Calling techynerdygeeky filmmakers! Today is your last chance to vote for your favorite SXSW Interactive panels. There’s some good stuff on there and a lot of it is very relevant to filmmakers. Have a look at all the panels listed under Digital Filmmaking for starters.

But don’t stop there digital citizens! Filmmakers who go to non-filmmaking panels at SXSW always seem to learn the most and get really inspired so have a look at everything on offer and start getting excited about SXSW 2009. It’s only 6 and a half months away after all!

One of the only bum notes at SXSW last week was hearing that filmmaker Benh Zeitlin’s car had been rear-ended while he was driving to Austin for his Glory at Sea screenings resulting in some really nasty injuries. I don’t know Benh personally but it’s awful to hear about stuff like this, especially when health insurance is an issue (which is often the case in our community). Rooftop Films are going to be posting more information about Benh’s insurance situation and a possible benefit screening but Benh also missed the entire festival due to his injuries so go here to find out more about sending him your SXSW films.

I’m at the airport and it’s just before 7am. I feel surprisingly awake, perhaps it’s the excitement of knowing that I’m about to go to one of my favorite cities to watch lots of great films.

I’ll be blogging over on the Shooting People Festival Focus blog along with a few other folk for the duration of the fest and am going to try Twittering for the first time too. My Twitter feed is here and I’ve added some handy widgets to the blogs. There isn’t much to see yet - but there will be. Yes, indeedy.

Jesse Epstein, Shooting People NY Editor, has a short screening at the fest called 34×25x36 so check it out if you’re in town. In fact there are lots of Shooting People members with films screening at SXSW this year which is really exciting and we’ll be profiling some of them over the coming weeks.

Let the good times roll!

As a card carrying feminist (except they don’t give us cards which is very unfortunate!) I am embarrassed to admit that I’m not half the geek I would like to be. I can’t code much more than an html link and I don’t really understand what the Semantic Web is although I like the sound of it very much. I got a bit obsessed with solid-state drives over the weekend but am still not really sure what is so good about them to justify the $1,300 price difference between the MacBook Air with a regular hard drive and the one with a smaller but no doubt fabulous solid-state drive.

Despite these shortcomings I have been getting very excited about the line-up for the Interactive Festival at SXSW this year although I will be too busy attending the Film Festival to actually go to any interactive panels. I hope that they podcast lots of them because I finally got around to listening to the podcasts from 2007 recently and found them fascinating - and very amusing to see how of-the-moment so much of this stuff is, there’s lots of excited talk about what the super-secret iPhone oooooooh will be like for example. I think it’s a shame that there isn’t more film/interactive crossover in the panels because there are so many business and marketing panels in the interactive fest that are increasingly relevant to filmmakers as they pursue new distribution strategies. I found out about so many amazing websites, projects and ideas from the 2007 Interactive podcasts and that was a mere smidgeon of what was covered at the event itself.

Speaking of distribution, I’ll be moderating a panel for IFP Industry Connect tomorrow to talk about alternative distribution options with Ryan Werner from IFC Films, Slava Rubin from IndieGoGo and Jordan Mattos and Bob Alexander from IndiePix. Will be interesting to hear what they’re all up to and where they see things heading in 2008.

Now here’s a festival I am always happy to go to! The 2008 SXSW lineup has been announced and I’m excited to see a lot of films on the list. Whoo hoo.

I know it’s bad form to not blog and then blog about how you haven’t been blogging but I’m doing it anyway. I’ve been pretty horribly sick since Sundance and am only now starting to feel normal again. Sorry for being so crap. I’m pulling my socks up now that my lungs work again. Scout’s honor.

You have till Friday to watch the finalists and vote for your favourites. Check ‘em out here.

And while we’re on the subject of short films I think everybody should go to Rooftop Films on IFC.com and watch Jennifer Matotek’s Cats and Pants (it’s the film from 6/28). Genius.

I wrote a short article for Beatmag in the UK about music films I saw at SXSW back in March. Read it for reviews of Kurt Cobain: About a Son, Silver Jew, Scott Walker: 30 Century Man, and The Great World of Sound.

http://www.beatmag.net/july07/reviews/film.php