Sundance 2013 Pre-Fest

It’s that time of year, when the air is cold and I head to what I have come to call My Summer Camp! That’s right!  I’m spending two weeks at the Sundance Film Festival.

I always head out a few days prior to the fest starting for my manager training.  Amongst all the training, I am able to catch up with friends I usually only see here and if my time allows, catch a volunteer screening or two.  This year I did get to see both Tuesday Night Volunteer screening.

The first screening was ‘Emanuel and the Truth About Fishes’ by Director/Screenwriter: Francesca Gregorini.  This was a narrative feature about a troubled young woman dealing with her own loss and struggles that clings to the troubled neighbor who just moved in, helping her deal with her own struggles.

The second screening was ‘Valentine Road’ by Director: Marta Cunningham.  This is a documentary about a young boy shot during school, how everyone reacted and the vastly different views about the entire situation from both sides.

I am planning on writing review for each film I screening and adding them either here or on a new film review site I will be launching soon.  If you all have a preference, please let me know.

For now, I’m off to get this party started! Check back for more updates!

2012 in Review…

Well, it is really that time of year!  ALREADY?!?!  Yep, 2012 has come to a close.  I try to always reflect on the year that has passed, so here goes:

I started the year finishing Season 2 of ‘Breakout Kings’ (A&E) in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  I was only a production assistant on the show, but I learned so much about production and what it takes to produce a weekly hour long program.  Of course, I attended the Sundance Film Festival.  This was my 13^th year working Midnights at the Egyptian Theatre.  However, this year I flew from New Orleans and returned immediately to rejoin everyone on the set of ‘BOK’.  I know… Non-stop!

After returning to St. Louis on Valentine’s Day, I thought my year would be dead since I had no options and no offers for long term gigs until Mid-July.  However, looking back at that period of time, I accomplished quite a lot.  I Produced and Assistant Directed  the short film ‘Solitaire’ with Eric Cloughley; I assisted Pascal Beauboeuf and Beautiful Beef Productions with the short film ‘Running’ as well as steadicam work on a couple music videos and even assistant directed for him on a corporate promo video for a new company; I ran camera for Vault Media for two dance competitions in Minneapolis, Minnesota; I assistant directed for Heroic Age Studios on a Corporate Video for the Illinois Secretary of State in Springfield, Illinois; and was a Production Assistant on a couple TV programs, including ‘Sunday Best’ for BET in St. Louis and ‘The X Factor’ for Fox in Kansas City.  

In this same time period I took a huge step towards the production of my own two short films.  I launched a Kickstarter crowds-funding campaign to help promote and raise funds for my two film shoot.  Unfortunately, the fundraising campaign was unsuccessful and Kickstarter being all or nothing, I was not able to raise any of the funding I needed.  But the knowledge I gained about the process and my own two films was priceless, as was the amount of promotion I received.  So I will not truly be starting at square one when I try again. 

After Mid-July, I began a rather rough run on FOUR, yep that’s right FOUR, feature films back to back, serving as First Assistant Director on all of them.  First, I worked on the feature film ‘She Loves Me Not’ in Alton, Illinois for directors Brian Jun and Jack Sanderson.  36 hours after we wrapped I was in Elizabeth, Illinois jumping on the feature film ‘High on the Hog’ with director Tony Wash.  After that film I returned to St. Louis to mourn the loss of a close friend and AMAZING production manager, Matt Romano.  In my mourning, I passed on a project in Chicago.  But a week later was offer the feature film ‘Johnson’ and by the end of that week I was in the office working.  After Johnson wrapped, I headed back to St. Louis.  Right at Thanksgiving I worked on Missouri Shoot for the feature film ‘Apparitional’ for director Andrew P. Jones which shot in Jefferson City, Missouri at the shut down, and haunted, Missouri State Penitentiary.  

Now as 2012 is coming to a close I have been busy finalizing and submitting all my paperwork for the next step in my career.  I am becoming a member of the Director’s Guild of America.  Yep, I’m joining the union as a First Assistant Director in the Third Area (which is everywhere outside of NYC and LA).  It’s a huge step and I need to see how things fall into place, but I am truly excited and looking forward to the new heights I am reaching.  

For a while there I thought 2012 would be a slow and almost dead year.  However, it has turned out to be FAR from that.  Yes, there are still huge steps I need to take both personally and professionally, but 2013 look like the perfect time for them to be taken.  Another year is in the books, now it’s time to see what this brave New Year has in store.  See you on the other side.

Sundance 2012 – Days 10 & 11

So for the final weekend of Sundance 2012, I took it a bit easy. I had planned to get out to a screening or two, but ended up packing and making sure I could get everything fit into my suitcases.

Now tonight was also our Midnight Team Dinner! It’s always great to take a night when our entire team can sit down, relax and enjoy a meal and hang out sharing stories. I’m blessed and so honored to have predominantly the same men and women fight to come back and work with me year after year. We are truly one amazing family!

Now Saturday nights films were films we has already screened earlier in the festival. Our 9:00 PM screening was ‘This Must Be the Place’ Dir: Paolo Sorrentino, which we screened on Day 7, and our Midnight Screening was ‘Excision’ Dir: Richard Bates, Jr, which we screened on Day 3. One new note I will make is about the short film before ‘Excision’, ‘LAZAROV’ Dir: Nieto. The film did screen before all the screening of ‘Excision’, but I wanted to save the review. The film is look at a secret Soviet program working on reincarnating a dead chicken. It is a very odd look at this experiment that has a hysterically odd outcome. It might only have one camera angle, but it works so perfectly for this interesting film.

The other even that happens on this Saturday night, but because of my shift I never get to attend is the Awards Ceremony and Party. We always look for the list of winning films, not only to if our guesses were correct, but to see what film we would screening on Sunday.

Sunday, my Team’s shift started at 2:00 PM and went until just after 7:00 PM. The 1:30 PM film ‘5 Broken Cameras’ Dir: Emad Burnat & Guy Davidi was the World Cinema Documentary Directing Award Winner! Our 4:30 PM film ‘Teddy Bear’ Dir: Mads Matthiesen was the World Cinema Directing Award: Dramatic Winner.

Once ‘Teddy Bear’ was over, that was it… The 2012 Sundance Film Festival had come to an end for the Egyptian Theatre. We packed up our supplies, turned in our keys and said good bye to our home on Main Street!

Until Next Year! Bring on Sundance 2013!

Sundance 2012 – Day 9

OK, so today I was torn about which movie to start my day with. I was interested in seeing the World Documentary Feature ‘The Imposter’ Dir: Bart Layton. But looking at a throwback to my past I went with several members of my Midnight Team to the 8:30 AM screening of ‘Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap’ Dir: Ice-T & Andy Baybutt. It is a look at the history, growth and craft of Rap Music in America from coast to coast. With a soundtrack that brought me back to youth, the film really shows how this predominantly urban music and art form has grown into the mainstay it is today. It was also amazing hearing so many legendary founders of this art form describe its growth from their perspective. I’m so glad I chose to see this film. I would still like to catch ‘The Imposter’ sometime in the future though.

Next, I met up with my Assistant Theatre Manager, Brian Hart, at the Canon EOS HDSLR Storytelling Presentation at the New Frontier at the Yard. The two speakers were Patrick Moreau from Stillmotion in Canada and Shane Hurlbut, ASC, the Cinematographer for the current film ‘Act of Valor’. The presentation/seminar was AMAZINGLY informative about the use of HDSLR Cameras a tool to capture your story in amazing new ways. I learned so much about using these small cameras. I can’t wait to put some of these new tips to use.

After the seminar I made my way home and got ready for my shift. Tonight we had a special sponsor screening at 9:00 of Premiere Category Film ‘Celeste and Jesse Forever’ Dir: Lee Toland Krieger. The special screening was for the great people from HP. Our midnight screening is World Cinema Dramatic Competition film ‘Young & Wild’ Dir: Marialy Rivas.

‘Celeste & Jesse Forever’ is a dramatic and sometimes funny look at a young couple struggling with their relationship after their divorce. It’s one of those films that you can see yourself or someone close to you in and immediate relate to what’s going on. And the performance from Rashida Jones and Andy Samberg were superb. It was interesting to see Samberg in a role that wasn’t completely slapstick comedy, and he pulled it off!

‘Young & Wild’ was an interesting mix of religious inference and very open sexuality. It’s an interesting look at a young woman embracing her sexuality, while writing her blog in the form of her own Gospel. I actually didn’t expect it to be as sexually charged as the film really was, but it was an interesting look at a young woman finding herself. It is actually based on a real young woman’s blog, which really makes the story much more intriguing.

OK… This concludes Friday. Only one more Midnight shift, and then Sunday afternoon, where we will close down the Theatre. And I promise not to take so long getting those last two updates written.