This was a busy day.
One for the books.
I'll try to put in all in one sentence.
It was a day of panels.
It's about midnight, I'm back in the Motel 6 room, sitting on the bed and recaping the day. Did a lot at Sundance and Slamdance today in Park City. Where do I start?
Everything started this morning, getting up around 6:30 a.m. here in the Motel 6 room. Showered, woke up with a pot of coffee while lining out the day on the bed. It helped getting to bed early for a change last night. Felt a little better this morning. After waking up Opal, we headed out on our 30 minute drive over to Park City for the fourth day. There was a decision to make: do we do a full day of Park City madness on Main street, or spend the day with a book signing on the other side of town with Opal's new Childhood Obesity book? Opal decided it would be more constructive to do the madness. I felt bad us taking away her book event. But there was just too much to do today, and if we did the book event, it would take up pretty much the entire day. So that decision was made.
Getting into Park City, we did the normal early morning routine of parking the car by the Sundance Marriott headquarters, taking the shuttle to Main street, and doing the morning walk up the hill to the Slamdance breakfast at the Treasure Mountain Inn.
With Opal on Main Street
But before the breakfast, we had a couple of things to do right off the bat while Main street was a ghost town:
There was a panel and industry meeting with Cloud 21 down at the other end of Main street. We got there about 15 minutes late, and nothing was even set up yet. They were putting up coffee, juices and setting up chairs. So we took a dump, got a cup of coffee, sat and waited for about 10 minutes, and nothing was happening yet. So it was time to hit the road to get other things done.
Next door, I stopped by the Atticus bookstore, and talked to the owner Randy. He's interested in having the No Budget Filmmaking book next year at Sundance 2015. So in about a week, I need to touch base with him to discuss that.
After leaving Atticus, it was time to walk back up Main street. On the way up, we walked by Dolly's and saw my book in the front window of the store. A great feeling to start the day here on Main street.
Heading up the hill on Main Street
Walking to Slamdance
By the time we got to the Slamdance breakfast, there was only about 15 minutes to have some coffee, munch on a bagel and chat with a few buddies. Just like that, it was time for the Slamdance DIY distribution panel in the screening room, moderated by Dan.
That was a good event. I'm so glad I went to it. While sitting with Opal and Abbey, I found out a lot about how Vimeo and Gather can help us with self distribution of our films. This really looks like a good avenue to sell our newest women's rights documentary short film TITS, and sell our compilation collection of 7 short films. I also had a chance to meet Jeremy with Vimeo, and Scott with Gather. Also, I let Abby know about the Shark Tank deal for her boyfriend's vegan ice cream business. So this was a great hour.
By the time the DIY distribution panel was over, there was no time to go over to the Filmmaker's Lodge to meet with William Macy, Mark Duplass and Maggie Gyllenhaal. Also, there was no time to hit the Butcher's Chophouse event on Main street. I had to go next door to meet with Carlton at the Film Financing panel in the New York Lounge. That ended up being a good 45 minutes spent. In fact, the panel was a good panel. Got some good tips on crowdfunding, investors, financing, and quite a bit more. Some of these things are going to really help us with our new burlesque documentary film. I also had the chance to meet and talk with Carlton of 23rd Street Films, Emily with Seed & Spark, and Marc with Indiegogo. I'm looking forward to working with Carlton and Mike soon, too. By the time all of this was coming to an end, it was time to run over to the Filmmaker Lodge.
The Sundance Filmmaker Lodge was having a panel event called How Many Wrongs Make a Right. Now, I didn't care that much about the panel. I just wanted to get to know a few of the guys there on the panel to get a chance to work with them. As far as the panel went, it was just these guys sitting around telling stories. Nothing to write home about. But there were some inspirational experiences they talked about that gave you a shot in the arm. I was fighting to stay awake for 90 minutes. By the time it was over, there wasn't much time left to speak to many of them. But I did get to meet with Tom Quinn, Tom Rothman, and John Battsek. I loved John's film Searching for Sugar Man. So at least I got a chance to meet with a few guys and get to know them. Hopefully we'll be able to work together soon.
By the time we got out of the Filmmaker Lodge, I had to run next door to the Wrap event at the Youtube lounge. Got there about 25 minutes late. And couldn't get in. There was a guard at the door, and said they were at capacity. And I was on the list. So screw that Hollywood crap.
That gave me a little time to walk over to the HP building and check emails on the computers. Wasn't too much there to check on. I emailed the book event to cancel the afternoon event, emailed Ben, posted some Sundance updates for the new burlesque documentary THE OLD STRIPPER on our new Indiegogo page, Facebook page and Twitter. And emailed Oklahoma Film Commission.
By the time I was done with that, it was almost 4:30 already. Wow. So I had a stretch of a couple of hours to get some things done by 7:00. This is what I got done in a couple hours:
We walked up to Morningstar and had a free quinoa burger really quick. Then walked and took the shuttle to the car to drop off the bags we had on us. Took the shuttle back to Main street, and went up to the San Antonio Film mixer. Now that was a good mixer. Good food, good people, good environment, good crowd. Relaxing. Met and networked with a few people. And met Herbert with the Slamdance film HUNTINGTON'S DANCE. I'm looking forward to helping him get his film out on the festival circuit. After a nice chat, it was time to run next door to the Slamdance mixer, and spent the last 30 minutes of that event there, meeting some new people and unwinding. I love Slamdance. It's real.
By the time this was done, it was around 7 p.m.
It was time to see Peter's film.
I'd been looking forward to seeing my friend's new short film DIY. It was done well. Had a lot of interviews with fellow Slamdance alumni filmmakers who are now success stories in the big budget film world. So that was good to watch. After DIY, we watched the documentary film WAITING FOR MAMU. By the time that got out, it was around 9 p.m.
We had an animated feature to see at 9:20 called Cheatin', but Opal was starting to fade, and I really needed to get her back to the room to rest. Plus I was really feeling wiped out from the day. If we stayed for the next film, it wouldn't be until 2 in the morning we'd be getting back to the room. So we decided to call it an early night. Walked next door to Morningstar and had a quinoa burger for the road, walked and took the shuttle to the Marriott Sundance headquarters, got the car, and headed by to Salt Lake City. Got back to the room here at Motel 6 around 11:20 p.m.
It's been a long day. Gotta line up tomorrow.
Tomorrow starts Day 5 at Sundance and Slamdance.
2 days left to go.
NO BUDGET FILMMAKING
Written by Jack Truman
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