Raymond M.

South by Southwest (or just "South by" if you're cool and/or in a fake hurry) is well under way, with the interactive and film portions kicking off last weekend and the biggest draw, the music, just beginning.

Couldn't make it all the way to Texas? Fuck it. For those of us left behind, we bring you the guide to re-creating SXSW here in Los Angeles. It's easier than you think, probably just as fun, and definitely not as much of a hassle.

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Tonight's SXSW Film Awards began with a speech, apparently conceived at the last minute, by SXSW co-founder and Austin Chronicle editor Louis Black. With negative buzz building against the festival's overcrowded screenings (lines routinely circled blocks, and at some highly-anticipated screenings in small venues, reportedly only a small number of paying customers made it in the door after press and VIPs snagged their seats), Black gave some much-needed perspective on SXSW's history, both distant and recent.

Founded as a "little regional music event" in the hopes that it might draw bands from a handful of neighboring states, Black said, "by the third year, we were international." With the music festival a success, "after seven years we decided to start this cute little film festival." But the SXSW team again thought too small.

"We weren't paying attention, but suddenly Austin had a nationally known film community," Black said, citing big, local names like Richard Linklater, Robert Rodriguez and Mike Judge as members. "In the old days, we used to all have parties together. Now, we're too busy to even have parties."

According to Black, when overcrowding emerged as the major issue of SXSW 2010 during its first weekend, the festival was once again unprepared for thier growth spurt, and though they couldn't immediately solve the problem of too much demand for a limited supply of seats, they took instant steps to stop the bleeding. "When we sold out the Paramount Theater on badges alone, we immediately took film badges off sale. And started to worry."

It remains to be seen whether or not SXSW Film will be able to solve their scaling problem by next year's festival. And in this distribution climate, it's by no means guaranteed that even the most in-demand films screened here will ever be seen by a mass audience. But tonight's the grand prize winners sure as hell deserve to be.

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"It's good to be back home in Austin, Texas,' said Jorma Taccone, Saturday Night Live writer and director of Macgruber, the sketch-to-film starring Will Forte and Kristen Wiig that debuted at SXSW last night. He paused for applause. "Actually, I was born and raised in Berkeley, but you guys make it feel like a home here."

It was the final pause for reaction of the evening. Macgruber, which Taccone said screened not-entirely finished, is an 80s action film spoof played straight, so much so that at last night's packed Paramount screening a good half of the dialogue was inaudible thanks to laughs carrying over from the deadpan joke just before.

Which is not to say that Macgruber is necessarily any good, but as dumbass comedies go, it was an effective palette cleanser after a weekend of uneven indies. The film was given the late-inning, big theater festival time slot that SXSW often accords to studio comedies expected to skew nerdy. The question is: will Macgruber break out like previous SXSW premiere Knocked Up? Or will it go the way of last year's entry Observe and Report--loved by a few, hated by some, and by the vast majority completely dismissed?

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James Franco was a no show on Sunday night for the SXSW world premiere of his feature-documentary directorial debut, Saturday Night, a behind-the-scenes look at the week-long production of a December 2008 episode of Saturday Night Live. In his absence, Franco sent an introductory video, shot from a hotel room in Salt Lake City, where he's apparently shooting Danny Boyle's 127 Hours. Oddly fractured and cheerfully winky (as if to offer evidence as to how much he's suffering by not being in Austin, Franco complains of Utah, "I can't even watch porn on the internet, because it's blocked!"), Franco's video embodied the spontaneous, non-sequitur spirit that fuels so much hip, successful contemporary comedy. Ironically, the intro made the process documented within the feature seem that much more stodgy and solipsistic.

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The first unqualified hit of 2010 SXSW Film Festival premiered last night to a packed crowd (including recent Oscar snubbee Jason Reitman) at Austin's Alamo Ritz. Cold Weather, directed by two-time SXSW alum Aaron Katz (his Dance Party USA and Quiet City premiered here in 2006 and 2007, and are now available together on DVD), follows the bumbling adventures of Doug (Cris Lankenau), a former forensic science major who drops out of school in Chicago, moves in with his sister (Trieste Kelly Dunn) in Portland, gets a graveyard shift factory job and wastes away his days reading Sherlock Holmes novels and hanging out ... until his ex-girlfriend (Robyn Rikoon) shows up and touches off some shady business that requires Doug to put his vague detective skills to work.

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Erin Broadley

Jack White

"Make as much noise as you want," recommended The White Stripes: Under Great Northern Lights director Emmett Malloy, before the film's premiere at the SXSW Film Festival on Friday night. In practice, the audience didn't make much noise at all: we were, for the most part, stunned by this portrait of the last great epic American rock band, that somehow etched into the mystery of the White Stripes, without relieving it completely.

Shot mostly in the Stripes' red, white and black palette (one shot looks like black and white film, filtered red), Lights chronicles the band's unprecedented attempt to tour Canada, playing shows in every province. Some of these "shows" wouldn't count on the average tour roster: Jack and Meg played a bowling alley and a small private boat; they played Blind Willie McTell for Inuit elders and "The People on The Bus" on a Winnipeg city bus. And then at night, they'd rock the usual large theaters, and Malloy shows these "real" gigs as if they're all one long gig in progress. Rarely allowing a full song to play out, he montages highlights of a single night into one continuum of noise.

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If you're heading to Austin for the SXSW Interactive or Music festivals and have a Gold or Platinum badge, you can use it to get into screenings at the SXSW Film Festival, which starts today and runs all the way through the end of the Music fest next week. SXSW Film has made a name for themselves in recent years as a platform for both super-indies and cool studio features, but they also showcase some of the better (and, better yet, weirder) films from around the festival circuit. With that in mind, here are six films screening at SXSW that I've seen, that you absolutely must try to check out.

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There's only 48 hours left in the voting process for SXSWi and we thought we would refresh your memory as to what to click on after you login to the PanelPicker. Last time we did this we were faced with such an overwhelming response we decided to do another round up. Except this time we culled ones that are particularly esoteric, and for SXSWi that's saying a lot. Here they are, in no particular order.

"Beers, Biking or the Bathroom? Where Do You Find Inspiration?"

As iPhone in the bathroom people ourselves, we're into hearing about the weird process habits of other digital creatives, especially 1Tim Street.

"Zombies, Vampires & Monsters: Fostering Loyal Genre Communities"

Is it the recession? Vampiremania is at an all time high and don't even ask about Comic Con. We wonder if there will be cosplay.

"Lifestreaming: The Next Great Social Media Frontier"

In a world where every minute detail of our lives is put on parade for all the world to see, the real question is "How do I get more publicly annoying, using current technology?" Lifestreaming? Why not...

"The Art of Shooting Tech: A Photographic Year in Review"

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'Tis the season for SXSW panel Twitter deluge, or as one attuned tweeter put it, "How to Annoy Your Friends with Social Media Pestering to Vote for Your SXSW Panel."

Because we've also spent the better part of the morning slogging through the SXSWi panel goat rodeo (moment of Internet Zen: Yoga For Social Networkers anyone?), we've decided to post the top ten ones that have come across our radar, relevant to the L.A. Tech community and beyond.

Here they are, in no particular order:

• RIP Jeff Goldblum: Truth vs. Web BS
  With the LATimes' David Sarno as a possible panelist and Techmeme's Megan McCarthy as an organizer, this one is a must see for local L.A. news junkies.


• Trolls Suck. Anonymity's Fate & the Rise of Accountability
  On the Internet 2.0, everybody knows you're a dog.


• Can Marketing and PR Exist Without Competing?
  L.A.'s own P.R. maverick Nicole Jordan redefines the notion of P.R. Want more on the P.R track? Check out another locally focused panel Hooking Up with Hollywood: Riding the Studio's PR Machine
.

• Tweet-vivors: Social Media Conquers Cancer
  With prominent social media people like @drew and @jeffjarvis tweeting publicly about their health situations, social media and health care is definitely worth exploring.


• Social Media Marketing for Your Business
  Full disclosure, we're big fans of Yahoo's! Tony Adam. Want an alternative way to put your money where your tweets are? Check out "Making Money By Making Twitter Useful to Businesses" and "Social Media's Dirty Word: Money" and Secrets to Building a Thriving Business Through Community
  Show us the $$$$.

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S. Taylor

Halo soldier reads up on Los Angeles at SXSWi ScreenBurn Arcade

Although we arrived back at LAX last night exhausted and missing Austin, we felt no symptoms of the dreaded SXSW SARS. Los Angeles was the new girl in town at SXSWi, and this was LAWeekly.com's first time covering Interactive. Judging from the barrage of tweets and the record number of people we recognized at the airport, both coming and going, it seemed like L.A. - a city which has taken a back seat traditionally when it comes to tech - won over the conference by sheer force of personality, presence, and goodwill. "Austin just became L.A.," as attendee Ashley Brown eloquently tweeted.

Not only did we seem to have the biggest presence, but also the most positive, which is not surprising when you consider that Los Angeles offers a fresh perspective as the new capital of content; our emergence as national new media force has built tremendous momentum over the past three years. While many other media outlets were all too ready to copy/paste "recession death knoll" sound bytes into their SXSW coverage, L.A. Times writer David Sarno compared his SXSW experience to the "beginning of spring," likening the resurgence of media to the change in the Austin weather from rain to sunshine over the course of the festival.

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