by the lovely Ingrid Kopp of Shooting People. Other speakers on the panel included Ryan Werner from IFC, Josh Green of Emerging Pictures, Slava Rubin of Indiegogo, and Erick Opeka of New Video Group. Here are some of my quickly-taken notes.

Josh: Emerging Pictures is a mechanism to help filmmakers self-release, an infrastructure to help get films out there. The upside of self-distributing is you have more control of your release. The downside is the risk you take and the additional money you will need.

Bob: We have resources that self-distributing filmmakers don’t. People behind new web technologies increasingly have begun to understand that the traditional Hollywood model is broken. Without diminishing the internet, we are re-examining the building blocks of distribution by looking into TV sales, booking films for a run of one-off screenings,etc. The focus is on building the audience. The audience has more money than anybody.

Ryan: If you don’t live in NY or LA you have to wait for months to see a film. As a filmmaker you’re doing all this press, and you want people to come see it, but they can’t because prints are so expensive. Day and date is a possible solution to that.

Ingrid: As a filmmaker it is no longer acceptable not to be educated on distribution. How do you get into it smart?
Ryan: A sales rep is indispensable.
Bob: A sales rep is a great resource, but an expensive one.

Josh: We’re in the post-studio/pre-internet era. Check out www.greatnewtheaters.com
Ingrid: You can take the audience with you to your next film now, thanks to e-mail, myspace, and other internet marketing strategies.
Slava: The internet allows you to collect proof that you have an audience in different ways.

Audience question: What’s your criteria to working with a filmmaker?
Ryan: Publicity is what we are looking for - we still need compelling PR behind a film.
Erick: We have to believe there’s a commercial audience for the film.
Bob: We try and diminish the negative power of choice. We don’t have to like it. We want the festival community to have approved it for us.

A FEW CLOSING QUESTIONS AND TIPS FROM THE EXPERTS

Josh: If you’re not spending money, how do you get people to come see your film?
Erick: How many links on a website equal a sale?
Slava:The music industry bows down to the artist now, and film will soon follow its footsteps.
Bob: More options = less choices.
Ingrid: As filmmakers it is wise to manage your expectations.
Slava: Even better than DIY is DIWO (”Do-It-With-Others”).

Whilst listening to some early morning TECHNO (and really, what other way to wake up for a non-coffee drinker?) courtesy of the ever-surprising (if confusing) WFMU Wednesday morning line-up, I was inspired to sort through my favorite vintage silly rave flyers from years past (not my own, ofcourse!). Here’s three.