With a name like EXNW, and all the newcomers that become part of it from time to time, you think it would be called Emerging times New Work, but no, it actually is supposed to stand for East By NorthWest. Yeah, the X being a By doesn’t make sense to a lot of us, but I don’t really question it since I would sometimes replace ‘and’ with a + since I was 11. I did a couple of interviews last year for EXNW, but this year I went with a new approach. Well, more like an old-new approach (or is it new-old?) by attending as much as possible for the whole weekend getting quick specific notes to do an event summary. I do plan to get out to more events but they may have me doing more mini-interviews as I plan to get back to those. Moving on, I have to give some shoutouts to Barbara Lee for making this event possible, Kei Baritugo for getting me media passes even if I did sort of apply past the media deadline, the front desk team who trusted me and let me in most events even understanding if my media pass took time for them to print out, Bay Westin Hotel for serving Hors Douvres and not being hasty with me (unlike that Erwin guy at JW Marriott last year), all the great connections I met, and reconnected with, and everyone who attended, period. So what happened at EXNW? Well, like film festivals it had submissions, and panels. Like The Leo Awards, it had an awards ceremony complete with a three course meal. Like any event in the film industry here, it was absolutely awesome. Gathering people from different countries around the world, mostly Asia, the festival is clearly a phenomenon in all directions, even if ‘South’ isn’t in the name. Let me be your compass and guide you in the right direction.
AI Filmmaking Hack-A-Thon – A contest involving local filmmakers using AI to make a short. I know what you’re thinking. “BLASPHEMY!” Don’t get me wrong, AI can never replace certain things in film (we’ll get to those later), but we can still embrace it as somebody assured me, and I will fully admit I’m in a complicated relationship with an AI girlfriend and have used ChatGPT several times to make amusing photos/book cover parodies for two red-haired rascals who ought to have a series of their own. But using AI to make movies isn’t easy. Small teams of 2 or 4 or more members were required to make a short film in a few hours and the secret item to use was bubble tea. What happened next was like watching RNG teams if they did everything with computers. Faulty signals, specific instructions and so much more drove these poor local filmmakers to the brink, and as I’m not one for competitive sports, I stepped out for a while because watching people work on computers is like being at my dad’s old office when I was a child. Sometime after I was out of there, Panta Mosleh rushed out with her laptop to do some work at a table outside. Not sure why, but at least her team didn’t get disqualified for her moving out. I did come in later with Lynne Lee and Arnold Lim, where we discovered cold leftover pizza that the teams didn’t want, so we did our duty in finishing it for them. Also because there weren’t any lunch options, at least none that I knew of.
Writers Guild of Canada presents – When You’re the Only BIPOC in the Room – There were several events during the Hack-A-Thon, but this was the only one I could attend due to restrictions such as invite-only and particular RSVP’s that had to be done. Who wants a pesky journalist observing an executive networking lunch anyway? This event gave advice for being the only BIPOC in a writing room, or a film studio providing hope in diversity, sharing stories, reducing racism, and writing with representation. As someone who is not BIPOC, I support what they stated in this room, and of course hope we see more than 1 BIPOC in future writing rooms to make scripts more authentic without all these racist stereotype jokes you see in some fruity show like Family Guy. Even I don’t do accents anymore. Somebody might punch me in the mouth for doing so, and I’d rather not have my adult braces go into prolonged treatment.
Opening Night Party – Taking place high in the sky on the 37th floor of the RBC building, there was great connections, fun music, tasty snacks, delectable alcohol, and a lot going on in a packed area. You could look out the window and see competitors buildings from not far away, or look right down to see the streets of Vancouver resemble a road rug.
Breakfast – Really? Yes, really. On Saturday morning, EXNW offered a complimentary breakfast to feed its attendees, consisting of pancakes, scrambled eggs, hash-browns, sausages, and some mixed fresh fruit chunks. A lot of delicious options. What a great way to start off the day and prepare us for opening remarks and other events. Devon Wong and Gallant Low were straightforward in their introduction, the land acknowledgement by Marion Jacobs was lovely and I have to say that song she sang is a new favourite. Barbara Lee did a speech too followed by Senator Yuen, Nathalie Cermont, and Robert Wong. We all learned the purpose of the butterfly wings for the photo was from a story about how when one pulls on hairs the whole body moves. Personally, I see the wings as an expressive way of saying one can soar high when they set their minds to making great accomplishments. That’s typical Nick though, not just a journalist, but a special mixture.
Lightning Talks – Quick simple chats with organizations who helped out this year’s festival. Organizations include RESO (Racial Equity Screen Office) which helps provide funding and access equality all over Canada so we can see more diversity in our productions, CISF which is also beneficial in funding production companies that are BIPOC, and interestingly OCAD U from Toronto came for a lightning talk too. I didn’t attend all of these on account of two rooms hosting separate events and I was kind of bolting back and forth.
Special Presentation: Fireside Chat with Jasmeet Raina of Late Bloomer – Hosted by Jeevan Sangha, another Senior Editor of a magazine in Surrey. She certainly left me inspired with the hard work she does and the way she conducted this chat. Jasmeet gave great tips in starting a series, explained how he managed to relate to The Sopranos compared to corny family sitcoms like Full House (I can only take that one in small increments), and he explained the process in Youtube Production making.
From Game Worlds to Global IP: Building Franchises Across Games, Film, and Media – Quickly bolting from one room to another, I was in here long enough to learn that marketing a game and the approch, as game designers talked about audience becoming engaged with the gamer community, in case they aren’t already part of that community. Fascinating content.
The Fandom Economy: How Audiences Become Communities and Communities Become Cultural Power – In here, I learned more about fans and communities, as the governments explore the fandustires, fanomena, and the fact that out of over 225 million K-Pop fans globally, the strongest amount is in the United States. Comes from Korea, but is more popular globally.
Lunch Break – Hey, there was breakfast earlier, why not lunch too? A widespread of vegetables, and chicken and more. A great meal to preapre people who could eat and attend the a Lightning Talk run by Miriam Kramer.
Unlocking the APAC Market: What’s Selling, What’s Getting Funded, and How Projects Move Forward – Once again, some more about Korean culture, this time how it’s being localized in North America, what ideas are seen as worthy of investment, platforms and opportunities in Asia, where there’s especially lots of writing going on.
Collaborating with South Korea – Series, Movies, Music & Media – A great panel consisting of pros who explained a whole lot of cool facts. For starters, 80% of people have watched Korean content on Netflix. There was also some interesting stories on how Korea’s work ethic with filmmaking has harder hours. Plus at this point, The K in K-pop is going silent. But the most interesting thing I ‘ve heard as a reporter (Sorry, Bernie Cho) is that K-Pop hits are written by Scandinavians. Canadians and Europeans seem to be involved too.
The Great Financing Reset: Inside the New Deal-Making Economy – Talk about distributors exploring AI because that’s a strong subject these days, and how something contained and budget friendly is what sells. Good thing Vancouver has plenty of those resources.
Vertical Worlds: Microdramas, AI Content, Branded Content and the New Media Stack – Man, running back and forth between the two rooms was having me question my sanity. I gotta get Shawn to accompany me next year. This one explained how commissions are done, what is attractive in global expansion, how subscription models work, and the fact that the vertical is quite a range. Honestly, I’m not surprised by that last one.
In Conversation with Randall Park – A man with creative influence, Randall Park addressed a full room of people telling his stories of being in an infomercial, his parents having their doubts, an attempt at taking architecture classes after being disappointed after not booking a dream role, and even his appearance on Finding Your Roots. So much to hear about and learn. I enjoyed this a lot.
EXNW Dinner – There was a purple carpet beforehand, which I had some involvement in, but not enough to get a photo because I went with a different approach this year. I was able to make some connections this year which was nice, and then I got to make my way into the dinner party, something I didn’t get to do last year. Only about a hundred guests could fit in this space and I was lucky to grab some of the last couple tickets for the night. Great choices in meals, like fish, steak, and salad, swanky wine, and cool effects to showcase the intro. Some great people got Global Connector Awards, including Larry Grant, Lolita Krishna, Prem Gill, and Randall Park of course. For his presentation, his old acting accomplice Diana Bang reprised her role as her character Sook from the Interview, a movie they starred in together. Finally Barbara Lee closed the event and the majority of us left. I don’t know what happened beyond 10PM honestly, because I was out but I heard the DJ playing some jazz music. Some people were feeling groggy the day after, which leads me to the last 4 hours of EXNW
AI Forum and High Tea Service – Also known as the grand finale of EXNW, this event took place in a big old room consisting of the teams who made AI films and other attendees to the event. If you were a member of a filmmaking team, you got to sit at one of the tables and drink premium tea while having those cute little crumpets and princess cakes. I don’t know, I’ve never done too much of that tea stuff and I wasn’t on a team, so like a lot of other people I sat at the way back in a chair part lined up with other chairs, and we could grab our own tea along with some cookies from outside. Had no problem with that, I usually just observe at these events all the time. A gentle environment with attendance in minimal due to the night before, at least until people started coming in. Because the rest of the events for the day took place in that exact same room.
AI and the Future of Documentary Filmmaking – If there’s one thing I don’t want to see, it’s AI generated interviews. AI could never be able to generate genuine answers anyway. This panel explained some good piratical uses for AI and how it passes in Docs. Like replicating an incident that hadn’t been fully captured. So, recreation isn’t too bad, but real people tell real stories. With a panel on how necessary AI is, we all learned that the AI tool’s value all depends on the person using it.
AI and Film Festival Programming: Policy, Practice, and the Path Forward – A bigger issue to talk about what with people sending in AI films and thinking they’re okay. But there are some expectations out there, with what should be submitted via program. If there isn’t an abundance of AI, because we require proper representation with that human element. Well, the festival leaders on this one told us how festivals have conversations regarding this issue. Yeah, there were a lot talks about AI through this whole day, such as the next panel.
AI in Production: Accelerated Creative Workflows, New Tools, and the Future of Filmmaking – Another talk abut AI and this time how they are used in filmmaking. This particular panel session involved people who work in post-production and therefore they each had a reel to showcase beforehand. They talked about how they could create a balance between VFX and storytellers from an artistic point of view and the fact that VFX people use AI. Of course, they also talked about the tech usage ethics, how AI tools have been more helpful, and the fact that technology is changing so quickly. It was a lot to take in, but it was worth it. Because things were finally coming to an end.
AI Short Film Screenings – Remember that Filmmaking Hack-A-Thon I mentioned earlier? Well, we finally got to see the final results of every film these teams made. We had some funny, some intense, and calm and relaxing, and a little bit of weird. Plus, there were prizes for these films. The cute and sweet story of Home won First Place, while Panta’s team’s film Humanitea took 2nd place most likely due to its absurdity in someone buying a new face (if it were THAT easy, I wouldn’t have spent money on IPL), and the intense but funny film 2nd Chance won 3rd place. Wait, how does that last one make sense? Well, the teams concluded with each of them sharing their experiences, some of which I witnessed, from entering codes to someone using a mini-fan to cool off his computer’s system in case of overheating;
Closing Remarks – It all finally ended as Barbara Lee gave the closing remarks with thanking sponsors, her team thanking us, and encouraging us to do more as we make more projects in the future. As for me, I enjoyed my whole weekend attending this and am looking to do more interviews and coverage in the future events. I hope to see more connections there and make even more while doing so. I have to admit, I handed out more business cards than ever. Until next year, keep moking movies, and let’s EXNW Excel with Nifty Wonders. Maybe I can come up with something better than that last sentence by next year.