New Inspiration

As I pack up and get ready for bed at 12:41 a.m. on Sunday; I have been reflecting on what I have seen and heard about the movies here at Sundance Film Festival 2008. Let me just cut to the chase; a lot of the movies here are not that good. I am always shocked at how these movies get "selected". Mostly they get picked is because they are 1) political 2) dealing with racial issues
3) contains sex 4) or are just plain weird. Dealing with the fourth issue, people here at Sundance love almost everything; they don't want to be the person asking questions like, "what the heck was that movie about" so they will say that it was great.

I have been really inspired after watching a few movies here especially since I am working up to shooting my senior project in the beginning of April. Most of the films here at Sundance are not even shot on film (35mm or 16mm) they shoot on HD which for the most part they don't even shoot on TRUE HD (the term HD gets thrown around so much that people have no clue what it actually means). Their stories don't seem well developed or even have the skills or technical aspects at their hands.

This is where I come in; I am shooting my senior project on 16mm with a film package grant that I was just accepted into last month. I am very grateful for this opportunity; I feel like with my knowledge that I may have a chance to get into the shorts section at Sundance (a short film is anything less than 90 min and mine will be around 15-20min). I am not saying my story is great or even that good, but I feel like I have been working on it a lot and been putting a lot of thought into it so I feel like it will probably turn out alright. I'm not saying I am going to submit my film; if it turns out nicely I might. It's just interesting to see what movies make it to Sundance and what people will call "good movies". I hope I do not turn into one of these people; if I do, slap me in the face or something.

(I'm not saying Sundance doesn't have quality films, but a lot of them here which you never hear about are crap. Great movies like Fargo, Unusual Suspects, American Movie, Garden State, Little Miss Sunshine, and so many more I could list came from Sundance.)