I will proceed to summarize the experience from a very personal perspective. To begin with, this was my second trip to Europe and I must admit that going from the relentless cold of Holland to the warm beaches of the south of France is unparalleled.
In Cannes everything is spectacular, nothing more, nothing less. It’s relatively easy to see why the whole world guild wants to be there at this time of year. The entire city is saturated with luxury stores, hotels and restaurants; it’s like a huge one-story mall with a beach included. I was very surprised by the stunning beauty of the people in general, everyone is cute, divine magazine-like women always dressed up and in dresses (it was rare to see women in pants or jeans, unless they were obviously from the creative community). I guess this phenomenon is natural in a country where fashion is a whole industry.
The Festival is something incredible, it is very well organized. Everything is in a meticulously designed environment with very tight security. Basically, if you lose your ID badge, you’re screwed; because they won’t replace it and it would be the equivalent of having crossed the Atlantic to spend a week wandering around the city, going to the beach and drinking beer all day at 10 euros a bottle… not at all!
Once exhibited pieces from the shortlist at Print you feel like a kid in a candy store, you don’t know where to look because the aisles are full of impressive pieces. Many of them were familiar, in the course of the year we had already seen them published in ARCHIVE or Adsoftheworld.com.
In Cannes every night is a party night and that applies to everyone. Sunrise in a bar is completely normal and we were certainly not exempt. There are many places to go, but there is only one place to be, Croisette 72 next to the Hotel Martinez. That’s where the world’s creative community goes every night. It’s like La Esquina, but in front of the beach… or rather like Rafa’s, because in the bar there is a big bar where you buy beer and drink it standing in the street talking to half the world.
It’s fun to run into the greats of the industry with beer in hand, standing and talking to them just like you. There we had the opportunity to meet some of them, like David Droga and Pablo Del Campo who promised to visit CR soon. Also some other creatives around the world, some Austrians from a small agency (21 people who came ALL to Cannes), a duo from Leo Burnett Madrid, the creative directors of DDB and Saatchi in Sydney and a Mexican from Leo, Chicago. We also ran into Carlos Cantú, the Mexican who came to Costa Rica with BROTHER, a very funny guy with whom we had a great time.
About the Young Creatives Film Competition.
Well, the whole thing was very simple really. On Wednesday at 5 p.m. they gave us the brief, it was for MTV Switch. To make a 30-second viral commercial for young people to adopt behaviors that would help reduce global warming. Wednesday night we didn’t sleep, on Thursday we defined what we were going to do, we did the pre-production and casting along with the shots. Since we had to rent a car for the commercial that night we went to dinner in Monaco (on the track we missed the start and ended up in Italy, in Genoa where we went for a spin). Friday was the editing of the Young Creatives Area shoot and that was the end of it. On Saturday morning the pieces were judged and the winner was chosen; the duo from Italy, who developed a nice, simple and uncomplicated idea. In retrospect, maybe we should have done something very simple, bordering on the obvious; however, I don’t regret our proposal, I liked it when we presented it and I still like it now. That was all I expected and that is why I am calm.
The pinnacle of the Festival are the award ceremonies, especially the Film ceremony on Saturday, which closes the Festival; it is the most awaited event. Jorge, with his experience from the previous year, warned us that we should arrive early to get in line. In order not to tire us with the story, the doors open at 7:00 p.m. (which seems like 2:00 p.m. because it gets dark there around 10:30 p.m.). ). Paula and I arrived at 5:30 confident that we would arrive an hour and a half early and when we got there we found ourselves in a 300 meter long line. By 7 o’clock the line was kilometers long.
The issue is that when the Grand Auditorium fills up, the rest of the attendees are placed in the alternate auditoriums and what they see is a live broadcast of what happens at the awards ceremony. Luckily that was not our case… but almost. We were up in “the pigeon loft”. Even so, our location did not overshadow an unforgettable experience.
For my part, I have been charmed by the charm of Cannes and will try to return as soon as possible. For me it was a reminder of why I chose to do this for a living, a source of inspiration that makes me want to work hard, because someday I want to be the one who goes up to pick up one of those metal statuettes in the shape of a feline. I know that for now it’s just a dream, but that’s a start.