Neil Oseman, Director, was in Cannes promoting his second feature, Soul Searcher. Below is an extract from his detailed journal, giving a flavour of Cannes - the buzz, the deals, the place, the people. For the excellent full version go to http://www.soulsearchermovie.com
Soul Searcher - synopsis
 Joe Fallow works nights as a street sweeper, hangs out in a cafe with his one and only friend, and is helplessly in love with waitress Heather.
Then one night an ailing Grim Reaper comes to him with an offer... to be trained as his replacement and become the new face of Death. Joe is transformed into the scythe-wielding soul searcher, dispensing supernatural justice in the afterlife.
But somewhere in town a force for evil grows - someone is breaking down the walls between Hell and Earth. Under the guidance of his mentor, and with a little help from best friend Gary and a mysterious bounty hunter, Joe must track down the villain and stop him before the Moat of Souls opens and chaos takes hold. But Joe can't let go of the life - and the girl - he left behind.
DIARY
May 13th - I got up at 3:35am, having stayed at a friend's house in Ealing, and got a taxi to Heathrow. I was flying via Zurich (that was all that was available since I left it so late to book) and in the air I silently practiced my pitches for Nightland and Suburban Glamour. (The latter being another film I'm developing based on a soon-to-be-published graphic novel by Jamie McKelvie.)
I landed in Nice at midday and got the bus to Cannes . It's a beautiful French Riviera town with weather to match. The seafront was lined with marquees and the Palais - the massive cinema at the hub of the festival - was decked out with huge banners. I met up with Elizabeth, the random writer from Clapham who's sharing a hotel room with me, and picked up my market badge. Already my patchy recollections of GCSE French were being stretched to breaking point, and they almost failed me as I sought the hotel alone. By the time I got to the room I was convinced the next six days were going to be Hell. I'm a director, not a producer. I shouldn't be here, particularly not on my own.
 May 14th - Mandelieu, where I'm staying, has the worst bus service I've ever experienced. And I've lived in Malvern. After waiting nearly an hour for the bus, I was starting to loathe the Cannes Film Festival almost as much as the first week of shooting on Soul Searcher. When I finally got into town, I met up with Shane Steyn (SS demon) and bumped into Richard Cambridge (Joe Fallow 2002) at the UK pavilion. I then took a deep breath and entered the Riviera building.
Here films are bought and sold like cans of beans. It's about as far from the creativity of film-making as you can get. Stall after stall of dodgy movie posters and people doing deals. Nevertheless, having come this far I had no alternative but to start talking to anyone who was free and could parlez Anglais. "Are you interested in a fantasy-adventure movie? Let me give you a trailer... Really good press in the UK ... US sales agents want to put it in cinemas... turn it into a TV series..." Some of the people were willing to watch the trailer there and then. Those that did immediately said, "We can sell this," or at the very least, "Looks interesting - send us a tape." Most adamant was a Mexican gentleman who insisted that he was the best sales agent there as he puffed on the biggest cigar I've ever seen. His eyes almost popped out of his head when I told him the climax of my film was a chase between a '73 Mustang and an Express Train to Hell. (I quickly realized that this was a good line to use with everyone I spoke to.) Some sales agents said they could sell it as soon as I told them it had martial arts in it.
May 15th - Having sussed the bus system, getting into Cannes this morning was much easier. After following up a couple of things from yesterday, I went to the European Pavilion to meet Eddie Leahy. What a relief to speak to a down-to-earth Brit. I showed Eddie the Guardian article - by which he seemed quietly impressed - and gave him a full VHS screener to take away. I also met a guy in the Kodak Pavilion, Daud, who tried to pitch me an £8.6m action movie he had in development. It turned out he also did acquisitions, so I gave him a trailer and agreed to meet him back in London if he liked it.
After lunch (a chocolate ice cream) I went to see H3O Films in their hotel suite, showed them the trailer and got an enthusiastic response. Another screener to send out when I get home.
.I grabbed a take-out pizza. As I was walking through the streets, stuffing the dough-based meal into my hungry mouth, pizza juice dripping down my face, I ran into Becca again, who was all done up in a glamorous frock. She had a spare ticket to the Star Wars: Episode III party and asked if I wanted to go. "Have I got time to finish my pizza?" I asked. We boarded a special coach as Episode IV started playing on the big cinema screen on the beach. George had hired the Queen Mary and anchored it out in the bay, so the expectations were that this would be the venue for the party. So we were a little disappointed when it turned out to be in a club at the end of the beach, albeit one that they had specially decked out with Darth Vader projections, ice sculptures of R2-D2, Yoda and so on, and TV screens showing a montage from the SW films and computer games (which were indistinguishable from each other). The outside had been done up to recall the swamps of Dagobah, with the added touch of flaming gas torches dotted around. At least twice during the evening I saw guests try to cross the "swamp" without using the little footbridge, trip and almost catch fire as they stumbled into a torch.
May 16th - I shared a cab into Cannes with an American producer-director team who were trying to sell their feature-length documentary about bull riding. My first meeting of the day was with Daud, the guy I met in the Kodak Pavilion the other day. He watched the trailer on a laptop with no sound and decided he could sell it. We're going to meet up in London when he's seen the whole thing.
May 17th - I put on my suit and decided to go see Miramax. On the bus into Cannes I suddenly remembered it's my birthday (25).
Unsurprisingly, the acquisitions manager for Miramax was unavailable, so I left a copy of the Guardian article and my contact details. Next I went to the dreaded Riviera building and talked to a couple more small companies before going to my 10.30 with Park Entertainment. The guy sat me down and I explained about SS and that I already had some offers. He said to take their cash. He said he had lots of product and no money. I left.
.Back once again at the UK Pavilion I bumped into Maverick, who introduced me to Rad, the composer on Every Picture . He in turn introduced me to a producer-director team (man, gotta get me a producer... a good one) who are trying to raise funding for their Soho-criminal-underground movie. They showed me some cool concept art and told me about a new digital camera, Viper, that cuts out tape altogether and shoots directly to a cartridge in an uncompressed format. They want to shoot their movie on this. Their dream budget is £2.5m. I told them all about SS and showed them the Guardian article. They were astounded and said we should meet up in London so I can advise them on how to make a movie for peanuts.
May 18th - I felt a little like I'd done Cannes and that I didn't need this sixth day, but I was to be proven wrong.
.I went to the European Pavilion for my meeting with Luc Ntonga of Insomnia World Sales. Just as I was sitting down with Luc, my phone rang. It was the Channel Four Ideas Factory, calling from the UK to tell me I had been selected for the Creative Class of 2005. This means I'm apparently one of the twenty most talented creatives in the Midlands .
.At 5pm I went along to the Film Four meeting, accompanied by Carl. We sat out on their balcony overlooking the sea, the sun blazing down. There was a little lemon tree in a pot which looked so perfect it almost seemed fake. I told Jo all about SS and how it was made - how all the effects were done traditionally for next to no money and how I like to take an audience on a journey away from the real world. I showed her the treatments for Suburban Glamour and Nightland and she was delighted. She said she hadn't seen anything as ambitious and imaginative as this done in the UK in recent times. Carl said no-one in Britain is doing what I'm doing. He said I urgently need nurturing by the British film industry before Hollywood snaps me up. All in all the meeting went really well. We left Jo very excited to watch SS and keen to be involved in developing the two new films.
.Judith called and asked me to come up to her apartment on Rue George Clementeau. She led me past the huge lounge and pool table and down into the very nice screening room in the basement. She played my trailer and loved it, particularly the sound work. She asked if she could see the whole thing, but I'd run out of copies. She said to send her one at her Paris address and that she would like to set up some screenings at her dad's three LA cinemas at Hallowe'en. She talked about doing press interviews (her pop also owns four radio stations) and going to local high schools to get the kids interested.
.Leaving her place I hooked up with Elizabeth and we bumped into David Wilkinson and friends. They took us to a party on the roof of the building opposite the Palais. We weren't there long before it wound down and since we both had sore feet we decided to call it a night. I've developed a limp. Every toe on my left foot seems to have a blister. Why only me left, I wonder? I'm glad I'm going home tomorrow, but it's been great fun.
Neil Oseman
www.soulsearchermovie.com
Close-Up Film wishes to thank Neil for his kind permission to reprint extracts from his journal.
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