MONDAY, MAY 26, 2008 - DAY 1
Since I decided to temporarily move out of Manhattan the
weekend right before the Monday I had to leave for the 2008 Sundance June
Directors Lab and planned to store all of my stuff at my mom's house in New
Jersey, I booked my flight to Utah out of Newark International Airport. After a
sleepless night of lugging boxes and packing for my trip, I arrived at Newark
Airport at around 6:00AM. Once I was through the belt-less sock-hop ritual at
the metal detectors, I was surprised to find Fillipe Barbosa (director of the
Sundance short films LA MUERTE ES PEQUEÑA and SALT KISS) waiting at the gate. A
fellow New Yorker and Columbia Film School classmate, Fillipe apparently asked
to be flown out of Newark instead JFK in order to have the company of a fellow
Sundance Labber on the flight (meaning me). I don't know why, though,
considering the guy finds it so easy to fall asleep in the sky that he pretty
much passed out as soon as the plane's wheels left the tarmac and remained
thoroughly unconscious until about 10 minutes before landing. It was a pretty
smooth flight and I actually caught some winks myself, which is unusual no
matter how long I'm awake before flying.
A driver met us at Baggage Claim when we got off of the airplane. The Tombstone Deep Dish Pizza vending machine at the Salt Lake City International Airport was pretty scary -- so scary I couldn't look away -- so scary, in fact, that I had to take a photo. I didn't see anyone actually attempt to use it, though. I think I would've had to shot some video footage of that...if it happened. Once the fellows Dan Casey and Liza Johnson got off thier respective airplanes, the driver took us to the Sundance Resort.
Sitting down to lunch in the giant white Meal Tent, what I immediately noticed was the number of people who are gathered here just to help us Directing Fellows shoot scenes from our feature screenplays. And they all seemed to know each other. As I at my lunch, I suddenly felt that particular brand of anxiety I call "the new kid at school."
A month or so before the Directors Lab, all of the
fellows were told to find two film scenes to break down into storyboards for
discussion in the "Camera to Tell Story Workshop." I wanted to do scene
from JESUS' SON -- the one where Jack Black and Billy Cruddup wander into an
abandoned drive-in movie theater and think it's a cemetery because they're high
on drugs -- and a scene from OLD BOY -- where Dae-su eats the live octopus. Since
I ended up doing neither of these scenes while back in New York, I pumped one out -- the
OLDBOY scene -- that first night before going to bed.
TUESDAY, MAY 27, 2008 - DAY 2
Most of the day was spent presenting and analyzing the
film scenes we were supposed to prepare before arriving on "The Mountain" -- which is what the regulars call the Sundance Resort. It's aptly nicknamed considering the resort is located...well...on a big mountain.
The film director Gyula Gazdag presided over
the event. At first, the whole thing felt like a rehash of some cutesy film
school class, but after we got back from lunch, I began to enjoy the whole thing.
We got through all of the fellows' first scene presentations before lunch. After
lunch some of the fellows presented their second scenes, but we ran out of time
before I had to a do a second one.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 25 - DAY 3
We spent the whole day doing a "Cinematography for
Directors Workshop" taught by Steven Poster (d.p. DONNIE DARKO). It was
fun. Of course we didn't learn how to shoot a movie in one day, but I'm a
sucker for any kind of cinematography instruction, no matter how remedial or
rudimentary. It's probably because I'm a wannabe D.P.
Steven Poster (white T-shirt) and Gyula Gazdag (green sweater & beige jacket) preside over the Cinematography for Directors Workshop.
THURSDAY, MAY 29, 2008 - DAY 4
I awoke at the usual 6:30AM, showered, and headed down
the mountain to grab breakfast before heading to the sound stage to begin
shooting the infamous OSSO BUCO exercise. When I arrived at Rehearsal Hall 2, I
quickly realized that I didn't want use the set that was built there and had
the crew tear it down - well, not exactly "tear" - they just had
remove the flats that constituted the walls of what looked like tacky, circa
1970's, Southwestern American den (complete with Bob Ross style oil painting of
some dusty Nevada landscape). My crew - the Blue Crew - made quick work of it,
though, and the whole thing disappeared in a matter of minutes. The shooting of the scene went fairly well. We got off to
a slow start, which is to be expected with a crew that is working together for
the first time, but everyone was amazing and I "made my day"...no problem.
Actors James and Dixie on the set of OSSO BUCO.
Jarin Blaschke (Director of Photography) sets up the shot behind Dixie and James
Actor J.J. (white shirt) prepares for his role. Script Supervisor Heather scribbles in the foreground.
FRIDAY, MAY 30, 2008 - DAY 5
Today we edited the OSSO BUCO exercise scenes. We had
fours hours, so needless to say it was pretty hectic. Especial considering the
OSSO BUCO exercise I shot was largely an editing experiment reminiscent of the
conversation scenes in THE LIMEY in which people speak in linear, sequential
dialogue as there images cycle nonlinearly through different parts of the
conversation. The great thing is that the experiment actually worked. The bad
this is that my editor were thrown out of our edit bay before we got a chance
to change the images to black & white. What I ended up with was a short
video exercise that employed an interesting editing technique, but which looked
kind of strange because it was shot for black & white but was shown in
color.
SATURDAY, MAY 31, 2008 - DAY 6
Today we attend the "Acting Workshop" with Joan
Scheckel. I had no idea an acting workshop would incorporate so much running -
literally three hours of it before lunch - and a good hour or so after. After dinner, the OSSO BUCO exercise scenes and the CREW
SHORT were screened for everyone in the Screening Room. The CREW SHORT, the film made by the various Sundance Directors Lab film crews in order to test out the equipment before the fellows arrive was a spoof on Indiana Jones. It was hilarious!
SUNDAY, JUNE 1, 2008 - DAY 7
It was a pretty light day today. Most of the fellows and
crew members slept in, skipping breakfast, coming down The Mountain for lunch
instead. The actors and advisors were scheduled to arrive today and most of
them arrived during lunch. After lunch we had Orientation, which consisted of
all of the fellows, actors and crew members gathering in the Screening Room
Lobby, standing up, and one by one, introducing themselves and their projects. Afterwards everyone drove up The Mountain to a parking
lot, then hiked the rest of the way up to the Elk Meadows to watch the release
of a rehabilitated Golden Eagle and get a blessing from a Native American (Ute
Tribe) shaman.
Sundancers gather at the Elk Meadow for the Ute Blessing.
The Sundancers stand in a circle as the shaman begins the blessing in the center.
Sundance crew members drive back down The Mountain after the blessing.