SXSW: Day 3 Recap

Things were planned for the day of Sunday March 9th: Mindy Kaling’s panel, Brooklyn-Nine-Nine and the Fifty Shades of Creativity panel. Getting to the convention center around 8:10am, I thought I would get to the Mindy Kaling event early (and get a front row seat!). One problem: forgotten badge.

A 1.5 hour round trip bus excursion later and I had my badge. First up was the panel Running the Show: TV’s Newest Queen of Comedy. Mindy Kaling, Ike Barinholtz and Adam Pally from Fox’s The Mindy Project were in attendance. The discussions included the changing nature of the television landscape. Streaming services like Netflix, Amazon and Hulu changing the way people watch TV. It was discussed how cable and network shows differ, process of writing an episode and the increasing diversity of people in TV.

I toted a good ol’ point and shoot camera to all of my events for the day. I’ve gotten a few looks from people, suprised that I have an actual camera and not just an iPhone with a camera app. One of my professors even called me out on it the other day. This is how to conversation went:

“So I noticed you have an actual point and shoot camera. “-Professor

“Yeah…”-Me

“…”-Professor

My Apple-fan professor who likes content
My Apple-fan professor who likes content

As you can tell the conversation went very well! Anyways, the Mindy Kaling panel went great. Despite the funny looks I got with my camera, it took some great pictures with it’s 20x optical zoom.

I prefer my Canon SX260 zoom over some iPhone 5s
I prefer my Canon SX260 zoom over some iPhone 5s

Kaling was sitting at a lounge after the panel to do an interview. People hovered around closely. Many tweets from Twitter had similar message: “Breathing the same air as Kaling/In same room as Kaling” with a boatload of exclamation points afterwards.

Since I sat at the back of the crowd, when it was time for autographs, I got to be one of the first in line! I got to take a picture with one of my TV writing role models.

I asked if Matt Damon or Ben Affleck ever contacted about her play "Matt and Ben." She said no.
I asked if Matt Damon or Ben Affleck ever contacted about her play “Matt and Ben.” She said no.

I was content after this picture. I could die right at that second and be happy. You know what I mean? After the picture was taken I thought about going to a data journalism presentation by a Texas State alumna. For some reason I felt this urge to stay. I had no idea why but decided to go with it. I sat down outside of the lounge and started doing some work on my laptop.Actors Melissa Fumero and Stephanie Beatriz from Fox’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine would be there at 3pm so I stayed. I’m so glad I did.

“Can I plug in next to you?”

A woman stood next to me as I was sitting against the wall with my laptop plugged in.

“Sure” I agreed.

She plugged her phone in and turned and asked what was going on in the streaming lounge. I told her about the people from Fox’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine doing an interview there. She talked about how her husband liked the show. When asking where she was from, she said Chicago. I told her I maybe wanted to move to Chicago after my graduation in December 2014. She asked about what my college major was and what kind of work I wanted to do. This is where things got weird and cool at the same time.

I pulled up my about/portfolio website that I had been making for my Web Design and Publishing class. I showed her my Twitter bootstrap site covering mumblecore film.

“Oh, one of my friends does that” she said.

“Cool. Who is he?” I asked.

“Joe Swanberg.”

My body simultaneously went numb and filled with excitement at the same time. I had Joe Swanberg featured on my mumblecore website (located here). Only seeing two of his movies, Joe Swanberg was already one of my favorite directors. The woman was suprised that I knew who he was and even more suprised that I liked him as a director so much.

The next 10 minutes I got to talk with her about her high school days with Joe. The early films he did. The projects he has going on now. It was great. It was more than great. It was perfect. She was really happy that I coached her into taking a photo and getting an autograph from the Brooklyn Nine-Nine actresses.

“My husband’s going to love this!” she said.

By the end of the day I was pretty happy. Getting to meet Mindy Kaling, Stephanie Beatriz, Melissa Fumero, and a longtime friend of one of my favorite directors? Sunday, March 9, 2014 will go down in my personal history. South by Southwest is freaking awesome!

Brooklyn Nine Nine
Talking with Melissa Fumero and Stephanie Beatriz about Seth Meyers wanting to guest star on Brooklyn Nine-Nine

SXSW: Inside Late Night with Seth Meyers

It was 1:00pm. Exactly two and a half hours until the SXSW panel Inside Late Night with Seth Meyers was scheduled to start. The panel was great. I got to ask Seth Meyers a question about Brooklyn Nine-Nine (he said he wanted to guest-star!) and even confirmed Stefon (from SNL) will make an appearance on Late Night.

The panel started off a little awkward. The video that was suppose to open the panel didn’t work at first. Panel Moderator Olivia Munn gave an impromptu story about wanting to be a mermaid in third grade. The panel moved into talking about Meyer’s new gig and how it differs from his 12.5 year tenure at Saturday Night Live.

Olivia Munn opening up the event
Olivia Munn opening up the event

Olivia Munn read tweets from a sheet of paper. To “refresh” she would flip the papers and go to the next one. She was one great moderator.

Aside from the many humor-filled moments, Meyers had solid advice to offer the audience. He mentioned that a lot of the Late Night & NBC writers were hired because they had a strong digital presence on Twitter. To combat the self critic in oneself, he said that perfection is unrealistic.

“Perfection is this crazy idea. It’s improvement that matters,”-Seth Meyers

The humor highlights were great. An audience member told Meyers that he “wanted his face so that he could have a girlfriend.” Other bits included Meyers telling of how he is one of the few in the world with a Blackberry.

Plenty of “out there” questions were asked by moderator Olivia Munn. When Munn asked Meyers what a dreamed tasted like, he asked perfectly:

“A dream tastes like reality with whipped cream”-Meyers

So the event was great. Looking back I can tell that waiting in line for 2.5 hours and crawling around on stage wasn’t the best idea but no regrets right? (or if you’ve seen We’re the Millers #noragrets). Below is a list of some more liners from the hour long panel.

“I always look like me when wearing a wig. I look like a guy who found a wig and put it on”-Meyers [On why he didn’t do many characters on SNL besides his Weekend Update duties]

“Fred Armisen told me his restaurant [Doctor Fred] is like hospital food but better”-Meyers

“I make everything into sandwiches. I like the idea of something inside of something”-Meyers

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