Sundance
Update,
Our flight was an hour delayed getting out of Portland, so Dusty, DJ, and I had more than two hours with which to entertain ourselves in the ever-similar dullness of airline fashions. Still, Portland is less drab and uniform than most airports, so I was more than happy, given the excitement.
We got in finally and managed to find our way to Lucas, who was another friend of DJ's and who was driving us from the airport in Utah to Park City. Sundance has been happening since at least 1985, and DJ and his friends have been going for the last seven years. They seem to have a lot of the parts of it nailed down by now.
Once we got settled in and had some food, we went out to our first movie, one that we didn't have tickets for but were going to go onto the wait list for.
The "wait list" is where you queue up for a number. This starts about 2 hours before the movie actually begins. Once you get your number, you're free to go out and do other things, so long as you're back by a half hour before the movie begins.
Once you get back, you place yourself in an ever-changing line outside the theater, hopefully near your number's place in line. As they seat real-ticketed participants inside the theater, the volunteer staff will make a study as to how many seats are still available, and will let in that many people from the wait list (in numerical order). Once everyone settles down, and if there is still time, they will see if there are any MORE seats, and let that many more people in from the wait list. Etc and etc, until the wait list is gone or the seats are all gone.
We got in to that movie, which was lucky. It was "Rudo Y Cursi," by Carlos Cuaran. He wrote "Y tu mamá también" which his brother had directed.
It was about two brothers who grow up with unique soccer (OK, "futbol') talents. Once is an amazing striker, another is a steel-walled goalie. The movie reflects on brotherhood, which sounds pompous, but when you experience the hilarious honesty of the writing, you won't think so. The brothers make it high, and fall hard, and perhaps learn something, but who can really tell with life being the sticky mess it really is?
That night I didn't get much sleep, so I didn't really venture out too much the next day. Dusty and I went to a panel discussion around noon that was pretty interesting.
The panel was basically about what would happen in the next 10 years, as technology continued to change how people viewed media (film) content. What would it look like for movie makers when the internet began to reach its full potential?
One the panel was Chad Hurley (a co-inventor of Youtube), Jason Kilar, (the CEO of Hulu.com), and Reed Hastings (the founder of Netflix).
The discussion was vibrant and compelling. I was sleepy, but couldn't stop myself from being engaged. Their predictions for future use of media and variations of content struck me as pretty obvious though. The instant transfer of media from one device to the next (gotta get to the office but not finished watching the movie...then just drag the movie from your TV to your portable device and walk out the door) is the biggest thing they talked about.
They also talked about government intervention (net neutrality), and where they see their businesses going over the next few years.
I was really impressed with Reed Hastings, he stuck up for some unpopular ideas with elegance.
From there we went home. We had nothing planned until that evening, so Dusty and I went off to wait list for another film playing at the theater closest to us.
When we got there, we were milling about waiting for the volunteers to let us wait list. As we waited, four SUV's pulled up and several large men got out of them. Along with them came young women (one carrying a baby), and other various hangers-on.
It took me a minute, but then I realized that one of the suited men was not a bodyguard, but in fact the body that was being guarded. Who? Mike Tyson.
That's right, Iron-Mike was here in Sundance. He was walking towards us with his group, just a few feet from us. In an attempt to get around some ice and into the theater, he was actually walking straight towards us. We had to back off from Mike Tyson. Wouldn't you?
Inside, we saw "Tyson," a documentary about this very complex and often over-simplified character. His intelligence was obvious from the beginning, but so was his vicious nature, his obvious guilt in exploiting women and others. The duality of him put on display by the documentary was blisteringly honest and almost difficult to watch. It was a great doc, and the audience gave it a standing ovation.
Mike fielded questions afterward. The answer that really stuck out to me was when he answered a question about how he felt about the audiences positive reaction.
He said,
"Look, I'm frightened by all of this, because I'm an addict. I don't use and drink when I'm sad or depressed, I use and drink when I'm happy and celebrated, so I'm more scared by your response than anything else."
From there we went back to the condo for a bit and had some drinks. Our last film last night was "Mystery Team," the first feature length film from Derrik Comedy.
It was the funniest movie I've seen in 3 years. The line, "Sometimes, there are times I wish you'd never beaten that cancer...really, there are" has stayed with me, amongst others I don't want to ruin for you.
See it, even if they end up not getting it distributed, please find some place to steal it from. It's hilarious.
We got home, had some final drinks, and now I'm up at 10 in the morning, about to go watch 5 or so movies today.
Take care,
Adam
Our flight was an hour delayed getting out of Portland, so Dusty, DJ, and I had more than two hours with which to entertain ourselves in the ever-similar dullness of airline fashions. Still, Portland is less drab and uniform than most airports, so I was more than happy, given the excitement.
We got in finally and managed to find our way to Lucas, who was another friend of DJ's and who was driving us from the airport in Utah to Park City. Sundance has been happening since at least 1985, and DJ and his friends have been going for the last seven years. They seem to have a lot of the parts of it nailed down by now.
Once we got settled in and had some food, we went out to our first movie, one that we didn't have tickets for but were going to go onto the wait list for.
The "wait list" is where you queue up for a number. This starts about 2 hours before the movie actually begins. Once you get your number, you're free to go out and do other things, so long as you're back by a half hour before the movie begins.
Once you get back, you place yourself in an ever-changing line outside the theater, hopefully near your number's place in line. As they seat real-ticketed participants inside the theater, the volunteer staff will make a study as to how many seats are still available, and will let in that many people from the wait list (in numerical order). Once everyone settles down, and if there is still time, they will see if there are any MORE seats, and let that many more people in from the wait list. Etc and etc, until the wait list is gone or the seats are all gone.
We got in to that movie, which was lucky. It was "Rudo Y Cursi," by Carlos Cuaran. He wrote "Y tu mamá también" which his brother had directed.
It was about two brothers who grow up with unique soccer (OK, "futbol') talents. Once is an amazing striker, another is a steel-walled goalie. The movie reflects on brotherhood, which sounds pompous, but when you experience the hilarious honesty of the writing, you won't think so. The brothers make it high, and fall hard, and perhaps learn something, but who can really tell with life being the sticky mess it really is?
That night I didn't get much sleep, so I didn't really venture out too much the next day. Dusty and I went to a panel discussion around noon that was pretty interesting.
The panel was basically about what would happen in the next 10 years, as technology continued to change how people viewed media (film) content. What would it look like for movie makers when the internet began to reach its full potential?
One the panel was Chad Hurley (a co-inventor of Youtube), Jason Kilar, (the CEO of Hulu.com), and Reed Hastings (the founder of Netflix).
The discussion was vibrant and compelling. I was sleepy, but couldn't stop myself from being engaged. Their predictions for future use of media and variations of content struck me as pretty obvious though. The instant transfer of media from one device to the next (gotta get to the office but not finished watching the movie...then just drag the movie from your TV to your portable device and walk out the door) is the biggest thing they talked about.
They also talked about government intervention (net neutrality), and where they see their businesses going over the next few years.
I was really impressed with Reed Hastings, he stuck up for some unpopular ideas with elegance.
From there we went home. We had nothing planned until that evening, so Dusty and I went off to wait list for another film playing at the theater closest to us.
When we got there, we were milling about waiting for the volunteers to let us wait list. As we waited, four SUV's pulled up and several large men got out of them. Along with them came young women (one carrying a baby), and other various hangers-on.
It took me a minute, but then I realized that one of the suited men was not a bodyguard, but in fact the body that was being guarded. Who? Mike Tyson.
That's right, Iron-Mike was here in Sundance. He was walking towards us with his group, just a few feet from us. In an attempt to get around some ice and into the theater, he was actually walking straight towards us. We had to back off from Mike Tyson. Wouldn't you?
Inside, we saw "Tyson," a documentary about this very complex and often over-simplified character. His intelligence was obvious from the beginning, but so was his vicious nature, his obvious guilt in exploiting women and others. The duality of him put on display by the documentary was blisteringly honest and almost difficult to watch. It was a great doc, and the audience gave it a standing ovation.
Mike fielded questions afterward. The answer that really stuck out to me was when he answered a question about how he felt about the audiences positive reaction.
He said,
"Look, I'm frightened by all of this, because I'm an addict. I don't use and drink when I'm sad or depressed, I use and drink when I'm happy and celebrated, so I'm more scared by your response than anything else."
From there we went back to the condo for a bit and had some drinks. Our last film last night was "Mystery Team," the first feature length film from Derrik Comedy.
It was the funniest movie I've seen in 3 years. The line, "Sometimes, there are times I wish you'd never beaten that cancer...really, there are" has stayed with me, amongst others I don't want to ruin for you.
See it, even if they end up not getting it distributed, please find some place to steal it from. It's hilarious.
We got home, had some final drinks, and now I'm up at 10 in the morning, about to go watch 5 or so movies today.
Take care,
Adam