Sundance 2007

Goodbye Mr Snuggles screened to huge crowds at Sundance and got a great response when we screened it at our shorts event at the Pioneer. The director, Jonathan Hopkins, answered some questions for me.

When, how, and why did you start making films?

I started making short skits as a 14 year old with my mum's video
camera. I've always been a comic and movie buff and enjoyed creative
goofing around, so making short films came naturally.

Did you go to film school?

No, but i did a 2 month film course in New York (NY film Academy)
when i was 18.

Who are your favourite directors?

Terry Gilliam, Spike Jonze, David Fincher, Farrely Bros, Zucker Bros,
Wes Anderson, Tim Burton, Peter Jackson, David Lynch, Darren
Aronofsky, Steven Speilberg, Alfonso Cuaron, Shane Meadows,
Christopher Nolan to name but a few

Favourite films?

Brazil, Rushmore, Aliens, U-Turn, Cheech n Chong up in smoke,
Memento, Deliverance, Badlands, Kill Bill, Trainspotting - can't
think of any more. Those were the first that popped into my head.
Very difficult question

What gave you the idea for "Goodbye Mr Snuggles?"

Nothing in particular. The concept was formed in a flash one evening
as i lay in bed trying to go to sleep. This is my most prolific time
for ideas.

How long did it take you to make "Goodbye Mr Snuggles"?

From conception to completion, about 1 month.

How did you fund it?

Privately. I have found it impossible to get official short film funds.

Can you make money from a short film?

Yes, although it is rare and shouldn't be why you are making it. We
are lucky in that we have achieved a distribution and iTunes deal for
the film, which should see a bit of return over the next 3 years.

How did you get your great actors involved?

Aim high. We made a wish list of amazing actors and plugged their
agents. Sometimes, if the idea or script is good and simple enough,
you can attract almost anyone.

What were you doing when you found out your film got into Sundance? Did you
dance a little jig?

Sitting in the office. Yes i did dance a jig and made a lot of animal
noises. Our office party was on the following night and i danced even
more then!

What was the Sundance experience like for you?

Great. I didn't quite know what to expect. The screenings where
amazing for us and my favourite bit was listening to director's Q&As
and meeting the film makers.

Did you see any other good films at Sundance?

Yes indeed - i think the documentary 'Manda Bala' and the Fiction
films 'The Island' and 'Son of Rambo' were my favourites. Some
awesome shorts too - 'Der Ostwind' and 'Death of the Tinman' were
superb.

What other festivals has your film played at?

Soho Rushes FF (Winner)
Raindance (Winner)
Hamburg
Kyiv IFF
Sao Paolo IFF
Leeds IFF
Cardiff
Edmonton IFF
Signals Media ISFF
Shorts FF, Aus
Encounters
End of The Pier IFF
Sundance
Aukland NZ
Dresden
Arizona

What are your favourite festivals and why?

I have not been to many but Sundance blew me away in terms of quality
and organisiation. However, i enjoyed the Rushes festival, probably
because i picked up an award there.

What are you working on now?

2 shorts and a very, very scary horror feature.

Tom Harper's short film, Cubs, is a disturbing drama about urban fox hunting and teenage peer pressure. You can watch it on the Sundance website here:

http://festival.sundance.org/2007/watch/film.aspx?which=790&category=SF

When, how, and why did you start making films?

I worked as an Assistant Editor in a post-production facility and wanted to
learn how use the equipment. I figured the best way to do this would be to
try and edit some footage that I had shot myself and soon realised that I
enjoyed getting the footage much more than I enjoyed sitting in a dark room
trying to get the computer to work.

Did you go to film school?

No. But I studied drama at the University of Manchester.

Who are your favourite directors?

Um, the next question is easier, can I just answer that one?

Favourite films?

Too many to name but the first that spring to mind are City of God, Once
Upon a Time in the West, Lost in Translation, The Innocents, Les Quatre Cent
Coups, Blue Velvet, La Vita e Bella, The Blues Brothers, Primer, The Beat my
Heart Skipped

What gave you the idea for "Cubs"?

A friend of mine was making a documentary for Radio 4 about a group of kids
who actually go urban fox hunting but the kids pulled out at the last minute
and she couldn't get access. Unfortunate for her, lucky for me.

How long did it take you to make "Cubs"?

About a year from the initial idea to the final print.

How did you fund it?

We applied to the Pulse digital shorts scheme funded by Film London and the
UK Film Council and were lucky enough to be selected.

How did you cast it?

We worked with a Casting Director who was the Assistant Casting Director at
the National Theatre at the time. We cast the two leads in the conventional
way, approaching agents and sending the actor the script. The Casting
Director's relationship with the agents was really helpful in this respect.
The majority of the supporting cast came from The Young Actors Theatre in
Kings Cross. They base their training around improvisation and are all
local kids and so were perfect for this.

Can you make money from a short film?

I believe so, but I never have. Someone said to me once that the shorts
that make money tend to be silent comedies with female nudity.

What were you doing when you found out your film got into Sundance? Did you
dance a little jig?

I did dance a little jig. And then I drank a large amount of beer.

What was the Sundance experience like for you?

A bit of a whirlwind as I was only able to be there for 4 nights and 3 days.
There was so much to pack in and I would have liked to have been there for
the whole thing. It was great hanging out with other British filmmakers as
it really felt like a community. I also met a whole load of other
interesting people from around the world whom I hope will develop
relationships with.

Did you see any other good films at Sundance?

Yes, but not enough. Chicago 10 and Year of the Dog were my favourites out
of the ones I saw.

What other festivals has your film played at?

A shed load, but the most prestigious have probably been New York, Montreal,
LA Shorts, Foyle, London and Edinburgh.

What are your favourite festivals and why?

I love Edinburgh because of the combined atmosphere of the film festival,
the fringe festival and the international festival - but as a short film
maker I found I got a bit lost. In that respect New York was great as it
only shows a small number of films and therefore although my visit was
brief, I really felt like part of the festival. But Sundance tops the lot.

What are you working on now?

I've just completed a half hour drama for Channel 4 as part of their Coming
Up strand and am casting for a slightly longer, higher budget short film
called CHERRIES.

God Provides is a quietly thought-provoking short documentary made in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The film is co-directed by Brian Cassidy and Melanie Shatzky. I met Melanie and Brian after one of their screenings at Sundance and Melanie agreed to answer some questions for me. You can watch God Provides on the Sundance website:

http://festival.sundance.org/2007/watch/film.aspx?which=796&category=DOC

When, how, and why did you start making films?

We both have a background in photography. I had been showing my work in galleries in Canada, and Brian had worked as an editorial photographer in the US and in Italy. We met in grad school, where we were both pursuing an MFA in photography at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. We both quickly realized that we were more interested in exploring the space between photographs than making actual photographs. I guess we wanted to start filling in the gaps that photography necessarily creates. And so we started making films (that, inevitably, have their own gaps).

Did you go to film school?

No, but the MFA photography program had a smaller video program within it that allowed us to explore the moving image in a kind of intuitive way. The program was open to new ways of negotiating image and sound, and we both felt like we were in the right place at the right time.

Favourite films?

My list includes Dog Days (Ulrich Seidl), Fiona (Amos Kollek), The Sweet Hereafter (Atom Egoyan), The Piano Teacher (Michael Haneke), Leolo (Jean-Claude Lauzon), Heavenly Creatures (Peter Jackson), The Dreamlife of Angels (Erick Zonca), Lessons of Darkness (Werner Herzog), The Street (Daniel Cross), A Real Young Girl (Catherine Breillat).

And Brian's list includes Stroszek (Werner Herzog), Au Hasard Balthazar (Robert Bresson), Muhammad Ali The Greatest (William Klein), Hearts and Minds (Peter Davis), Bananas (Woody Allen), 4 (Ilya Khrzhanovsky), The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (Sergio Leone).

What inspired you to make "God Provides"?

Immediately after Katrina hit, we felt oddly unaffected by the coverage on tv and in the papers. We felt as though we needed to go down South in order to actually feel something. So we filled up on gas and peanut butter sandwiches, and made our way from Brooklyn to the Gulf Coast of Mississippi.

How did you fund it?

It was self-funded.

Where does the voiceover come from? Did you write it? It doesn't come from the woman in the wheelchair does it?

You're right, it doesn't come from the woman in the wheelchair. The voice-over is based a conversation we had with a local church-goer who opened up his home to us one night when he saw us camped outside of a church. We had a female narrator speak his words over the top of the woman in the wheelchair. We met the woman in the wheelchair on a road near a highway. We first noticed her traversing the highway in her wheelchair, and continuing on towards a park. There was something about her pressing forward against the danger of the road that somehow resonated deeply with us. And we thought that that image would work well with the narration.

How did you find all the people in the film?

We found them at relief shelters, in make-shift congregations, snack shops, and alongside of the road.

How do the two of you work together as co-directors?

We have different strengths, which are complimentary, not competitive. Each brings something to the table that the other wouldn't have thought of, and ultimately we want to see the same thing on the screen. We're very fluid about our process. We pass the camera back and forth while we're in the field and we take turns editing when we come back. Which, of course, is not to say that we don't argue.

What was the Sundance experience like for you?

It was the first festival we had ever partaken in, so it was really quite exciting (and nerve-wracking) to see our film projected so big in a proper theatre with an audience. We were also happy to finally be partaking in a larger filmmaking community. We had spent far too much time in windowless editing suites over the last two years, so it was a real treat to be able to meet others who dedicate themselves to their work in a similar way.

Did you see any other good films at Sundance?

We unfortunately didn’t get to see as many films as we would have liked. But of those we did see, we both loved the short film "Salt Kiss" by Fellipe Gamarano Barbosa. It was naturalistic to the point of near-voyeurism, without ever really crossing that line. And it was beautifully acted and shot. A gem.

Note from Ingrid: I loved this short too - watch it online here: http://festival.sundance.org/2007/watch/film.aspx?which=813&category=SF

What other festivals has your film played at?

It had its international premiere at the Rotterdam International Film Festival, and will continue to SXSW, Florida Film Festival, the Independent Film Festival of Boston, and the Sarasota Film Festival. It's also showing at the Kunsthalle Wien in Austria for the month of February in a exhibition called “No United States”.

What are your favourite festivals and why?

This is our first go on the festival circuit, so we'll let you know in about a year…

What are you working on now?

Between the two of us, we have three films that we're trying to promote. We collaborated on another short called "The Delaware Project" which just had its premiere at the Rotterdam International Film Festival, and Brian collaborated with Aaron Hillis and Jennifer Loeber on a documentary called "Fish Kill Flea" that will be premiering at SXSW in about a month.

Find out more about Melanie and Brian's work at:
www.pigeonprojects.com

Matthew Killip is the Director of Master of Reality, which recently screened at Sundance. You can watch his film online here:

http://festival.sundance.org/2007/watch/film.aspx?which=806&category=DOC

When, how, and why did you start making films?

The first films I ever made were with my best friend in his bedroom. They were shot on a hi-8 camera that worked intermittently and edited on two VHS decks hooked up with gaffer tape. I think we were motivated out of a sense of curiosity and amusement at seeing our own badly realised ideas on the telly. I don't mean broadcast, I just mean you can play it back and it's on the TV in your room. Magic! Maybe it's funnier if there are also millions of other people watching, but probably not much.

Did you go to film school?

Yes, I went to the NFTS in Beaconsfield, UK. There are a lot of old people living in that town, and as a consequence it has some very fine charity shops.

Who are your favourite directors?

Werner Herzog + Robert Bresson

Favourite films?

Mouchette, True Stories, PARIS IS BURNING, The Unknown, Come and See, The Enigma of Kasper Hauser, Frankenstein,The Invisible Man, Lost Highway, Out of the Blue, The Beaver Trilogy, Beyond the Mat, Land of Silence and Darkness, Letter From an Unknown Woman, Juvenile Liasion, Starship Troopers, Scanners, Shivers, Le Courbeau, The Innocents, In a Lonely Place, Mondo Cane, Kes.

How did you come across Ronny?

I stumbled across his website "Texas Bone-Yard Wrestling". This was when he'd decided to rename himself Ronny Terror and give his whole back yard wrestling federation a horror twist. Unfortunately, Texas Bone-Yard Wrestling collapsed under the weight of it's own ambition shortly after its inception.

How long did it take you to make "Master of Reality"?

All in all it's probably taken somewhere in the region of five years... Two years to think about going to Texas to film with Ronny. Two weeks to actually do it (that was as long as I could afford). Three years to think about editing it (with occasional bursts of actual activity).

Bloody hell! Thinking about it now that's a really long time for such a short film. I've got to sort it out for next time.

How did you fund it?

I tried to get some British broadcasters interested in a film about a boy dressing up as bigfoot, smashing lightbulbs into his head and acting out eleborate horror scenarios, directed by myself, a novice with no directing credits to his name. Strangely, no one was biting.

So I decided to fund it myself. Luckily, after 9/11, American Airlines were offering 2 for 1 flights to entice the more jittery fliers back in the air so I was able to afford a trip to Texas with a friend and a borrowed camera for 2 weeks. We stayed in the most hookery/crackery motel ever! It was very exciting.

Can you make money from a short film?

Yes, I'm sure you can. But you probably need to have been quite smart about it from the get-go.

What were you doing when you found out your film got into Sundance? Did you dance a little jig?

I was in Romania when I found out. I was helping a friend (the very same one I first made films with) shoot a documentary about the Junior Eurovision Song Contest... Funnily enough, I did have a little dance. Partly because I was excited about getting into Sundance, but also partly, I must admit, because the Junior Eurovision tune playing at that moment was my favourite. It's by the twin sisters Tolmachev, if you must know. You can admire their work here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcIgbEpR1Qg

What other festivals has your film played at?

Britdoc + Dallas + Halloween

What are your favourite festivals and why?

I really liked Britdoc, and I think Rotterdam is boss.

What was the Sundance experience like for you?

It was enjoyable, and I met some lovely filmmakers and other people. Can't really argue with a hot tub in the snow, either.

Ronny was there wasn't he. How did he find it all?

I think he had a laugh. I lot of people told him they liked his work (which from my own limited experience is a nice feeling)... Living in Texas, he'd never seen snow before so I organised snowboarding lessons for us one day, but he pissed off to the bar after about half an hour.

What is Ronny doing now?

Ronny has written a feature length script about a transvestite terrorist spy. You can find out a little bit about it on his MySpace site I think: www.myspace.com/joebites

What are you working on now?

I'm just trying to come up with ideas for another film ... got a couple of things on the hob but nothing on the boil. Yet.

Ha! Max just sent me this photo of Michael Thornton and I hamming it up at the screening of Xiaolu Guo's How Is Your Fish Today? I didn't know my mouth could do that!

I saw a bunch of really great shorts at Sundance itself and I'm still working my way through the shorts that Sundance are streaming on their website. You can also download the films to own on iTunes for $1.99 each.

I just watched Scaredycat which I thought was a fascinating personal study of fear and what it makes us do and think. Watch it here:

http://festival.sundance.org/2007/watch/film.aspx?which=814&category=DOC

We had a really fun, sold-out screening of short films at the Pioneer Theater in New York last night. We screened two shorts from Sundance: Jonathan Hopkins' Goodbye Mr Snuggles and Matthew Killip's Master of Reality. Both films went down a treat. Goodbye Mr Snuggles is a great short film. Firstly it's just really short (under 6 minutes). It's also very funny, brilliantly acted, and beautifully shot.



You can judge Master of Reality for yourself because it's online here:

http://festival.sundance.org/2007/watch/film.aspx?which=806&category=DOC



Here's Jay from the Meerkatmedia Arts Collective at the Pioneer screening - he's holding one of the heavily sought-after meerkats from the Discovery party at Sundance. I gave it to him. It was hard to part with the cute little fella but Jay's collective has meerkat in the title and Shooting People doesn't it. So that was that!

You can download all 10 issues of the 07 Sundance Daily Insider here:

http://festival.sundance.org/2007/insider/

The Daily Insider is published every day throughout the fest and includes features, interviews, photos, back stories on films, and other good stuff like that.

I was at the Everything's Cool party when the nice Delta representative told us she would "cut us" if we spilled any wine on the airline chairs we were sitting in. It was a fine, surreal moment and AJ Schnack tells the story on his blog All These Wonderful Things - you can also read his Sundance film reviews here.

Here's the Park City Mayor (in a fantastically reflective jacket) and Evil Twin Booking's Scott Beibin in the aforementioned chairs.

This year at Sundance they were giving out big buttons that said FOCUS ON FILM. Clearly attempting to overcome the notion that Sundance has become a hyped up, Paris Hilton infested, celeb fest bubble, the buttons stand for good old fashioned love of film and the fest did indeed seem mellower this year - or maybe it's just because I stayed well away from Harry O's and Tao. Oh, and that place where celebs who quite frankly can afford to buy their own clothes, jewelry, lotions, potions, and Uggs, get all that stuff for free in return for some cheesy photos! I saw a lot of really great documentaries at Sundance this year - and unfortunately missed some too - and since we're focusing on film this is a very good thing indeed.



So here finally is a recap of some of the films I saw this year.

Manda Bala (Send a Bullet) and Hear and Now I wrote about earlier.
Manda Bala won two awards - the Grand Jury Prize for documentary and the documentary cinematography prize (Heloisa Passos was the cinematographer). Hear and Now won the Documentary Audience Award. You can see all the award winners here.

I loved The Monastery: Mr Vig and the Nun, a documentary by Pernille Rose Gronkjaer about an 82 year old Danish virgin, Mr Vig, who decides to turn his castle into a Russian Orthodox monastery. Sister Ambrosija is sent to appraise the falling down castle and Mr Vig and the strong willed nun develop a wonderfully antagonistic relationship - with the director often summoned by Vig to intervene. I think some people found the film too studied, but I was lost in it from the beginning. I laughed at Vig's nose obsession and the often hilarious bickering between Vig and the nun. I cried frequently as the seasons passed, the nuns sang and prayed, and the castle continued to fall apart and get repaired somewhat anarchically. And I marveled at a world that can create people like Mr Vig and Sister Ambrosija - and then bring them together in a derelict Danish Castle surrounded by cannabis plants to be filmed over 7 years by Gronkjaer.

I'm also a big fan of Jessica Yu's Protagonist. This documentary could have been a disaster (4 talking heads, puppets, a Greek chorus) but Yu pulls it off and manages to create an epic tale about masculinity, fate, and transition. I have no idea how she found her four protagonists - they are all so different from one another but tell their stories so brilliantly. Furthermore, their stories cast light on each other and come together to create a very powerful film about human destiny, and, oh, I don't think I should go on for fear of launching into some very purple prose (I've already typed "human destiny" for gawd's sake!).

I didn't like Zoo (dir: Robinson Devor) as much as a lot of other folk I spoke to at the fest - it just didn't take me anywhere beyond the headlines (Man dies in Pacific Northwest in 2005 after fucking a horse). It was beautifully shot and hypnotic in parts but I didn't come away with a greater understanding of what drove the men at the horse farm to do what they did, and I really didn't get the random interview with an actor half way through. What the hell was that about?

Ghosts of Abu Ghraib (dir: Rory Kennedy) didn't tell me anything I didn't already know but boy was it powerful to sit through this documentary and be reminded of recent events. It's not much fun but anyone who feels themselves getting Iraq/Afghanistan/Guantanamo coverage fatigue should watch this film.

Amir Bar-Lev's My Kid Could Paint That is a really clever exploration of ideas about art and art market hype, child prodigies, and the nature of truth and ethics in documentary. As a journalist remarks towards the end of the film, the story is really more about the complex, dishonest, media-saturated world of adults than about the story of Marla, who may or may not be a great artist. Here's a pic of me with No Budget Film School Mark Stolaroff in front of some of Marla's paintings. I don't know why I'm holding two drinks.



Crazy Love (dir: Dan Klores) is a jaw-dropping tale but with a profoundly disturbing and horrible outcome and I'm not really sure what to think about this documentary. It was almost too slick and too much fun (sharp editing, great soundtrack) and it was only afterwards that the true awfulness of the story really hit me. I don't want to give the story away but I was talking to a friend about this film during the fest and he mentioned the fact that so many Sundance films (both doc and narrative) concern violence against women in some way, in the past and present. I thought about it (Docs: Girl 27, Crazy Love, Bajo Juarez the city devouring it's daughters, Nanking; Narrative: Hounddog, Snow Angels, An American Crime, Trade) and realized the truth of what he was saying but I don't really know what to make of this. Are filmmakers and/or society becoming more aware of this issue? Or have I simply failed to notice a similar trend at fests in the past?

There are so many other docs I wish I had seen, especially The Devil Came on Horseback (dir: Annie Sundberg, Ricki Stern) and David Sington's In the Shadow of the Moon (which I hear is very moving and awe-inspiring), but there just wasn't enough time to see everything.

I managed to see two narrative features too (hooray):

I always love David Gordon Green films and I loved Snow Angels too but could have done with some happy pills afterwards. It certainly ain't sunshine and roses but Tim Orr's cinematography is wonderful as always and the relationship between the teenagers is incredibly sweet and true.

I'm useless when it comes to horror films or any film that is even vaguely scary, suspenseful, or eerie. I'm still recovering from watching Poltergeist when I was 10 years old! I did however manage to sit through Joshua (dir: George Ratliff) and I'm glad I did because it was very good. It plays like a sinister health warning on the psychological implications of having children, and the kid who played Joshua does everyday evil very well. But I'm not watching another scary film till I'm 53!

I watched a lot of great shorts too but I'll write more about these at a later date - and will include interviews with some of the filmmakers too. Right now I need to go and focus on film elsewhere.

In indieWIRE today - these are the Sundance 07 films that have been bought so far:

"Clubland" - rights in multiple territories acquired by Warner Independent Pictures

"Crazy Love" - North American rights acquired by Magnolia Pictures

"Dedication" - worldwide acquired by First Look Pictures and The Weinstein Company

"Enemies of Happiness" - acquired by Women Make Movies

"Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman" -- U.S. TV rights acquired by Sundance Channel

"Grace is Gone" - worldwide rights acquired by The Weinstein Company

"How She Move" - worldwide rights (excluding Canada) acquired by Paramount Vantage and MTV Films

"In The Shadow of the Moon" - North American rights acquired by ThinkFilm

"Joshua" - worldwide rights acquired by Fox Searchlight

"King of California" - acquired by First Look Pictures

"La Misma Luna" - worldwide rights acquired by Fox Searchlight and The Weinstein Company

"My Kid Could Paint That" - acquired by Sony Pictures Classics

"Nanking" - international rights (except China) acquired by Fortissimo Films

"Once" - North American rights acquired by Fox Searchlight

"The Signal" - English-language rights acquired by Magnolia Pictures

"Son of Rambow" - worldwide rights (excluding Japan, Germany, and French Free TV) acquired by Paramount Vantage

"The Ten" - acquired by ThinkFilm and City Lights

"Teeth" - apparently acquired by Lions Gate and The Weinstein Commpany (not officially confirmed)

"The Unforseen" - U.S. TV rights acquired by Sundance Channel

"Waitress" - worldwide rights acquired by Fox Searchlight

Read the indieWIRE article.

I went to a workshop led by Arin, Susan and Brian from Four Eyed Monsters at the New York Lounge in Park City last Thursday and I'm finally getting around to writing up my notes.



This workshop was a series of self-empowering techniques for going it alone in the world of distribution. Here are the bullet points.

Keep tabs on your audience, they are the key part of your distribution process. They kept track of the people requesting their film on their website (www.foureyedmonsters.com/) and also their MySpace friends - then they broke down these contacts by zipcode so they could see exactly where their fan bases were. ALWAYS save the email addresses of your fans/contacts/friends.

Their screenings during Undiscovered Gems were very successful because they used their mailing list to target very specific audiences.

Cinemas are very conservative and often insist on print and advertising (which is expensive and may not have much of an effect). They managed to arrange a series in September 06 where they played once a week on a Thursday in New York, Boston, Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles and San Francisco. They curated the experience, playing their podcasts beforehand, being there in person for Q&As, and throwing parties.

They followed the Peter Broderick model for DVD distribution, retaining all the rights and doing it themselves.

They plan to follow the day and date model with their next project.

You should consider streaming some content for free. You could even stream your entire film for free - you can end up selling more DVDs this way because people will see it and like it and want to give it to their friends etc (but be careful!).

Look at contracts very closely if you do decide to go with a distributor - you should negotiate to get the deal that is right for you and NEVER just sign the contract presented to you. Think of distribution deals as a partnership. Exclusive rights are really only good for television - it hurts you to go with exclusive rights elsewhere. They are fans of Lance Weiler (Head Trauma) and his workbook project.

They never made a print (which is expensive) - look for theaters that have digital projectors. However you should make a film print of your tailer because cinemas can't switch from digital to film and you want to make sure your trailer is played.

They sold tickets through brownpapertickets.com which they were very pleased with.

You should look at the exhibition of your film as part of the creative process.

Their online short content has powered a lot of what they have done - and this will become one of the best ways to make money as TV advertising tanks.

You should think about the reach of your media brand (not to sound too cynical!) - there is a huge opportunity here to leverage your product and yourselves as distribution channels proliferate.

You need to open properly to get reviewed but their week long run at Cinema Village in NYC wasn't so successful in terms of bums on seats so the distributors who didn't pick up Four Eyed Monsters after it premiered at Slamdance in 2005 were right! The traditional model doesn't work for all films and you should think about the best way to distribute your film.

Finally, to reiterate, the people you need to pay attention to are your audience.

I completely forgot to mention Filmmaker Magazine's Sundance coverage in my earlier post about where to get lots of good info on the fest. Scott Macaulay et al have lots of fine converage over at www.filmmakermagazine.com/sundance2007.

You can also read conversations with Sundance staff: Cara Mertes, Michelle Satter, Ken Brecher, Geoff Gilmore and John Cooper.