Reporters on the Job

• Lights, Camera, Dealmaking: Peter Ford had never been to Cannes, France, least of all for the annual film festival. So when his editor sent him there to write about a new film on Iraq, he was delighted. He donned a beige linen jacket, perched his most nonchalant pair of sunglasses on his head, and ensconced himself on the terrace of the Grand Hotel to soak up the glamour.

The Mediterranean view lived up to expectations but the conversation was less spectacular. "Every single conversation that I overheard was about money," Peter reports. "The only thing on anybody's mind was raising financing for the next project. The real winners at Cannes seem not to be the current entrants, but the ones who stitch up a deal."

David Clark Scott
World editor