from Darroch Greer

Lest we forget, some of the best drama occurs in sports. But who has the time to watch movies and follow baseball? How many devoted film fans watch NFL Films? How about this: What‘s the last film you saw where the lead character never leaves the screen? Never.

Visual media artists Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno, a Scotsman and French Algerian, had some time to kill in Jerusalem while installing an exhibit back in 1996. They got a football - that‘s soccer ball to us stateside - and kicked it around for three days, while also kicking around ideas. What if they could make a documentary about their favorite footballer (soccer player), and how might it be different than just a fawning documentary portrait?

“What if we were to make a film where the central character was, literally, always central,” Gordon asks, rhetorically. “If action was happening off that character, then that action would be missed. Originally, we thought of Zidane: a 21st Century Portrait as a more traditional narrative film. And then we thought, why not take it out of the traditional narrative and put it into something that is the same time structure as a feature film - and that would be a football match.” [Soccer games last 90 minutes.] “So, that was how we thrashed out an early strategy….We really wanted him to be the central character in a film that would construct its own narrative.” more

With the ‘07 Sundance Film Festival now in full swing, Festival Director Geoffrey Gilmore shares his thoughts on the how this year‘s lineup fits into the history of independent film, how Sundance is celebrating the emergence of a new arena, and what he hopes you‘ll take with you when you leave Park City.

Insider: This is your 17th year as Director of the Sundance Film Festival. How many films have you watched in that time?

Gilmore: It‘s almost impossible to know for sure, but my best guess is that it‘s over 15,000.

Insider: During your tenure, you‘ve witnessed the explosion of independent film - both creatively and in the marketplace. In the films at this year‘s Festival, how do you see that evolution of American independent film continuing?

Gilmore: I‘m sure not everyone would agree with me, but I think there‘s been a gradual and graceful evolution of independent film over the years and I particularly see it this year when it seems we‘ve entered a new phase. The independent world seems to be maturing in terms of subject matter and also a new level of sophistication in the craft. We‘re seeing work that encompasses broader visions and spirit. I really do have a sense of a new form of American independent film as an engaged cinema. Read more

Zoe Cassavetes, a multi-talented artist, has worked in many facets of filmmaking. Zoe‘s first film, Broken English, will premiere in the Dramatic competition at 2007 Sundance Film Festival. She has also just completed directing an in-house video for hotel mogul Andre Balazs, as well as three-minute short advertisement for French handbag company Lamarthe in the Nouvelle Vauge style starring Elletra Rosselini.

She began her career by creating and hosting the experimental digital video show High Octane with longtime friend Sofia Coppola. Airing in 1993 on Comedy Central, the show mixed cultural commentary with humorous skits and featured Martin Scorsese, The Beastie Boys, and Keanu Reeves and experimental artists such as painter Robert Williams and stunt driver Buddy Joe Hooker. more

I met Satjiv Chahil (pictured at right with Sundance’s Ian Calderon), when he was at Apple (he founded the New Media division). At that time, he and his colleagues were talking about things that seemed a long way off–digital networks that allowed you to use desktop computers to make and move content, whether around a facility or to remote collaborators. At that time people could only just begin to envision that network extending to audiences–this was before digital cinema and before video sharing on the web. But the “what if,” was there even then. Now Chahil is SVP, Global Marketing, Personal Systems Group at HP. Now he and other Apple/HP colleagues like HP CTO Shane Robison are in the thick of that vision coming true.

“For people in technology it seems these things take much longer than we expect,” he says wryly, as we talk at New Frontier on Main, . Yet at the same time Chahil marvels that HP is now at the center of what gets called an ecosystem by many people these days. The word is awkward but evocative. more

Check out daily videos at www.sundancechannel.com/festival/

The Sundance Film Festival‘s longstanding commitment to documentary has been driven by the personal connection Founder and President Robert Redford feels for the form. Leading up to the premiere of Chicago 10, the second doc to ever open the Festival, The Insider talked to Redford about the past, present, and possible future of documentaries.

Insider: You made an early commitment to documentary. Why was that?

Redford: A lot of what Sundance is today has to do with my early impressions as a kid. I grew up in a working class neighborhood in Los Angeles and our main entertainment was going to the movie theatre on Saturday night. I remember being impressed by the Pathe newsreels, which were really an early form of documentaries. They brought you information, including images of the Second World War that was going on, and if you had relatives in the war there was a personal connection that probably hooked me. There was also something about the grainy sense of reality that really stood out against the feature presentations of narrative films and animation. So the early genesis of this goes back to being very impressed with those newsreels. Read more

Two very different projects for DP Tim Orr at this year’s Sundance. See previous posting for his account of shooting still, composed frames for Mike White, using older Fuji stocks that provided the retro grain structure and contrast that the director was looking for in his gentle comedy.

Snow Angels was a very different story. Orr frequently collaborates with director David Green (Snow Angels is their best work he thinks). In that project–shot in a dark and frigid Nova Scotia February–Orr executed what he described as a kind of dance with the actors, trusted by his director to essentially edit with his camera. more

Remarkable conversation with DP Tim Orr who‘s here with Mike White‘s Year of the Dog and David Green‘s Snow Angels. Two very different jobs.

Year of the Dog: Otto Nemenz Movicam compacts, Cooke S4 lenses with Optimo zooms. Fuji 8563 daylight and what Orr thinks was probably the last remaining Fuji 8573 tungsten on the planet.

“One of Mike‘s biggest references on the film was the Errol Morris documentary Gates of Heaven. He wanted his movie to feel a lot like the portraiture in that film. He didn‘t want it to feel contemporary in the physical texture of the film, he didn‘t want it to look like every other modern movie mde. I tested a lot of stocks for him and he decided to shoot these older Fuji stocks. The grain structure was definitely apparent and had a tangible nature to it. Today, with the new Kodak and Fuji stocks it‘s hard to see grain in them anywhere. The older Fuji stocks also had a little bit lower contrast. more

Remarkable conversation with DP Tim Orr who‘s here with Mike White‘s Year of the Dog and David Green‘s Snow Angels. Two very different jobs.

Year of the Dog: Otto Nemenz Movicam compacts, Cooke S4 lenses with Optimo zooms. Fuji 8563 daylight and what Orr thinks was probably the last remaining Fuji 8573 tungsten on the planet.

“One of Mike‘s biggest references on the film was the Errol Morris documentary Gates of Heaven. He wanted his movie to feel a lot like the portraiture in that film. He didn‘t want it to feel contemporary in the physical texture of the film, he didn‘t want it to look like every other modern movie mde. I tested a lot of stocks for him and he decided to shoot these older Fuji stocks. The grain structure was definitely apparent and had a tangible nature to it. Today, with the new Kodak and Fuji stocks it‘s hard to see grain in them anywhere. The older Fuji stocks also had a little bit lower contrast. more

HP is displaying their Digital Content Creation Workstations in the New Frontier on Main. Here is a collection of photos of the ongoings over the past couple of days.

You can also keep up with HP managers and their experiences at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival in their Backstage at Sundance 2007 Blog. more