Short filmmakers who are committed to being successful and catapulting their film career into motion have an amazing resource available to them. Former Sundance programmer Roberta Munroe has written a book entitled HOW NOT TO MAKE A SHORT FILM. During her five-year stint at Sundance, Roberta watched THOUSANDS of short films. She’s seen every mistake, every cliche, every bad choice beginning filmmakers make. And, she’s seen the films that shine, that stand out from the crowd, the films that launch careers.
If you’re thinking about making a short film, RUN (don’t walk) to the nearest bookstore. The book is a bible for short filmmakers. Among the things Roberta covers: how to keep your story fresh, getting your story to the right length, finding and keeping a great producer, finding the money, getting the talent, getting into an A-tier festival and using your film to launch your career. It is simply excellent. There’s even a cliche list of things to avoid. It is painful to find something you wrote on the list but infinitely better than losing a shot at a festival because you didn’t know every lame short has that cliche in it. Get the book. Read the book.
There’s even a better option for short filmmakers. Roberta offers a one-on-one consulting service. She’ll review your script, let you know if it’s worth your time and effort to make and, if it is, offer notes and detailed advice on how to strengthen it for the A-tier film circuit. If you’re working on a feature, she can help you with that as well.
I sent her a short script I’d been loving for a couple of years and the guys were wanting to shoot. Before we committed the time to do it (because we have so many other projects going on), I wanted to get her thoughts on it. She was direct and thorough in her analysis of the characters and the story. She offered concrete suggestions (without rewriting it or making it her story) to bring it up a notch. She cut to the chase and now I’m more enthused than ever about doing it. More importantly, the film will be stronger because of her input.
So, if you’re a short filmmaker, read the book and consider having Roberta read your material. It may make the difference between a tepid response and a rapid rise in the festival circuit.
While we were at Sundance, Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States. Everything stopped at Sundance on that Tuesday morning. We all watched the proceedings and then returned to our panels, screenings and meetings. Amazingly, the night before, we attended a screening of PROM NIGHT IN MISSISSIPPI about a town that just finally had an integrated prom in the spring of 2008. That’s right, 2008.
From the Sundance film guide, ” In 1997, Academy Award–winning actor Morgan Freeman offered to pay for the senior prom at Charleston High School in Mississippi under one condition: the prom had to be racially integrated. His offer was ignored. In 2008, Freeman offered again. This time the school board accepted, and history was made. Charleston High School had its first-ever integrated prom—in 2008! Until then, blacks and whites had had separate proms even though their classrooms have been integrated for decades. Canadian filmmaker Paul Saltzman follows students, teachers, and parents in the lead-up to the big day. Freeman addresses the student body. Girls shop for dresses and get their hair done. Boys rent tuxedoes and buy corsages. These seemingly inconsequential rites of passage suddenly become profound as the weight of history falls on teenage shoulders. We quickly learn that change does not come easily in this sleepy Delta town. Freeman’s generosity fans the flames of racism—and racism in Charleston has a distinctly generational tinge. Some white parents forbid their children to attend the integrated prom and hold a separate white-only dance. ""Billy Joe,"" an enlightened white senior, appears on camera in shadow, fearing his racist parents will disown him if they know his true feelings. Prom Night In Mississippi captures a big moment in a small town, where hope finally blossoms in black, white, and a whole lot of taffeta.”
As I said in the posting about ADAM, I keep promising myself that I’ll break the videos that Michael Montesa shot into shorter, 10-minute chunks for posting on YouTube but, thus far, time doesn’t seem to be appearing. So, I’m doing the lazy human version, linking to his site so you can enjoy the video in this lifetime! Thanks to Michael for his prompt posting and diligent recording!! Go check out his wonderful photos and videos at MichaelMontesa.com!
I wasn’t able to attend the screening of ADAM, I was on an airport run. I keep promising myself that I’ll break the videos that Michael Montesa shot into shorter, 10-minute chunks for posting on YouTube but, thus far, time doesn’t seem to be appearing. So, I’m doing the lazy human version, linking to his site so you can enjoy the video in this lifetime! Thanks to Michael for his prompt posting and diligent recording!! Go check out his wonderful photos and videos at MichaelMontesa.com!
From the Sundance Film Guide, "In movies, when two twentysomethings serendipitously wind up under the same Manhattan roof, witty repartee usually transpires, then sparks fly, and eventually they fall into bed. But the boy and the girl in Adam are no ordinary characters, and their romance is anything but familiar. Soon after moving in, Beth, a brainy, beautiful writer, encounters Adam, the handsome, but odd, fellow in the downstairs apartment. A pleasant chemistry flows, but his awkwardness is perplexing. Whether avoiding eye contact or standing by blithely while Beth drags a heavy load up steep stairs, Adam seems utterly oblivious to social convention. Then one night, Adam regales Beth with an elaborate outer-space light show. It’s a magical moment, tainted slightly by his obsessively thorough astronomical explanation. Their connection is palpable. It becomes clear that Adam’s inability to decipher nonverbal signals is beyond his control. And yet Beth doesn’t balk. Their mutual interest tentatively takes root.What makes this rare story about obstacles to human intimacy credible is its tremendous psychological wisdom; what makes it transcendent is the intelligence and authenticity radiating from actors Hugh Dancy and Rose Byrne. Though their particular challenges are extraordinary, Beth and Adam’s tricky relationship elucidates something universal: truly reaching another person means bravely stretching into discomfiting territory—and the shake-up can be liberating." CAST: Hugh Dancy, Rose Byrne, Frankie Faison, Peter Gallagher, Amy Irving, Mark Linn-Baker
It was announced today that there is a big squabble over who really made the agreement for PUSH: FROM THE NOVEL BY SAPPHIRE. It seems that Harvey Weinstein (The Weinstein Company) is claiming that they had a prior, negotiated deal for the distribution of PUSH and that Cinetic’s John Sloss and Bart Walker used that agreement to secure a more lucrative agreement with Lionsgate. Lionsgate and TWC filed lawsuits against each other yesterday. Both sides are claiming ownership and the simultaneous filing is simply both sides staking out their territory.
In 2001, Lee Daniels was a producer on the Academy-Award-winning MONSTER’S BALL. The film was distributed by Lionsgate. Perhaps everyone is hoping for Academy lightning to strike again … Daniels does seem to have the midas touch.
There was a fabulous Panel Discussion on Distribution at Sundance 2009. It was an honest, direct look at what it takes to get an independent film into the marketplace. The MP3 audio file is available on the Cinematech website. The entire panel is nearly 90 minutes, great to listen to while you drive.
It’s also been posted in two segments on YouTube now.
It was announced today that Lionsgate acquired PUSH: FROM THE NOVEL BY SAPPHIRE for $5.5 million. The deal did not close until almost a week following the festival but it is, by all accounts, the largest acquisition of the festival. There are certain marketing challenges inherent in getting this film out there but, typically, powerful stories find a way of cracking the marketplace.
One of the champions of the film was OPRAH WINFREY. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Oprah Winfrey, “The moment I saw “Push: Based on the novel by Sapphire,” I knew I wanted to do whatever I could to encourage other people to see Tyler Perry, Mariah Carey and Lenny Kravitz. The deal was brokered by Cinetic’s John Sloss.
About three days ago, I posted the PUSH Q&A from the 2009 Sundance Film Festival on YouTube. There are nearly a thousand hits already. People are really excited about this film. As far as I know, it doesn’t have distribution, yet (although there is an internet rumor that Lionsgate may be negotiating for it). The YouTube link is in three sections (because everything has to be less than ten minutes) so I’m posting the PUSH Q&A as a SINGLE 56 MB file here. The resolution is only 320×180 but at least the Q&A is intact.
My favorite sections? When Mariah Carey thanks director Lee Daniels for taking a shot on her. I am told that Carey’s performance was terrific … NOT diva-ish at all. There’s an extraordinary moment with Mo’Nique (who was given a Special Jury Prize for her performance in PUSH) when an audience member asks her what she’ll wear to the Oscars. “Nothing,” is her reply. Now, that I would have to see. It would make Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction seem pretty tame.
It’s Super Bowl Sunday. The Arizona Cardinals are in Tampa (and they’re not doing very well right now). Alec is getting ready to return to NYC. He and Pacino have some projects that need to get completed in the next few weeks. The 2009 Sundance Film Festival is a memory, now. I’m still processing and posting videos from the festival. I’ve been going through the photos, too. I found one of Alec that I really liked. I don’t know for sure who took it or where it was taken. The ubiquitous Sundance lanyard is around his neck.
Part 1 of 3
One of the BEST things about attending the Sundance Film Festival (or any festival for that matter) is hearing the artists speaking about their projects. I was (sooo tragically) unable to attend PUSH because I had to do some press for our documentary. Alec and Mike came back raving about the film. Alec said he wanted to see it again … if there were any way possible … he’d go again at Sundance before we left. That told me that the film was amazing and incredible. I am very grateful that the guys captured the Q&A following the Friday evening screening at the Racquet Club in Park City, Utah. I had to break it into three parts to put it on YouTube. Enjoy.
At least ten movies that screened at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival found distribution during the festival including SPREAD, the film featuring Producer/Actor Ashton Kutcher as a “kept man” (no typecasting there) for a reported $3.5 million by Anchor Bay Films. AN EDUCATION, starting Peter Sarsgaard (one of my favorite actors) was picked up by Sony Pictures Classics for $3 million. Sony Pictures Classics also played a role in the purchase of a film I heard very little about, BROOKLYN’S FINEST, which sold for $3 million to Senator Entertainment. Sony also paid a little less than $2 million for the blaxploitation film BLACK DYNAMITE. Magnolia picked up HUMPDAY for the mid-six figures as well. IFC got the British comedy IN THE LOOP and the Norwegian horror film DEAD SNOW. Late in the festival, Arthouse Films acquired the documentary ART & COPY.
I adore Gael Garcia Bernal. Ever since AMORES PERROS, he’s been on my “must watch” list. Teaming up with Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN’s Diego Luna, Bernal’s RUDO Y CURSI was featured at Sundance 2009. The film arrived with distribution already secured. Two other films already had distribution when they screened: ADVENTURELAND, a coming-of-age tale set in an amusement park picked up by Miramax, and Fox Searchlight’s 500 DAYS OF SUMMER starring Joseph Gordon Leavitt and the ever enchanting Zooey Deschanel.
A few films left without distribution in place, most notably the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award Winning PUSH based on the novel by Sapphire. Also left out in the cold were COLD SOULS starring Paul Giamatti and I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS starring Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor. Susan Sarandon and Pierce Brosnan’s family tragedy film, THE GREATEST and the winsome Michael Cera’s PAPER HEART also screened to enthusiastic audiences but no purchasers.
PUSH, a film based on a novel by African-American Poet Sapphire screened tonight and, according to Alec, it is an amazing and powerful film. He said the characters were so clearly drawn and the world so complete, he was lost in it from beginning to end. Even dampened his eyes at the end.
According to “NaySue” on the internet, the lead role of Claireece “Precious” Jones was almost NOT offered to the actress who played her because … she almost didn’t go to the audition. She was late (everyone from casting was packing up). Granted, it is going to be a lot of work for an actress to be in a story about incest, H.I.V. and the hope of redemption. The search had gone on for months in audition rooms all across the country but, when Gabby Sidibe was allowed to audition, she blew everyone away.
Ms. Sidibe cannot explain the wave of emotion she tapped into that day, in a performance that got her a meeting with the director, Lee Daniels, and the starring role in his movie less than a week later. She even found a link to the audition! To be honest, I could not go to the movie tonight. I had an article to write, blogging to get caught up on AND they put my mother in the hospital this evening (after several hours in the emergency room), so push came to shove and I missed what is probably going to end up being one of the best films of the year … sure hope PUSH gets distribution and I can catch up with it soon.
Opening Night Movie AND Opening Night Party! I was able to get two tickets to the opening night party held at the Legacy Lounge. After driving for 12 hours (that’s right, 12 hours) to get to Sundance, I just wasn’t all that eager to go out and shake my groove thang in the frigid Utah air. So, I asked the guys if they wanted to go “network” with other film folks. They assured me they were ready to do the difficult work and get the ball rolling. So, here it is, the shot of them working … into the weeeeee hours of the morning. Oy vey, Momma, better them than me.
While I was watching MARY AND MAX, the opening film at Sundance, I kept thinking that it all seemed so familiar. The style of the claymation characters, the sensibility of the storytelling, and the director. It all just seemed so familiar.The director, Adam Elliott made a funny comment that being a stop-motion animation filmmaker was like making love and being stabbed to death at the same time. Oh the pleasure and the pain. It seems that only a true purist with a high threshold for pain would embrace clay animation. MARY AND MAX involved a 57-week shoot with 212 puppets, 133 sets and more than 1,026 mouths cast so the characters can speak. What was paining me was not knowing why it all seemed so familiar. And then, (after a few short minutes on the internet), I remembered. Adam Elliott was the same fellow who did the short film HARVIE KRUMPET. The Academy-Award Winning film (2003) was at Sundance 2004. Harvie was a one-testicled fellow who married a nurse and raised an adopted Thalidomide daughter. Like MARY AND MAX, Harvie was a typically-flawed human (a familiar theme from Elliott) who had a number of surprisingly gruesome life experiences and lots of graphic body functions. Like Harvie, Max and Mary endured difficult existences but found peace and satisfaction at the end. At the end of MARY AND MAX, I found myself crying for them, for me, for all of humanity. Such fragile creatures we humans are.
In all the years that I’ve been coming to the Sundance Film Festival I’ve never been able to get tickets to the Opening Night film … NEVER, until now! Finally, the premiere of the whole event. The excitement in the town was palpable! It was so crowded we almost didn’t make it to the film at all. Our cabbie had to race us there and throw us out right in front. We ran to the theater with four (4!) minutes to spare.
The Eccles Theater is the largest venue at Sundance but opening night it was even more full than usual so we ended up down in the front row (not the perfect seat in most theaters but there is a small stage in front so it doesn’t require that horrible crooked neck syndrome in the local multiplex). The crowd grew louder as the start time came and the minutes ticked by … eight more minutes passed while the staff continued to work to fill those last few empty seats with “waitlisters.”
Finally the lights dimmed … the crowd hushed … and we waited … staring in the dark. There were a bunch of press guys down front so it looked like there was going to be some sort of introduction but no one came out. We looked toward the screen. Waiting. In the brightness of a spotlight, a podium suddenly appeared “stage left.” Then, from the darkness of the wings, a figure stepped out into the light. It took half a second to recognize Robert Redford but once we did the press corps went wild!
I had hoped he would be there and was thrilled to be right up front to hear him speak about his hope for our country (with the coming political change) and his hope for the film industry in particular. He started with how scary it can be when you don’t know what’s coming, “what’s next.” He went on to say that surprises can also bring opportunity. It’s a weird year at Sundance … there are far fewer people than usual, fewer sponsors, the New Media Center has changed a lot, and I’m wondering if it will prove to have been a wise decision to come. Time will tell.
Former Sundance programmer Roberta Munroe has written a book entitled HOW NOT TO MAKE A SHORT FILM. During her five-year stint at Sundance, Roberta watched THOUSANDS of short films. She’s seen every mistake, every cliche, every bad choice beginning filmmakers make. And, she’s seen the films that shine, that stand out from the crowd, the films that launch careers. 
how to keep your story fresh, getting your story to the right length, finding and keeping a great producer, finding the money, getting the talent, getting into an A-tier festival and using your film to launch your career. It is simply excellent. There’s even a cliche list of things to avoid. It is painful to find something you wrote on the list but infinitely better than losing a shot at a festival because you didn’t know every lame short has that cliche in it. Get the book. Read the book.
We quickly learn that change does not come easily in this sleepy Delta town. Freeman’s generosity fans the flames of racism—and racism in Charleston has a distinctly generational tinge. Some white parents forbid their children to attend the integrated prom and hold a separate white-only dance. ""Billy Joe,"" an enlightened white senior, appears on camera in shadow, fearing his racist parents will disown him if they know his true feelings. Prom Night In Mississippi captures a big moment in a small town, where hope finally blossoms in black, white, and a whole lot of taffeta.”
My favorite sections? When Mariah Carey thanks director Lee Daniels for taking a shot on her. I am told that Carey’s performance was terrific … NOT diva-ish at all. There’s an extraordinary moment with Mo’Nique (who was given a Special Jury Prize for her performance in PUSH) when an audience member asks her what she’ll wear to the Oscars. “Nothing,” is her reply. Now, that I would have to see. It would make Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction seem pretty tame.
PUSH, a film based on a novel by African-American Poet Sapphire screened tonight and, according to Alec, it is an amazing and powerful film. He said the characters were so clearly drawn and the world so complete, he was lost in it from beginning to end. Even dampened his eyes at the end. 
Opening Night Movie AND Opening Night Party! I was able to get two tickets to the opening night party held at the Legacy Lounge. After driving for 12 hours (that’s right, 12 hours) to get to Sundance, I just wasn’t all that eager to go out and shake my groove thang in the frigid Utah air. So, I asked the guys if they wanted to go “network” with other film folks. They assured me they were ready to do the difficult work and get the ball rolling. So, here it is, the shot of them working … into the weeeeee hours of the morning. Oy vey, Momma, better them than me.
The director, Adam Elliott made a funny comment that being a stop-motion animation filmmaker was like making love and being stabbed to death at the same time. Oh the pleasure and the pain. It seems that only a true purist with a high threshold for pain would embrace clay animation. MARY AND MAX involved a 57-week shoot with 212 puppets, 133 sets and more than 1,026 mouths cast so the characters can speak. What was paining me was not knowing why it all seemed so familiar. And then, (after a few short minutes on the internet), I remembered. 
Adam Elliott was the same fellow who did the short film HARVIE KRUMPET. The Academy-Award Winning film (2003) was at Sundance 2004. Harvie was a one-testicled fellow who married a nurse and raised an adopted Thalidomide daughter. Like MARY AND MAX, Harvie was a typically-flawed human (a familiar theme from Elliott) who had a number of surprisingly gruesome life experiences and lots of graphic body functions. Like Harvie, Max and Mary endured difficult existences but found peace and satisfaction at the end. At the end of MARY AND MAX, I found myself crying for them, for me, for all of humanity. Such fragile creatures we humans are. 
Finally the lights dimmed … the crowd hushed … and we waited … staring in the dark. There were a bunch of press guys down front so it looked like there was going to be some sort of introduction but no one came out. We looked toward the screen. Waiting. In the brightness of a spotlight, a podium suddenly appeared “stage left.” Then, from the darkness of the wings, a figure stepped out into the light. It took half a second to recognize Robert Redford but once we did the press corps went wild! 