So today is the first day of South By Southwest interactive. I’ve been going back an forth on what type of ticket/badge/wristband to by but discovered all the online options closed as of today, I now have to head to the Austin convention center to register.
Pat and I met up with my brother Trey and his mom “Joyce” for lunch at a nice Mexican restaurant. Had corn soup and beef taco. Did some catching up, and then continued on to the convention center.
The Austin Convention center is huge! After Pat dropped me off, I wandered around looking for the registration area, it felt like I was lost in this huge indoor city. Eventually I made my way up to the upper levels where all the main booths were. The line was something like you would find at Six Flags for a roller coaster, except no one was moving. It turns out the computer system had crashed and they could not process anyone. The staff was trying to hint that they were open until 8pm and we should try our luck later. I decided to hang around for a bit since I had time. In line I met Wade McDonald with Pointedfilms.com, he been doing B2B and training/marketing videos for awhile, and has just moved into the Documentary films genre. This was his first time at SXSW too, next year I think he hopes to be showing instead of viewing 🙂
After getting my Interactive Badge and a Film pass, there wasn’t much going on, so I went in search of a coffee shop. I ended up in Starbucks, so I grabbed a mocha and went over all the bag goodies, calendars, etc. I was amazed at how many things were going on, I could fill up every hour between 10am and 2am easy. I finally worked up a tentative schedule but I don’t think I’ll really be putting the $58 film pass I got to full use. I only think I may hit 3-4 movies in the run.
There was one file showing this night that I really wanted to see: “My Big Fat independent Movie” which does to independent films what “Scary Movie” does to horror films. It was great, I lost count of the number of films it poked at, everything from “Run Lola Run” to “Pulp Fiction”, almost a decade of Movies 🙂 The “Alamo Drafthouse Downtown” is a GREAT venue! It’s a move/restaurant/pub. Your seat has a bench table infront where you fill out a card with your order, place it in a card holder, they pick it up, make everything and then bring it to you. You can order anything from appetizers to full meals. Beer, Wine, coke, deserts, everything. The pre-show was fun, they were playing 80 cartoons. I got to watch Underdog, Pink Panther, and some pseudo comic/cartoon from Marvel starring the Submariner.
After MUCH laughter, the movie ended, we all shuffled out and I headed on home.
I’m trying to decide if I should rent a car or not. Right now, Pat, through great generosity, is giving me rides, but some of the movies I want to see start at Midnight, which puts me on the road around 2am, and I don’t want to inflict that on him. So right now, I’m considering the cost of a cab home vs car rental+parking. I think the cab would be cheaper and would allow me to visit a pub if I wanted to. After googling it, it turns out the trip is only about 8 miles, which will run somewhere around $16-$18 for a ride home. Car rentals are around $25/day so I think the cab option is a go.
Overall, It was a great night. I’m looking forward to tomorrow when all the panels and main events startup. Lots to see.
http://pointedfilms.com http://www.originalalamo.com/downtown/frames.asp http://mybigfatindependentmovie.com