Director and screenwriter Laurie Collyer is in the Dramatic Competition with Sherrybaby. It’s just her second fictional film and she’s two for two at Sundance. The film was developed at the Sundance Filmmakers Lab and the Cinéfondation of the Cannes International Film Festival.

Collyer says the film was 5 years in the making and by the time she finally got her funding it was the wrong season of the year: summer. The lush palette of the season did suit the social realism or her story she says, or her vision, which was inspirted by neo-realist films. “I wanted to make a black and white film in color,” she explains.

So she and cinematographer Russell Fine (Naqoyqatsi) started capturing the too-rich summer colors and light, planning to deal with the issue in the DI. Collyer said she never doubted she would get the look she needed, acknowledging that colorists John Dowdell and Peter Headey made magic in collaboration with

Fine.

Tim Spitzer, Managing Director at Goldcrest Post Production started with already scanned HD D5 footage (normally Goldcrest would do the scans). The team did the editorial, some additional scans and went into DI on a Quantel eQ running Q color–the guts of Quantel’s new Pablo.

“As an independent filmmaker your choices of location and time of year are limited,” Collyer says. “The technolgoy we have now is such a blessing. The ability to make stylistic choices in post gives us incredible freedom.”

So…apparently the iTunes store sold 8 million videos at $1.99 apiece in 90 days at the end of last year.

Just came from a packed Digital Forum session at the Film Center–more than a 100 people, standing room only. All there to hear about “Cinema on the Move: New Mobile Technologies and the Next Wave of Filmmaking.” Like most conversation on this subject it was still quite general, but the subject has great momentum.

Forum moderator: Walt Mossberg, technology columnist for the Wall Street Journal. Participants came from worlds of short film, mobile phone and internet. It’s clear all these worlds need to spend a lot more time in dialog. They don’t speak the same language.

Here’s who was on the dais: more

Here are some opportunities to learn about DI at Sundance

2pm today, Film Center

444 RGB HD/DI

Renowned, Oscar-winning visual effects supervisor and emerging director Rob Legato walks you through cost-effective DI for the high end combining Sony HDCAM SR and desktop tools.

4pm today, Monday, Wed, and Fri, Film Center:

HD for Indies. Desktop DI workflow for both film and web deliverables. Session taught by filmmakers who have done it.

Today 2pm:

HP/Adobe hands on Sessions featuring Adobe products. Film Center Workshop area

Test drive the Adobe products on the HP platform. This is definitely hands on.

Also at 4pm join the session in workshop area. Talk to successful Adobe filmmakers.

Either way, make sure to get a first look at Adobe’s brand, brand new Production Studio product, which unites new releases of After Effects, Encord DVD, Audition, and a very professional reworking of Premiere Pro into a common interface, facilitated by some slick new file management tools. This product is worth a look for several reasons: first this is a serious rework on Premiere Pro and it must be seen, second if you are into media management and file organization and your workflow demands a lot of sharing among programs, you need to see the way this new file hand-off works. It’s hard to explain, but easy to understand when you see it.

Ask about it.

Jacob:

It was a year ago that Cynthia and I met and Dust to Glory was but a spec and still a workflow doubt on the radar. Anyhoo, before we talk about the new film Lbs. that I am post/DI supervising, I wanted to chime in about the new Sony signage down here in the digital center. There is a sign for XDCAM HD! And my curiousity is at an all time high. If Sony comes out with a Blu-Ray based Optical Camera that records HDCAM flavor 1440×1080p (23.98) to disk, then the game is over as far as which camera to look for. Umm, I can buy media in the store and get 1 expensive drive to read it… sounds like a great way to go. So… what are the specs sony? What details can Cynthia get out of them. I can’t wait for the future.

jacob

Sony’s Wayne Zuchowski clarifies:

The Sony XDCAM HD system does indeed record native 24p (1440×1080p) to optical disc, but it’s the Professional Optical Disc, not the consumer Blu-Ray. The pro disc is denser, comes in a rugged pro cartridge and will not be available at your local computer store. It’s easy to confuse Blu-Ray which was hot this month at CES with the professional media associated with the XDCAM systems.

Cynthia here: Yes, we are not going to overnight from decades of tape straight to commodity discs and cards. This after all still early days of a revolution. The bottom line is at this point in the history of digital filmmaking you really have to understand your own needs in imaging, media, costs, mastering, archiving…etc. There are a lot of volatile moving parts in any of these equations, so think accordingly.

If you’re here at Sundance come by the Film Center and you can see the debut of XDCAM HD.

Worth mentioning that the Film Center is one of the most comfortable and classy places to hang. Mies Van de Rohr furniture, great lighting (Sundance director of digital initiates Ian Calderon has a background in theater and dance production and it shows). Plus you can watch the online film festival down here and see the gear….

Panasonic DVX100 operated by Nick Mariani for Park City Television for the Sundance Channel and the Live@Sundance feature on the Sundance website. Read more on the DVX100 here.

Haskell Wexler is here with a particular sense of purpose. His film Who Needs Sleep? is in the Spectrum program after seven years in the making.

First screening is Sunday 8:30pm at the library. Wexler got the idea for the film on a very bad day when assistant cameraman Brent Hershman feel asleep at the wheel, crashed his car and died after a 19-hour workday. Hershman was just one of a legion of crew members who Wexler says are pushed into the danger zone by the film industry sweatshop. In addition to the film he‘s started a non-profit organization www.12on12off.org and joined with some 5000 film professionals to set sane and sustainable labor practices.

Wexler‘s passion for this particular cause extends to his conviction that cameras are tools of political participation. He‘s equally articulate about the give and take he experiences when he shoots film or video (he shot Who Needs Sleep? on a Sony PD150). more