Eventival

Eventival reunites in La Loingtaine

Imagine waking up to the sound of a group of baby ducks walking clumsily across the lawn from the river to be fed in front of the porch of a large country house on the edge of a tiny village called Sorques in which the only sigh of the connection with civilisation is a bus stop.

La Loigntaine has become the temporary headquarters of Eventival for the month of August. It was in this house that Dawna Cha and Tomas Prasek worked on the creation of the first Eventival two years ago, together with Adrian Johnson who resides in the nearby Thomery. Jan Kaltoun, then a hired gun, now Eventival's head developer, came for a few weeks, and now he's back here.

The conviction that Eventival is firmly growing to become the world's leading film festival production system remains, but many things changed since then. Eventival 2.0 is no longer a construction site, it is now a complete, comprehensive and widely-useable software solution which helps three dozens film and other festivals to get organized and - we sincerely hope - achieve better results in the fierce competition for the best films, best dates and best festival locations.

So waking up with the ducks and going to sleep when the mood stands high on the starry sky is not a duty but rather the choice. And we are thankful to La Loingtaine for giving us once again the chance to go on creating Eventival in its magic atmosphere. 

Two encounters in Cannes

Two trains loaded with memories passed in front of my eyes thanks to two encounters yesterday, each leaving a distinctly different taste in my mouth.

The first was a long train - over ten years. Riding it was my former colleague from the Karlovy Vary Int'l Film Festival and then a partner with whom I spent eight exciting, adventurous and productive years building the "DataKal" brand which he, when I look away one not so sunny day ... well, it must have happened to someone you know - they put something on the table, pacified by the soothing feeling of trust (a decade of partnership has the unfortunate ability to foster that kind of feeling), then looked away... and when they look back... Let bygones be bygones. But I guess no wonder that looking at the skeletons packed like sardines in the last carriage of that long and otherwise pretty train still leave a taste of disbelief and bitterness in my mouth, and a burning emptiness in the back pocket of my pants.

Pavel Kalenda and Tomas Prasek at the premiere of Mission Impossible III during the Tribeca Film Festival in New York. They probably won't be going to any more premieres together.

The second train is much shorter. It has Eventival written all over it, and I still remember its first whistle. It was in September 2008 when the guy from the first paragraph (let's call him "PK", like "Player Killer" in gaming slang) and I worked in Paris for the festival Cinema du Reel, a collaboration that began after the proposal I wrote earlier that year had won a public tender called by the Bibliotheque nationale. Adrian Johnson, a France-based British friend we met while working with the Berlinale, invited us for a beer in an Irish pub near Chatelet, and proposed to us his idea - a company called Eventival where we, as equal partners, would create an application for film festivals and similar other events - a little brother of DataKal. We finished our beers and shook hands. But I guess one of us already had something else on his mind - a very different future for the bigger brother. The rest is ... yes sure, history which will be described elsewhere in details when the time is ripe. The fact is that two months later, Eventival was founded in Paris and the third partner was, for a change, someone for whom reliability and integrity are natural qualities: our long-time friend and colleague Dawna Cha.

The two weeks in France in January 2009 during which we stayed in Adrian's house in Thommery from 9 am to 2 am, working on the first Eventival, creating our first website, discussing our logo with the famous designer Jiwon Shin, were unforgettable. I remember setting out on a trip back to Prague after I had set up a Facebook page for Eventival the night before, and waking up seeing that already several dozen people had joined it, and calling Adrian with the news ... it was the time when every little encouragement was like an infusion of new blood. Our first joint trip to the Berlinale was memorable. And it was no different the whole spring that started by our trip to Toronto where Adrian and I were given a chance to see the Bell Lightbox building's bowels . Staying in the magic La Loingtaine, a half-barn, half-concert hall hidden in the Fontainebleau forrest, fast morning drives to Adrian's house and slow night drives back (slow because it happened more than once that a procession of wild bore would suddenly block the winding road), the first festivals, the endless Skype calls with Toronto, Los Angeles, Giffoni... and also the first realisation that we might need more hands to sculpt this work of art.

The summer 2009 opened a second chapter for Eventival which ended in February when, after nearly two years of work, we completed the project, and announced the creation of the world's most versatile online festival production system, which by the time I am writing this has already become also the world's most used system. 

When the old Eventival train passed by yesterday and Adrian, Dawna and I reunited for a photo, it made me think of what a difference it is when you partner is not only a man ... but a gentleman.

Dawna Cha and Adrian Johnson in Cannes, 2011. Adrian proposed to start the original Eventival. After pursuing other projects in the film and media industries, we are now we are back at the table to discuss new collaborations.

Cannes

Tuesday, the last quiet day before the Lamborghinis revs their engines and festival begins, is almost over. Early on I went to pick up the badge, saw a few familiar faces in the queue and some obvious newcomers, collapsing under the weight of the ever thicker market catalogue.

If you are feeling lonely in the crowded streets, the best place to go is the Monoprix by the train station where sooner or later you will run into people with badges around their necks, filling their baskets with what their habit dictates them - from pasta to instant Chinese soups. And there will always pop up a familiar face and after often a slightly awkward exchange and a hurried goodbye, that is when you will realize that another year has passed.

The beach is still a constructions site but the white stands are already there, and as I was passing by the UK Pavilion, once again I was hit in the face with the undefinable but definitely unpleasant stench I always smell when passing by its doors... It is worse in the sun but even now it was there, and I promise to myself that I will find out its source.

Later I am sitting on the sidewalk that stretches along the beach and flipping through the magazines while watching the people stroll by. Again they will all be here - the sleek, quickly moving carnivorous sharks, the big lazy whales, the tiny species which never stay in one place too long.. all on the shore, and everyone of them, at least sometimes, feeling stranded.

 

Far East Film brings the summer closer

It has become a habit to pray for sunny weather during the last week in April which is when the Far East Film festival in Udine, Europe's biggest showcase of popular Asian cinema, usually takes place. However, the FEF was moved to the first week of May this year, and so far it seems that the rain won't be as daring in May as it is in April - the meadow in front of the Teatro, the festival's centre, is covered with sun chairs and those who are not in the cinema or sipping coffee from Cafe Beltrame (a cafe in Udine known for the best almond croissants in the world) are bathing in the sun.

There seems nothing unusual about this year's Far East Film, and that is the most unusual thing about this event and this place - even after more than ten years, it has kept its atmosphere despite growing in all directions and reaching for Asian film enthusiasts into more remote countries every year.

I went for a light lunch in the Udinese Cafe in front of the Teatro - two familiar faces sitting at one of the small tables, the same quizzical exchange with the bar owner, bruschette as delicious as ever... and after you step out, the same dilemma - a quick nap, or a Japanese thriller? No one lets you stay as off-guard when it comes to festival pretensions as the Far East Film.

Eventival in Berlin 2011

Eventival is in Berlin to present the new set of hot features comprising Eventival 2.0 - the online film festival management system aimed to give you full control over your festival.

Come by the EU Media stand: a 30-minute demo is sufficient to show you how using Eventival can save your time, effort and money. Eventival representatives attending the Berlinale are:

Tomas Prasek:
+49 151 2058 9810  (German mobile) 
tomas.prasek@eventival.com

Dawna Cha:
+49 151 20 58 88 84  (German mobile)
dawna.cha@eventival.com

Jan Vild:
vild@btlnet.com  

If you cannot find us on the stand, please leave us a message at the EU Media counter, the staff will give us the message when we come. 

We look forward to seeing you! 

And don't forget: if it took us two years to build Eventival, it was only because we did not want to offer you something you could do yourselves.

Eventival 2.0 - Going to Rotterdam and Berlin

The first half of the year 2009 was marked by two events, both of which had a strong emotional impact on me. One of them was the fact that Adrian Johnson, Dawna Cha and I agreed to put our experience, energy and whatever wit we had together, and create something that hasn't been here before - an inexpensive, intuitive and elegant management tool for people who organise film festivals. The web application we called Eventival 1.0 was designed by Dawna and built by Adrian, while my task was to spread the news about it around the world of film industry. The first several months of 2009 were among the most exciting in my life. The nights when Adrian, Dawna and I would sit in Adrian's house in the French countryside until 4 am, working on the system, forgetting to eat and to sleep, made it clear that when you have passion and a goal, you body and mind will not let you down.

The second event created excitement of a different kind. The moment when my former partner in Datakal showed up at a meeting during the Berlinale on 7 February 2009, and explained to me his month-long silence by telling me that he had transferred the fruits of our nine-year-long work into a company he had just created, gave me the biggest shock in years, and made me realise you never really know anyone well enough.

I thought the second half of 2009 would hardly match the first one. But I was wrong.

In the summer, an old friend of mine once again told me he would like to help me develop my projects - this time Eventival - by investing in it. By then it was clear that Eventival had stirred a lot of interest and that with this interest came a much greater responsibility. We had already begun to feel that the only way to act responsibly would be hire a professional software development team which would of course cost a lot of money. Therefore, we were happy to accept the offer. 

Adrian did a magnificent job in supporting the four film festivals (Giffoni FF, Toronto IFF, AFI Fest, and Bergen IFF) and one film market (Ventana Sur), and towards the end of the year began preparing to leave Eventival and pursue other interesting projects. Dawna focused on her MBA studies at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, and I began assembling a team in the Czech Republic that would take on the task of developing Eventival 2.0.   

It was all very wonderful and inspiring, but all this time I felt as if a heavy veil was hanging between me and the world. For the first time in my life, I experienced the loss of someone who was so young, so close and so full of life that any change of that state was simply unimaginable. And yet it happened, when Jin Ly, my Korean friend living in Paris, one of the most unique, talented and original people I have met, drowned in the Seine going back from a party. The circumstances of how she got into the water have never become understandable, and the case was close merely a week later. The hole her disappearance left in my heart will never close.

Looking back at the year 2009 while standing on the balcony on 31 December with Dawna and Claire Bayrasy, another friend of the rare class of Jin, my inner voice and I had to conclude in an unusual agreement that as regards gains and losses, this year certainly overdid it.

But 2010 has so far brought only good things. Eventival 2.0 is growing impatiently, we all like what it's turning into, and a few days from now, in Rotterdam and later in Berlin, we will be able to see what people think about it. I can't wait! 

Eventival in Pusan

Tomas Prasek attended the 14th Pusan International Film Festival in South Korea from 9 to 15 October, promoting the new version of the Eventival software, and discussing other film industry related projects.

It was good to see the "usual crowd", but great to meet so many old friends whose paths crossed in Busan this year: Jaroslav Olsa jr., Tomas's schoolmate from Amsterdam and now the Ambassador of the Czech Republic in Korea who has, since last year, already become one of the most culturally active diplomats stationed in Korea, the Prague-based graphic designer Shin Jiwon who is in Korea establishing the Seoul office of her FIREFLY studio, the actress / writer Seo Kap Sook whose film competed in Karlovy Vary in 2001 and whose younger daughter is becoming a filmmaker herself, the producer Jeon Jae Young who taught Tomas his first Korean words... And it was sad remembering Jin with Nicolas Piccato, Yann Kerloch and the many other people who still shake their heads in disbelief.

But looking ahead is the only thing we can do, so we are looking ahead. This newly designed website is the first small proof of a much longer series to follow.

Tomas is now spending a week in Seoul before returning to Prague for the rest of October.

Pictured: Actress Seo Kap Sook (centre), her daughter and TP. 

Eventival in San Sebastian

Tomas Prasek is attending the San Sebastian IFF in Spain from 19 to 24 September, staying at Pension Loinaz near the festival centre.

Tomas can be reached at his mobile phone: +420 607 885 331.

This is Tomas's first time at the festival but not his first time in San Sebastian: in 2005, Dawna and he drove there to meet the SSIFF management interested in his previous festival database project. The car ride from Prague through the French countryside all the way to San Sebastian was a truly unforgettable event, marked by a fabulous lunch with Mikel Olaciregui's team, the splendor of the city and the heavenly taste of the endless row of pintxos. Sadly, the collaboration never materialized. But times are a-changing and Eventival is an altogether different story, especially now that so many creative forces have joined to make it the "Swiss knife" of film festivals.

New Blood

With an investment that helped significantly strengthen the development team (now comprising a database architect, ergonomics analyst, four programmers, a coder and a graphic designer), Eventival has started the process of implementing structural and design changes to the Eventival software, aiming to increase its scalability and improve user-friendliness. 

The development will run in parallel to the maintenance and support for the current version of the Eventival software, and is expected to take four to six months. When completed, we will migrate the data of the five festivals using the current version to the new one. This switch should be a simple process that will not affect the daily functioning of the festival offices. Once the new Eventival has been tested, we will finally be able to proceed to starting collaboration with the numerous festivals that have been waiting to use the Eventival software.

The months ahead of us will obviously be intense, but their result will be worth it.

Giffoni

The same thing is never the same for the second time, and one has to rely on the memory to recapture the sensation of the extraordinary when it no longer comes spontaneously. 

I realized it a few weeks ago when returning to Giffoni Valle Piana, the small town in the mountains south of Naples where Giffoni Experience, the biggest (and undoubtedly the most spectacular) festival of films for and about children is held every July. I still remember what I felt the first time I arrived there. I was on a shuttle bus that departed from Salerno, the coastal city where most of the festival guests stay, watching the curvy road passing through dusty villages scattered around the beautiful Southern Italian countryside. The sun had begun setting when we left, and by the time the bus started climbing up the road towards Giffoni, the dusk had fallen. The main street of the town was busier than those of the towns we passed on the way (many of them also called Giffoni, with various other additions) but it was still a small Italian town, with ice cream parlors and cafes on every second corner and the general feeling of aimlessness so characteristic of the European South. Then the bus stopped, I got off, and following the crowd of children and adults, I turned around the corner. And then I gasped: before the corner it was a small Italian town, but behind it - Las Vegas. 

A gigantic illuminated gate towered above a hall filled with running children, police officers were directing the traffic so that the car could pass and the families cross the road, the music coming from somewhere behind sounded like Rolling Stones were doing a soundcheck, a street lined with booths and cars on exhibit extended to the right, while its left part was welcoming more buses and cars from which more children were jumping out. Below the street level, there was a large playground illuminated by an eerie light, and on it hundreds of kids aged five to fifteen were running, screaming and quite obviously enjoying themselves. It really seemed like those paintings in religious booklets depicting the paradise as the concentration of innocence, the youth.