It was 6:45 am in Austin, and instead of posting yesterday afternoon’s material before having to schlep down to the Austin Convention Center to snag a front-of-the-line pass for tonight’s screening of The Beaver, I watched the first 10-plus minutes of Sebastian Guiterrez‘s Girl Walks Into A Bar, which is now playing entirely free on YouTube. That indicates something, right?

For a film driven by a series of stories about people conning, scheming and playing each other, it didn’t seem half bad. Good but not-quite-Mamet-level repartee. Taut, brittle. Or at least, the opening scene with Carla Gugino and Zachary Quinto felt that way; ditto the pool-playing scene that followed.

Girl Walks Into A Bar was watched by more than 250,000 people last weekend, which is “more viewers than some of the ten biggest grossers from the 3.11.11 weekend,” according to the Wiki page.

“Gutierrez claimed at the South by Southwest Film Festival premiere of Elektra Luxx that Girl Walks Into a Bar is the first major motion picture with a cast of notable stars created exclusively for Web distribution.

“‘We want to prove that web distribution is a viable medium for theatrical quality movies which rely on story, characters and dialogue as opposed to special effects,” he said in a release. “For many reasons the theatrical indie landscape has changed drastically in the last few years, leaving many potential breakout hits without an audience. We are excited to break the rules of feature films by letting people watch our movie for free online.”

“Shangri-La Entertainment has entered into an agreement with YouTube and Lexus to present Girl Walks Into a Bar free, exclusively in the YouTube Screening Room, a platform designed to showcase top films from around the world, premiering March 11, 2011 at http://www.youtube.com/screeningroom. The presentation marks the first time a major motion picture was created exclusively for web distribution.

“With Girl Walks Into a Bar, the cast and crew came together to create something different – a high quality, really fun character-driven film that we could present to audiences for free using a new distribution model,” said Gutierrez. “We found great partners in Lexus and YouTube to support the film while providing us with the stage to draw the largest audience possible.”

The bottom line is that audiences generally don’t respect “free.” Obviously 250,000 viewers indicates interest and possibly good word-of-mouth, but there has to be some level of cost or difficulty in seeing a film, or it probably isn’t worth it. That, at least, is the thinking in my circles. Take The Beaver, for instance. A lot of time and effort have gone into being here in Austin for tonight’s showing, and more effort is still required.

Yesterday’s recording was a mess. First we couldn’t find a time that worked for Awards Daily ‘s Sasha Stone, Boxoffice.com‘s Phil Contrino and myself. Then the usual recording software didn’t work due to a Skype upgrade. And I forgot to bring my headphones to Austin so I was speaking from my cell as I walked down 6th and Congress and Lamar, etc. We discussed South by Southwest attractions and how some people wait until their 70s or 80s to announce that they’re gay or like to cross-dress. Here’s a non-iTunes, stand-alone link.

We all get things wrong, and we all have our pet ways of acknowledging error. Whenever I’ve screwed up over the last 30 years or so I’ve been saying “I made a mistake” the way Michael Caine says it in this scene from Get Carter (’71). The other Caine/Carter line I do reasonably well is “I would like…to stroke you.” I’m nowhere near Coogan and Brydon, of course, but who is?

The Win Win guys — director-cowriter Tom McCarthy, Alex Shafer, Amy Ryan, Paul Giamatti, co-writer Joe Tiboni — took a bow after last night’s SXSW showing at the Paramount. Here, again, is my all-but-entirely positive 1.22 Sundance review. SXSW publicist Rebecca Feferman is at left in the red sweater. It opens on 3.18.

The other day Marshall Fine called Win Win “a delight…a movie that’s smart and emotionally honest about juggling the problems life sends you. It’s already at the top of my list as one of the year’s best.”

I ignored Rob Yulfo‘s 127 Hours Road Runner cartoon when it appeared two or three days ago because it’s way too late in the cycle. But when The Hollywood Reporter‘s Borys Kit linked to this, he got it wrong in the sub-copy by writing “beep beep.” The sound made by this legendary Chuck Jones creation is “meep meep.” Listen to it again — the “b” consonant has never been there.

I purposely never saw The Switch because of the mostly negative buzz, but this deleted scene, taken from the extras menu on the just-out DVD/Bluray, is rather well-written. (The script is by Allen Loeb.) And Todd Louiso, as always, is perfect.

“McCabe & Mrs. Miller: A Video Essay,” an impressionistic Vimeo essay by Steven Santos that was re-posted on Awards Daily earlier today by Ryan Adams.

McCabe & Mrs. Miller: A Video Essay from Steven Santos on Vimeo.

Anti-union Wisconsin governor Scott Walker has spoken often of Ronald Wilson Reagan, his personal hero for his tough stance against air-traffic controllers when they threatened to strike in 1981. And yet…

“As pervasive as the internet has become, so has the notion that free content must be free for others to take,” read the tag line. The “Blogger Centipede” panel, which began at 5 pm in the Austin Convention Center, was about a general lack of ethics in certain corners of the web, and what, if anything, can be done about it. The panelists were (l. to r.) William Goss, Pajiba’s Dustin Rowles, Gordon and the Whale‘s Kate Erbland, Indiewire‘s Anne Thompson and the well-regarded Matt Patches.

Knowing full well that very few movie stars have a more toxic image than The Beaver star Mel Gibson, Summit Entertainment and Participant Media are trying to spin the South by Southwest premiere of Jodie Foster‘s new film (which will screen here on Wednesday night) with a “social action” campaign meant to highlight the various pitfalls and possible remedies for mental illness. What, Mad Mel’s? No — mental illness in general.

The press release reads, “As [The Beaver] depicts the devastating effects of mental illness on one family, Participant designed the Social Action Campaign to provide audiences with tools, resources and opportunities to heal the pain of those suffering from mental illnesses and their families and friends,” and blah blah.

It also promises that “on 3.17 at Lambert’s Downtown Barbecue in Austin, an afternoon celebration of the Social Action Campaign for The Beaver will take place,” and that musical headliners will include Pepper Rabbit and Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers. The Beaver director/star Jodie Foster and co-star Anton Yelchin will also take the stage.

So Gibson isn’t going to show up in Austin, or has Summit/Participant simply decided not to announce his intention to do so in their press release? If he appears, it’ll be a circus. If he doesn’t appear, it’ll be a bigger circus.

The Beaver will open on May 6th.