Cynematik • Cyndi Greening

(PARK CITY, UTAH - 29 Jan 2005)

Documentary/Dramatic

Documentary Grand Jury Prize:    
Eugene Jarecki for WHY WE FIGHT

Documentary Special Jury Prizes:    
Jessica Sanders for AFTER INNOCENCE

Dramatic Grand Jury Prize:    
Ira Sachs for FORTY SHADES OF BLUE

Dramatic Special Jury Prize:    
Rian Johnson for BRICK
Miranda July for ME AND YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW

World Dramatic/Documentary

World Documentary Jury Award:    
SHAPE OF THE MOON

World Documentary Special Awards:    
THE LIBERACE OF BAGHDAD
WALL

World Dramatic Jury Award:    
HERO

World Dramatic Special Awards:    
LIVE-IN MAID
FOREST
THE TREES

Directing

Documentary Directing Award:    
Jeff Feuerzeig for THE DEVIL AND DANIEL JOHNSTON

Dramatic Directing Award:    
Noah Baumbach for THE SQUID AND THE WHALE

Cinematography

Documentary Cinematography Award:    
Gary Griffin, THE EDUCATION OF SHELBY KNOX

Dramatic Cinematography Award:    
Amelia Vincent, HUSTLE & FLOW

Short Filmmaking

Short Filmmaking Award:    
Family Portrait

International Short Filmmaking Award:    
Wasp

Audience Awards

Documentary Audience Award:    
MURDERBALL

Dramatic Audience Award:    
BROTHERS

World Documentary Audience Award:    
SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL: THE JOURNEY OF ROMEO DALLAIRE

World Dramatic Audience Award:    
HUSTLE & FLOW

Special Jury Prizes

Special Jury Prize - Acting:    
Amy Adams, JUNEBUG
Lou Pucci, THUMBSUCKER

Special Jury Prize for Editing:    
MURDERBALL

Special Jury Prize for Short Film:    
BULLETS IN THE HOOD: A BED-STUY STORY

Specialty Categories

Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award:    
Noah Baumbach, THE SQUID AND THE WHALE

Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize:    
GRIZZLY MAN

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(PARK CITY, UTAH - 28 Jan 2005)
The screening of HARLAN COUNTY USA concluded with a Barbara Kopple Q&A, a song and a presentation by striking coal miners in Utah. Several miners from Carbon County, Utah spoke out about the Kingston family-owned coal mines and their inability to make the mines safer and get a better wage. Ironic (and sad) that Kopple’s film came out in 1976 and it is just as timely today (where we are now) as it was almost 30 years ago.

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(PARK CITY, UTAH - 28 Jan 2005)
We went to the 9:15 a.m. screening of Noah Baumbach’s THE SQUID AND THE WHALE and were both quite impressed with it. We both gave it a 5!! Jesse Eisenberg gave an incredibly nuanced performance as a teen caught up in the backwash of his parents’ divorce. Laura Linney and Jeff Daniels were also amazing (which is to be expected given their indie-cred). Young Owen Kline was terrific.

The performances were great and served the story well. The subject matter of the film and scenes could have easily devolved into a maudline, melodramatic slice of teen angst and Anglo-
American navel gazing BUT THIS FILM DIDN’T. It managed to plunge the unintentional cruelty parents inflict on their children as their own dreams and commitments collapse. Linney’s character maintained more dignity during the break-up (although the backstory indicates she may have been a bit messier prior to the point where we joined the story).

THE SQUID AND THE WHALE is a richly detailed drama with powerful performances that will resonate with a wide audience.

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(PARK CITY, UTAH - 28 Jan 2005)
One of the *BEST* things about attending the festival is hearing filmmakers discuss their creative process. One of the early breakouts of the film for me was Alice Wu’s SAVING FACE. Videographer Rayme Maldonado and Editor Mike Montesa put together a clip from the SAVING FACE Q&A (http://www.fotovizion.com/video/savingfaces1.mov) featuring Alice Wu, Joan Chen, Michelle Krusiec and Lynn Chen (Joan and Lynn are NOT related).

(NOTE: Mike will post Part 2 later today. Notice that while the name of the film is SAVING FACE, the filename is FACES (I can’t change it remotely). Mike also has several great Sundance Photo Albums on his site. Get a gander at the fest!)

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(PARK CITY, UTAH - 28 Jan 2005 - Alec Hart)
GreenCine and DivXNetworks announced the launch of the GreenCine Online Film Festival, presented by DivXNetworks. The GreenCine Online Film Festival will target high-quality, feature-length films screened by a jury of production executives, film journalists, talent agents and video technologists. To be held June 1st to June 26th on GreenCine.com, the new festival presents an opportunity for filmmakers to present their work to a global audience.

“For the first time, serious filmmakers have the chance to distribute their work in the highest level of visual quality to film lovers all over the world, rather than limiting viewership to a physical audience in one given city as you would in a traditional film festival,” said Dennis Woo, founder of GreenCine. “Thanks to the incredible efficiency of online delivery and DivX video, we can now help filmmakers open up distribution for festival-quality films to a much wider audience without sacrificing visual, artistic or commercial viability.”

The GreenCine Online Film Festival will offer two open competitions, in narrative features and documentary features. Ten finalists in each category will be available online for download in secure DivX format and open for voting by audiences for an Audience Award. Judges will determine the grand prize in each category, and Grand Prize winners will receive a cash award and will be screened theatrically in San Francisco, with all downloaded films to receive a generous percentage of the revenues. For complete information, go to: http://filmfestival.greencine.com.

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(PARK CITY, UTAH - 27 Jan 2005)
Our last screening of the day was Marcos Siega’s PRETTY PERSUASION starring Evan Rachel Wood and James Woods. During the Q&A, the screenwriter and director talked about how they had hoped to shed light on how much society pressures young women, forcing them to commit horrific acts. One audience member suggested the film did more reinforce those societal pressures than alleviate it.

Evan Rachel Wood is a PRETTY PERSUASION

Siega went on to say that Evan Rachel Wood had been attached to the project since she was 14. James Woods had been on board for three years, as well. Woods plays a vile-tongued racist who is completely checked out of his daughter’s life. As his daughter, Wood is a brilliant under-achiever who uses her intellect to charm, manipulate and destroy people around her. Alec (17) says that he couldn’t really say what the culture is for high school girls but, “no spends that much time thinking about that kind of stuff.”

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(PARK CITY, UTAH - 27 Jan 2005)
I met director Jessica Sander’s sister, Brittany at the bus stop. She was wearing an AFTER INNOCENCE beanie so I initially thought she was Jessica (there is a strong family resemblance). She told me that she had done the titles for AFTER INNOCENCE and that she was a Fine Art Book Artist. Her work is in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC). I told her about all of the positive things I’d been hearing about the film. She shared that the exonerees were all very private people but were so committed to helping others that they were willing to participate in the film.

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(PARK CITY, UTAH - 27 Jan 2005 - Alec Hart)
Everyone keeps commenting on how deserted Park City seems to be this year. The trades say there are more people attending than ever but we sure don’t know where they are. Sundance volunteer and Full Frame Documentary Festival programmer Israel Ehrisman (who we met at The Egyptian last year) offered his thoughts and observations on why there seemed to be so few people at Sundance 2005.

“There’s always a mid-week slump,” said Israel, “And, they added the Racquet Club and put the dramatic competition films over there which pulls a lot of people away from Main Street.” We had to agree that those certainly were factors. We were standing in line at the Holiday Village IV for RING OF FIRE: THE EMILE GRIFFITH STORY and the wait list was buying tickets. “It’s so strange. In the past, I would never have been able to get into a screening at The Holiday Village,” said Israel, “I am getting to see almost everything I want.”

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(PARK CITY, UTAH - 27 Jan 2005)
We had our first screening at the Racquet Club today. This is the newest Sundance venue with over 600 seats. (It reminded me of the Max Theatre at Telluride.) Anyway, we saw Craig Lucas’s THE DYING GAUL. Lucas has been to Sundance previously with LONGTIME COMPANION. His newest film stars Campbell Scott (who produced as well), Patricia Clarkson and Peter Sarsgaard. It’s the story of a screenwriter who sells a script to a studio executive and becomes intimately involved with the executive. The guilt of his recently deceased lover is exploited by the angry spouse.

Campbell Scott in THE DYING GAUL

Thus far, there haven’t really been very many “break-out” films this year. There are good films, earnest films, innovative films, even some inspiring films. With the exception of SAVING FACE, there hasn’t been much that’s blown me away. I won’t be going back home and raving about seven or eight great films (so far). We are seeing five films tomorrow and four on Saturday so there’s still a chance.

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(PARK CITY, UTAH - 27 Jan 2005)

Noah Baumbach’s dramatic competition film THE SQUID AND THE WHALE

HARLAN COUNTY U.S.A. (Barbara Kopple’s documentary and newest addition to the Sundance Collection) followed by a conversation with Kopple in the Filmmaker Lodge.

SHORTS PROGRAM 6

Marion Lipschutz and Rose Rosenblatt’s documentary THE EDUCATION OF SHELBY KNOX

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(PARK CITY, UTAH - 26 Jan 2005 - Alec Hart)
We just saw the documentary RING OF FIRE: THE EMILE GRIFFITH STORY about a 1962 boxing match between Emile Griffith and Bennie “Kid” Paret. At the weigh-in, Paret called Griffith a “maricon” (slang for faggot). The fight was for the welterweight championship and the third time they met. Griffith bludgeoned Paret into unconsciousness in the 12th round. Ten days later, he died.

I thought the film was put together extremely well; it captured the period very well. Even though I was born in 1987, I got a strong sense of what it was like to live in New York in the 60’s. The audience got insight into the life of a boxer. One of the journalists said, “Boxing is a sport in which the poor entertain the middle class.”

During the Q&A, director Ron Berger said the film had been purchased by NBC and would air on USA in April. I strongly recommend the film!

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(PARK CITY, UTAH - 26 Jan 2005)
Today, we attended the screening of Jessica Sanders‘ documentary AFTER INNOCENCE. Structured similarly to last year’s BORN INTO BROTHELS (which we saw in the same theatre AND was nominated yesterday for an Academy Award), the film interweaves stories of several men who were exonerated of the crimes for which they were convicted. After seeing an episode of the Phil Donahue Show on DNA evidence, many of the exonerees wrote to the organization founded by Barry Scheck. (Who says there’s nothing of value on television?)

Several of the subjects of the film participated in the Q&A following the film. There were lawyers from The Innocence Project attending as well. The film certainly has a great deal of value as a public service announcement and the stories were quite powerful. However, as a film, the narrative thread wanders a bit and could benefit from a bit more editing. Every blog raves about the film but it seems that they’re responding to the content more than the actual film. Regardless, it’s definitely worth seeing.

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(PARK CITY, UTAH - 26 Jan 2005)
Fountainhead’s Matthew Ross, Spectrum Mediaworks’ Jim Banister, Rooster Teeth’s Bernie Berns and Paul Marino (director of the Machinima Academy of Arts & Sciences) participated on an innovative, leading-edge panel on Machinima (defined as a combination of animated filmmaking in a 3D virtual environment in real time). This is exactly the type of panel that is ideal for Sundance. The reason I’ve been attending Sundance since 1996 is because it is a clear indicator of where the film industry and filmed entertainment markets are heading. Today, we saw the future and it was exciting.

MACHINIMA is a brilliant use of digital tools. Bernie Berns (I may be misspelling his name, this is the ONLY panel I’ve been to that did NOT have name cards) and his crew of three actually demonstrated the nitty-gritty of how to make a MACHINIMA film. I see applications for future animated filmmaking AND a terrific pre-visualization tool. (Matthew Ross said the Steven Spielberg had used MACHINIMA to plot camera moves on a recent film.)

Jim Banister compared MACHINIMA for animation to FLASH for the web. As a Flash (and Maya, Shake and Final Cut Pro) teacher, I could clearly see where he was leading the audience. The reason Flash files on the web are so small and load so quickly is that they send instructions to the computer to DRAW the content on the user’s computer. By harnessing the computer’s graphic processor, Flash’s instructions stay extremely small but the graphics can utilize the full rendering power of the whole screen. This is the same principle as MACHINIMA.

Here’s what you need to be a Machinimist:

• At least two X-Boxes (or other game engine)

• Halo II (or similar) games for each console
• Computer to capture video output from the game engine
• Microphone and audio capture software

Basically, you’re harnessing the game’s characters, environments and animation engine to render an animated film in real time. For the example today, they used Halo II. Here’s the process:

1. Hook the two X-Boxes together. The lead X-Box is the View of the Camera Man. The second X-Box is where the four characters are “acting” (you can actually add two more X-Boxes and have up to 12 characters). For an example of how this works, go to Red vs. Blue is the brainchild of Bernie Berns. His episodic tale is viewed online by a million viewers daily.
2. Instead of sending the video output to the television, send it to the computer video capture input.
3. Record the dialogue.
4. Location scout the environments in the game.
5. Rehearse your digital characters.
6. Record the video output
7. Edit and composite as desired.

In addition to making original animated films in real-time, you can use MACHINIMA to make animatics for pre-visualization. Paul Marino has a book out on the subject called The Art of Machinima which includes a fairly detailed “how-to”. Jim Banister also has a book on the topic called Word of Mouse. I predict that very soon there will be a game engine that accepts Maya characters and Photoshop texture maps and renders animated films for filmmakers with ease. I can hardly wait to see it! The model is already out there.

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(PARK CITY, UTAH - 26 Jan 2005)
“When you’re wrestling with new material, you’re envisioning it alone,” said Rodrigo Garcia in the Q&A following the screening of his film NINE LIVES. “The value of gifted actors is that they can enhance the characters and the film in ways beyond what you could have ever imagined.” Garcia went on to talk about how Marcia Gay Hamilton had draped a shoulder bag over her chest and wrestled with it during the scene (much as the character was wrestling with her past baggage). It wasn’t written into the script. It was created by Hamilton in her development of her character. Likewise, Glenn Close did not look at Dakota Fanning while they were in scenes together because Fanning’s character wasn’t really there. Again, this wasn’t something Garcia conceived but something Close brought.

Rodrigo Garcia

Garcia said that each of the nine stories was recorded separately. “In each case, the talent came to the location and we rehearsed and blocked for two days,” said Garcia. “Then, we spent one day recording. I thought we would do about fifteen takes per sequence but never did more than ten. It was simply to draining for the actors to do more than that. They knew they had to build the emotional tension of the scene and get it in one continuous take.”

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(PARK CITY, UTAH - 26 Jan 2005)

Dan Klores and Ron Berger’s documentary RING OF FIRE: THE EMILE GRIFFITH STORY.

Craig Lucas’s dramatic THE DYING GAUL.

Marcos Siega’s feature PRETTY PERSUASION.

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