Darn you Sundance

claxius

claxius

Active member
I wanted to enter my feature into Sundance but it stated that if accpeted the only formats permitted for presentation (entries can be in any format) are film or hd cam.

Can someone tell me if I'm in a world of hurt or not potentially converting my sd movie to hd. In other words, is it simple and cheap, or hard and expensive?

Any info would be appreciated. Thanks
 
It can be both.

A simple dub from whatever Master format you have (DV, BetaSP, Digi Beta, DVCPro, etc...) to HDCAM can be done as long as you have the 2 respective decks connect to each other. This will be an up-res handle by the decks.

Other option is to do the same thing through a box like Xantus (or others) that will manage the up-res and will 'dump' the HD signal to the HDCAM deck. This is a more costly and elaborate way to go and supposedly more efficient too.

Either way you'll not going to be 'creating' resolution, but basically rearranging information to a more suitable way for the HD format.

Others on this board will have more specific info on the subject.
My experience is very practical and based on a transfer from a DV project, mastered in Digi Beta and up-resed to HDCAM for a Festival.
We did it the simple way (for $ reason) and it looked fine.
 
Yeah, just submit your DVD and check HD Cam. You can figure out the logistics of doing the transfer after you are done jumping up and down screaming after they call you and tell you your in.
 
Don't waste the submission fee and/or postage. I attended the filmmakers lab in 99 and know from that experience as well as the head of submissions herself.. that unless you have some major clout going into the festival.. and that they know it's coming through their normal channels.. and unless it's something with major buzz.. you won't get it in. I know it sucks and not trying to be a nay sayer.. But Sundance is tied up and locked down and also full of shysters anyway. It's Hollywood in disguise and I was so disgusted during my visit that I wouldn't send anything to them EVER again.. unless of course it was ushered in... on their radar and backdoored like everything else is. They also use the 4000 entries and that cash to finance the festival and get the poor saps to pay for it.


You'd be better off submitting to a real independent festival and not one full of mooks!
 
Sundance is a very, very though Festival to get in. But over the years they have selected a few small truly independent films from first time filmmakers.
I understand Justyn frustration and I mostly agree with him, but I'm not so categorical in eliminating Sundance as a possibility.
Maybe it's "Hollywood in disguise" that also means that if you are the 'one' to make it...You're set.

As a plan you should submit to at least 10 Festival throughout the year and hope to be pick up by some. San Francisco International had some tough years but now is great. SXSW in Austin, Miami and definitely Slamdance (same time as Sundance) are excellent options.

Anyway, just my 2 cents.

Good luck!

Alex.
 
From the people I have talked to (entertainment lawyers, members of the board of directors etc). It didn't seem that difficult to get into.

I was told, that your film just needed to be marketable.
Far too many films have that "student film look", and their producers, spread negative comments because they did not get in.

The conversations I have had, really pushed the fact that making movies is a business, and that the films had to reflect what could potentially be marketed for that time frame of the market.

I was also told that moving forward, they would try to accomodate any format for projection including HD through various forms. The emphasis was stressed that having a film originating in HD, would greatly increase your chances of getting selected due to the emerging markets that need HD content. All that being said, you still need the basics: a good story, shot professionally, with good pacing, that can be potentially marketable.

That what I heard at a get together of members in that community to include members of the board of directors in their home over around 4 hours of conversations. Not sure if that is just how they respond to these type of questions, or if that is truely the way it is, but being that we were there for a long time, in their homes, I'd say I will believe it's the way it was stated to me.

I will see when I finish my feature, to see how these contacts play out.
Hopefully in 2007. I am not counting out Sundance.
 
I attended Sundance in 99 as a sponsor for the now-defunct DigiDance fest as well as this year, and I distinctly remember seeing 2 films this year that had no Hollywood vibe/buzz at all (not to mention they were really boring), so my advise is: if you're absolutely sure it's the very best film it can be AND you've received good reviews/vibes from audiences or other filmmakers, then go for it.

Rob
 
That is some good follow-up advice. There are films that get into sundance that don't have that buzz and or hype.. but I can guarantee you that they are "friends" of sundance. A really terrible film played there when I was there, and it was because it was one made by a Sundance volunteer who'd been with the festival since the beginning. Everyone knew why it got in.. but it was still hard to see the dude strutting around like a pecock when he did...

Don't get me wrong, if you can get in... that's unbelievable and the best fest to get into... but I think you'd have an easier chance of getting hit by lightning... NOt because your film isn't worthy, but because it's a locked up festival. One drunk evening the director told me that herself after she watched my film. She gave the the skinny as people are often do when their intoxicated.. and I saw it first hand. I was at a cottage on the mountain and John Sloss, the bigtime entertainment attorney, called our cottage to talk to a filmmaker who had been singled out and set up....

Also, the other big scam with Sundance is the filmmakers Lab itself. They invite filmmakers in... help nuture the script, get the funding.. get the cast.. get the distribution.. and then amazingly this same handpicked film gets into Sundance and then amazingly wins something at the festival. Most of the films are good, but that seems like a major conflict of interest... and just kind of like stacking their deck--- IMHO. I saw it when I was there. Business of Strangers was one that went that root... as well as Hedwig, but I liked that film and the director was so cool so that never bothered me... Same thing with Reservoir Dogs, Smoke, and pretty much 2-3 films ever year that come out of the Lab.
 
We are submitting - my advice in general is that you should never just beleive the stories you hear about anything. Listen, digest, think about it. And then decide for yourself. Its the people that follow convention and common opinion that end up being - well, conventional.

good friday morning to all
 
"Also, the other big scam with Sundance is the filmmakers Lab itself."

Ya know, I'm not so sure that's a scam. I tend to be a bit elitist when it comes to filmmaking, so the idea of discovering a real talent and nurturing it, then displaying that talent for the whole world to enjoy isn't a scam at all. I think that's what Redford was going for all along.

Rob
 
If it make y'all feel any better. I know a young brutha that got in 2 years ago. He knew NOBODY. He was actually surprised he got in, with a "Why the hell did they pick me?" type attitude.

He had no friends, relatives or connections with sundance. The mafia didn't behead any horses for him and he didn't sleep with any lonely wives. He was just a regular ole' dude who shot a movie with his DVX100 over the course of 1.5 years, and finally finished it. It was good. Very creative.

He was begging, borrowing & stealing just to come up with the bread to pay for the upconversion to HDCAM.

Shameless Plug: But if you are unsure, you can always submit to the HOLLYWOOD DV/HD FESTIVAL.
 
Indeed there are exceptions and amazing films that come along that thankfully can't be ignored and get in... But when you get 3000 entries and 90 percent are already locked up leaving maybe 4 slots out of the 50 or however many slots... doesn't seem very fair and upfront....


Now, in stepping back... I wouldn't want to discourage anyone from submitting.. just that there are other festivals out there.. that's all. I mean, I won a Student Emmy and a student Oscar with my first film.. as well as first place at a few international festivals.. but then I couldn't get it into a little hometown one in NH. It is still subjective and somewhat up to the initial screeners and whether they like it and pass it on...

In other good news my buddies doc got into the Chicago Underground Festival after a series of rejections and this is the one he wanted to get into the most. I personally loved the New York Underground Festival.. and had a great experience at some smaller ones I attended as well.

As far as Redfords credo... it is in getting indi features out there; but there is also a financial agenda at play as well... Either way, I'd love to end up like the Haxan Guys and Blairwitch.. Now, knowing those guys through others here in Orlando... I can tell ya that was a film that got backdoored and placed in the festival through a relationship they had with the people at the Florida Film Festival... and look what happened to that thing!

I guess it's just the bizness that appears one way but is really another. All ya have to do is go to Park City to see the stores and the shops and see how much of a "Rodeo" drive area it has become....
 
I am the director of photography of a short that played in Sundance this year. Granted, it was a short and not a feature, but maybe my experience may be of interest. I had always heard you had to have an "in" to make it into Sundance. You had to know somebody, etc. But we had no connections whatsoever. We shot our movie in Kansas City for practically no money. We shot on MiniDV using a DVX100. After being turned down by most other festivals, we got accepted to Sundance.


What I'm getting at is that you never know what the criteria for acceptance into a festival is going to be. Not Sundance, not any festival. You can hope that there is some objective measure of quality or artistic merit, but the truth is one festival will love your movie while others will hate your movie. Sometimes politics is involved (i.e. you need to know the right people), but most times not. In the end, I think it all balances out to where you can have two points of view:

1) It's all arbitrary so I won't bother entering festivals at all or

2) It's all arbitrary, but I believe in my film and I want people to see it, so I'll enter it into as many festivals as I can afford

As far as upconverting to HDCAM. it was an easy and cheap experience for me. I gave my miniDV master to a dub house here in Kansas City. The engineer who made the dub was very good at what he does and took great care in making sure the HDCAM dub looked as good as my DV master. If you're accepted to Sundance, they will give you the specs they need for an HDCAM screening tape.
The dub house was really cool and since this was for Sundance (for art!), they only charged me for the cost of an HDCAM tape.
When we screened at Sundance, our little miniDV movie looked as good if not better than some of the shorts that were shot on film. Their projection is really good and the HDCAM format is really robust.

Hope this helps,

Todd Norris
 
That is true.. but a short is a whole different world when talking about Sundance...

Congrats on being selected though... and it is subjective. I also know that I'm more biased than most from my experience there, but as most filmmakers... I do plan on using it for good as I have a sketch idea for my TV show from those memories. I'll post it online when it's done.

So that said... I'll chill on my rant. I will say that it is located in probably the most beautiful place I've been in the U.S. I stopped along that road going to Park City every day just to check out the scenery and to swim in those cold-ass mountain lakes. If anyone goes out there in the summer, I highly recommend swimming there, but bring ya wetsuit...


BTW, what was the big winner at this years festival?
 
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Justyn said:
I mean, I won a Student Emmy and a student Oscar with my first film.. as well as first place at a few international festivals.. but then I couldn't get it into a little hometown one in NH.
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If you don't mind me asking, which one was that?

And when you look at the stats on Sundance, with regards to Distribution, both theatrical and DVD, it's even more of a sticky wicket.

I also think, just from anectdotal evidence, that some of the other fests give you more attention, networking opportunities, and shots at distribution....not that I would discourage anyone form Sundance, but I would have it as only one possibility in a whole marketing/bidness strategy.



I know personally some producers who prefer TIFF for that very reason - far more relaxed, more biz networking, and there is still a fairly healthy market buying aspect. :beer: ...It still would be cool one day to have a film in Sundance, even if it's just to wear the parka and throw a snowball at Harvey Weinstein:grin:




Cheers.
 
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I'll tell you, being the DP of a short at Sundance certainly has helped my clout here in Kansas City (but it hasn't helped me make any more money!). But, when I get blue about not being where I wanted to be career-wise at this point in my life, the Sundance experience serves to remind me that I'm at least pretty good at what I do. To add to Justyn and D and G's advice to go to Park City for the scenery etc., let me add the suggestion to get in shape before you go. Walking up those hills at that altitude practically killed my lungs. And all the parties are on the second floor so you have long flights of stairs to climb! But the parties are worth the trip. I hate to sound shallow, but free food and drinks, swag and beautiful people are good in small doses.
 
My student film was called The Paper Sculptor. Came out in 95 from the FSU film school. I got to attent the Student Emmy awards but not the student Academy Awards. Both were regional winners and entered in the final round.


I too agree on being in shape. Just about got killed walking up that steep hill out there.. Could only imagine how rough it would be in the winter.
 
What are the submission deadlines this year? I can't seem to find the dates on their website.

Trying to get into Sundance is like trying to get a novel published... it's not easy. But I don't think you have to have "insider" friends and all that. There must be standards and protocols??
 
I'm gonna agree with Justyn. It will be of great interest to you to get a champion behind your film before going in. Sure there is a chance you might get in without one but why play the odds?

Do what you can to get an angent, rep or "friend" of Sundance to help usher you in. "He's a friend of ours, a good fella." Type intro goes a long way. People are more interested in films they have heard of or have been tippped off to. It's human nature.

This advice does not go just for Sundance but for all festivals. It really helps to have an "in". Finding an "in" if you have a great film isn't all that hard but it does take some time and research.

Every small unknown film I know of that got into any festival including Sundance had an in. "Moonshine" last year. Even "Primer" found a friend.

It's not condemnation of the sytem, it's just a tutorial on the way it works.

Now go out and make some friggin' contacts and get in to some festivals!
 
ShannonRawls said:
Shameless Plug: But if you are unsure, you can always submit to the HOLLYWOOD DV/HD FESTIVAL.
Click to expand...

Shannon is right, bleh to Sundance. I had too much fun at his festival, and getting out to L.A. for the first time. Not to mention we won! haha.

Anyway... Sundance isn't the only place to submit stuff too... on the east coast, if you are looking to submit to a larger festival, you could try Tribeca. It seems the last few times i've hit their site, they seemed very interested in digital work and that's a good thing.

There are many outlets out there to show your work... Sundance too me comes off as slightly Hollywoodized. I will say though that i loved Primer.
 
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