With Ben Kasulke and Opal Dockery
2014 Sundance Film Festival
Well....
Day 2 is in the books.
This has been a full day today at Sundance and Slamdance in Park City. It's about 3 a.m., I'm back in the room at Motel 6 in Salt Lake City. Wiped out. Ready to conk out in bed. But need to recap the full day.
I've been going nonstop for about 15 hours now. We just got in Park City a little over 24 hours ago, and it seems like Opal and I have been here for days. I'm amazed at everything we're getting done at Sundance and Slamdance on no budget. As underground filmmakers. This is just our second day up here. And the first full day on Main Street.
Where do I start?
I woke up this morning around 6 a.m. to structure the day's outline here in the Motel 6 room. It took about an hour to wake up from about 3 or 4 hours of sleep. While structuring and outlining the day on the bed, I woke up a little with a pot of coffee, woke Opal, and then it was off to Park City.
After parking the car and getting the shuttle at the Sundance headquarters, we got off at the terminal and started our morning walk up Main Street, heading to Slamdance for breakfast at the Treasure Mountain Inn. Got there about 9:30, and spent about 45 minutes drinking coffee, eating some fruit, chatting with old friends, meeting a few new ones, and networking while waking up. It was great catching up with Ed, getting to know Rezeta and Fernando from their Slamdance film Rezeta, and Allan with his film Glenna, just to mention a few. After breakfast at Slamdance, Opal and I went across the street to the Sundance channel headquarters for some coffee and potato chips, then walked over to the NY Lounge on Main Street. Wasn't much there.
Opal Dockery at the 2014 Slamdance Breakfast
After breakfast at Slamdance, coffee and chips at Sundance, and a visit to the NY Lounge on Main street, I walked down to Heber to check emails at a Sundance tent. Nothing but junk. I try to make a routine during the Park City madness here at Sundance and Slamdance to just check emails once a day, but there's usually nothing pressing. If anything, just an email here and there about being invited to some Sundance event this week to network. But it's so busy around here with so much going on around the clock all week, that it's hard to find time to check emails once a day. I like just being away from computers for this week up here in the mountains.
After checking emails, it was off to the Youtube Indiegogo panel on Main. It was a constructive couple of hours. The event started almost 40 minutes late. I'll tell you. So many ways this fuckin' town has become so Hollywood. Not for the better. Starting late, people getting to places late, is such an L.A. thing. And here it's no exception. Sad to see what this town's become. But you have to deal with it if you're going to be a part of it. I hate that part. But while waiting for the panel to start, it was time for a Sundance event around the corner at the Frontier Microcinema with my friends Tiffany Shlain and Chris Horton. So Opal stayed at the panel while I went over there. Couldn't get in. It was packed, and there was a wait line of over 75 people. Here's another example of why I can't stand Sundance. Screw this. I walked back to the Youtube Indiegogo panel, and it had just started. It went well. Made an announcement to the crowd for our new crowdfunding project of the feature documentary burlesque film THE OLD STRIPPER with Indiegogo, networked and made some new connections, got some advice and tips, and had some great conversations with new friends Ross Freeman, Freddy Wong, Lena Waithe, and Marc Hofstatter. All in all, it was a constructive 2 hours.
By the time I got out of the Youtube Indiegogo Sundance event, it was too late to meet up with Lea Thompson or go to the Gen Art event off Main, so Opal and I headed down to Indiegogo's lounge on Main to drop off some new fliers of our Sundance Indiegogo launch of THE OLD STRIPPER burlesque documentary film. When we got there, it was a mob of a line going in for a private event with some other company. Here's another example of the L.A. scene that I can't stand. Yesterday, when I came here to the lounge for the Indiegogo mixer, I was told they would be here all day for the next 4 days. The very next day....there's something else here. Another example of how the times have changed.
By now, Opal and I were ready to rest a few minutes. So we walked up Main to the Morningstar farms building and had a couple of great Mediterranean quinoa burgers. After wolfing them down, it was time to catch a film at Slamdance next door called Forever Not Alone. We were able to catch about an hour of the film before we had to leave to catch the Chris Nolan event.
Opal waiting with me in line at the Morningstar Farms building
I'm glad we left when we did. We weren't in line for 3 minutes until there became a mob of a line. By the time the event got there, the place was packed. People sitting on the floor. It was nice to see Chris get the Founder's award. Peter had a good conversation with him. It's nice to see fellow filmmakers from the Slamdance family come back to visit their roots after they've made it big. It would have been nice to have some more time to get to know Chris today, but you know the L.A. thing.....
After the Christopher Nolan Founder's Award event at Slamdance, it was time for a busy evening: 3 events and a film, starting down the hallway at the Slamdance mixer. Opal and I were there for about 40 minutes, networking, visiting with old friends and making a few new ones. It was really cool seeing Deron at the mixer. I hadn't seen him since we met a few years back at the River's Edge Film Festival in Paducah, when both our films screened there. And I couldn't believe it. Got to catch up with my buddy Simon Mercer. It was great to find out he had a short film here at Slamdance this year. We first met a couple of years ago when our shorts screened together in Venice. It's amazing how small the independent film community really is. Then we walked across the street to the Austin Film party. That was about an hour of fun. Saw some great friends we hadn't seen for some time: my good friend Todd Rohal, who's in town with his new short at Sundance, Rat Pack Rat; Zach Carlson, programmer at Fantastic Fest in Austin, where our hit Slamdance short film THE OUTHOUSE screened years ago; Mark Bell, my friend from Film Threat; several others. And made friends with Theo Love and Bryan Storkel, while finding out about their Slamdance films. It was a great environment. Wanted to spend more time there, but had to cut it short to make it across the street for a little while. We left the Austin party and walked across Main Street to the North Carolina Film party. And when we got there, I couldn't believe it. It was feeling like a Cucalorus reunion. My good friend Dan Brawley from Cucalorus stopped us, and we had a great talk. It had been the first time I'd seen him since PHONE SEX GRANDMA rocked Cucalorus back in 2006. After chatting with Dan for awhile, Opal and I made a couple of rounds at the party, visiting with a few old friends, making some new ones, munched on a couple of crackers, had a cup of ginger ale, then it was time to cut it short.
Opal with Dan Brawley at the Sundance North Carlina Film Party
We were pressed for time. I had to go back to the car to drop off a bunch of stuff so I wasn't loaded down later tonight. By the time got back to the car, dropped off my bags, took the shuttle back to Main street, and walked up the road, it was about 30 minutes before the late film we were going to see at Slamdance, by buddy Allan's documentary film Glenna. So we stopped next door at Morningstar farms and grabbed a quick quinoa burger before heading to the film.
I'm glad I'm wearing my Broncos cap. It's a conversation getter. Every year I come to Sundance and Slamdance, I wear a ball cap through the entire film festival. It's always been my grungy Boston Red Sox cap. But this year, for a change, it's the new Denver Broncos cap. Peyton's my guy. The big game's tomorrow. And there's nonstop comments and conversation from strangers on Main Street and wherever I go. It's a great ice breaker here in town.
On Main Street with the Broncos cap
Allan's film Glenna was great. I really liked that film alot. It was very personal to me. And the short film along with it, Punches and Pedicures, was good as well. They went good together. By the time the films were over, it was after midnight, close to 1 in the morning. Opal was fading, and I was starting to get woozy. So it was time to call it a day.
We walked down Main street, got on the shuttle to head back to the car, and while we were riding the shuttle, I heard these 2 guys talking that were sitting next to Opal. And I did a double take. There was my good friend Ben Kasulke. I hadn't seen him since our shorts screened together at Slamdance back in 2008. God, it was great to see him. We talked each other's ears off. I'm so happy of all the success he's been having with Lynn's films at Sundance every year for the last several years. I really want him to work with us as a DP for our new film. It was so great seeing him. That was a nice way to end the evening at Sundance and Slamdance in Park City before calling it a night and heading back to the room.
Opal Dockery and Ben Kasulke
On the shuttle at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival
By the time Opal and I got to the car, drove back to SLC and were in our room at Motel 6, it was around 2 in the morning. Opal went right to bed. I had to stay up another hour going through what I'd got done for the day, making notes on business cards, and reviewing what was in store for Day 3 tomorrow.
It's after 3 in the morning. I have to call it a night.
NO BUDGET FILMMAKING
By Jack Truman
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