After three straight days of "all ATX Festival all the time," I needed a few days to recuperate and process my weekend. A few days turned into a few weeks and I am sorry that I am just now getting around to posting about my experience. I went through a bit of withdrawl the week following the festival, but it seemed as if others who attended had the same reaction (and are still craving queso and bbq three weeks later). The overall consensus is that everyone had the BEST. WEEKEND. EVER!
The festival kicked off Friday night, June 1 at the State Theater with a red carpet and screenings of USA Network's Suits season finale and Royal Pains season premiere. After the screening, Robyn Ross from TVGuide moderated a great Q&A with Suits Executive Producer David Bartis, Royal Pains Executive Producers Michael Rauch and Andrew Lenchewski and actress Reshma Shetty. The Opening Night After Party was held at the Stephen F. Austin Intercontinental and included amazing performances by Landon Pigg, Mae Whitman and Alpha Rev with a special guest performance by Jason Ritter. I also got a chance to hang out with Ken Marino and a few of the guys from Children's Hospital as well as Robert Maschio and Neil Flynn from Scrubs.
Saturday morning, after getting about three and a half hours of sleep the night before, I headed back to the Stephen F. Austin where all of the panels were being held. My job for the weekend was to make sure that all the panelists showed up and made it to the correct room at the correct time, which basically means I was running around like a crazy person starting at 9:30 a.m. until the panels were over at 4:00 p.m. trying to track people down. (I may forever be referred to as "the girl in the green dress.") However, it also means that I got to talk to all of the panelists that were there! Everyone was extremely nice and very easy to approach. Saturday's panels were: TV Fantasy Goes Mainsteam, The Creators, Friday Night Lights Revisited, Women on Television, TBS very funny, Book to TV Series, One Tree Hill Says Goodbye, a Love Monkey Retrospective and The Stages of a Television Writing Career.
There were also screenings and Q&As going on at the Alamo Drafthouse and State Theater throughout the day, but if it did not happen at SFA, it was not on my radar.
After an Industry Reception at Austin Studios on Saturday Night, everyone headed over to the Hotel San Jose for the Friday Night Lights Outdoor Screening. Before the sun went down, there were musical performances by cast members Dora Madison Burge, Alicia Witt and Jesse Plemons. This event was free and open to the public and everyone was encouraged to bring their lawn chairs. Once it was dark enough, the crowd got a chance to see the premiere of the new Explosions In The Sky music video and then the cast of Friday Night Lights introduced the screening of the series finale episode. Following the screening, we headed back to the Stephen F. Austin for the Children's Hospital Marathon After Party. Although, I did not stay very long for this because I was so tired from the day that I almost fell asleep halfway through my Tito's Vodka Texas Sipper :o)
If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know that I watch a lot of television. However, my obsession did not really start until college. I watched a lot of TV in high school, but never really paid much attention to specific actors or directors. While it mostly started out as a way to avoid studying for my college courses, it eventually turned into something more than that. Once you start watching a lot of television, you quickly learn to decipher between good shows and bad shows. That is not to say that many bad shows cannot be entertaining, but you begin to recognize the different calibers and styles of acting/writing/directing/etc.
I eventually became the person that all my friends turned to when they wanted to know about new shows or when they recognized a guest star on Grey's Anatomy and could not figure out what else they had seen that actor on. There are more of us TV nerds out there than you probably realize and now we have some place to celebrate that, just like all you movie and music lovers :o)
This weekend I have the esteemed pleasure of volunteering for the first annual ATX Television Festival here in Austin. Beginning tomorrow night, June 1, and running through Sunday, June 3, this festival will bring together actors, writers, directors, producers, music supervisors, studio executives and fans to talk about the past, present and future of television. Operating similarly to a film festival, there will be screenings, panels, parties and live music with some of the industry's leading professionals.
To kick things off on opening night, ATX is screening the season premiere of USA Network's Royal Pains along with an episode from the first season of Suits. Also in attendance will be the executive producers from both shows, David Bartis and Michael Rauch, and Royal Pains cast member, Judy Greer. A few other shows screening this weekend are: Life Unexpected, Parenthood, The Vampire Diaries, True Blood, Firefly, Criminal Minds, a few Web series and even some Hasbro cartoons.
The panels throughout the weekend include Women in Television, TV Fantasy Goes Mainstream, a Love Monkey Retrospective, Music in Television and a final goodbye to One Tree Hill. There will be a discussion between Bill Lawrence (creator of Spin City, Scrubs and Cougar Town) and a few of his friends about what it has been like to work together over the years. Jason Katims will also reflect on his career, which started on My So-Called Life and also includes Boston Public, Roswell, Friday Night Lights and Parenthood. Moderators for these panels and screenings include Meg Masters from TVLine, Robyn Ross from TV Guide and Ben Blacker from Nerdist.
And if all that was not enough to make your head explode with excitement, the Alamo Drafthouse is hosting The Ultimate Children's Hospital Marathon on Saturday afternoon. Cast members Rob Corddry, Rob Huebel, Ken Marino, Erinn Hayes and Executive Producers David Wain and Jonathan Stern will all be in attendance.
However, the event that I am probably most looking forward to is the Friday Night Lights Outdoor Screening taking place on Saturday night at the Hotel San Jose. It is open to the public and includes a screening of the Pilot and Finale episodes and will showcase music from cast members Alicia Witt, Dora Madison Burge and Jesse Plemons. A few of the other cast members who will also be on hand for the event are Scott Porter, Gaius Charles, Michael B. Jordan, Matt Lauria and Louanne Stephens. It should be tons of fun and I cannot wait!
This weekend, there is really something for everyone and if you are not in Austin you are definitely missing out on what is sure to be a FABulous time.
Like I said, I am working for the festival Friday through Sunday, but I will try my best to update Facebook and Twitter with behind-the-scenes info and pictures. And if I manage to meet Kristen Bell, it has been nice knowing you all because, I will probably die of excitement :o)
xoxo
c
For more ATX Festival information:
http://www.atxfestival.com/
For Children's Hospital Marathon information: http://drafthouse.com/movies/the_ultimate_childrens_hospital_marathon/austin
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After three straight days of "all ATX Festival all the time," I needed a few days to recuperate and process my weekend. A few days turned into a few weeks and I am sorry that I am just now getting around to posting about my experience. I went through a bit of withdrawl the week following the festival, but it seemed as if others who attended had the same reaction (and are still craving queso and bbq three weeks later). The overall consensus is that everyone had the BEST. WEEKEND. EVER!
After an Industry Reception at Austin Studios on Saturday Night, everyone headed over to the Hotel San Jose for the Friday Night Lights Outdoor Screening. Before the sun went down, there were musical performances by cast members Dora Madison Burge, Alicia Witt and Jesse Plemons. This event was free and open to the public and everyone was encouraged to bring their lawn chairs. Once it was dark enough, the crowd got a chance to see the premiere of the new Explosions In The Sky music video and then the cast of Friday Night Lights introduced the screening of the series finale episode. Following the screening, we headed back to the Stephen F. Austin for the Children's Hospital Marathon After Party. Although, I did not stay very long for this because I was so tired from the day that I almost fell asleep halfway through my Tito's Vodka Texas Sipper :o)
