Sundance Film Festival

Park City’s been overcast and gray since Day 1, but this morning a brilliant platinum light tore a hole in the endless cloud cover and ignited the overlooking Wasatch peaks, back-lighting a sparkly veil of glassy no-see-ums, tiny ice crystals too delicate to form flakes, that danced on wafts of air until they melted in my face.

Yes, I admit the night before I’d seen Academy-award nominee (Taxi to the Dark Side) Alex Gibney’s latest masterwork, Gonzo, the Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, but I deny any pharmaceutical inspiration, at least this early in the morning, as I stop before the Yarrow Hotel to marvel at this floaty, twinkly, sun-lit scrim. Inside the Yarrow a press screening of Morgan Spurlock’s latest saga-in-cheek, Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?, is almost underway, and I race into the theater to find a seat just as the lights fall.

Both docus, I’m happy to report, are polished to high theatrical sheen with eye-catching graphics, animated illustrations (the great Ralph Steadman in Gonzo), and well-crafted high-definition cinematography (D.P. Maryse Alberti in Gonzo). Both acquaint audiences with past and present avatars of U.S. politics: the tragic George McGovern, smarmy Richard Nixon, idealistic Jimmy Carter (Gonzo); the hubristic tag team of W. and Osama (Where in the World…). Both deserve and will likely obtain limited theatrical runs (though Sundance 2008 has been notably short of acquisitions so far).

Indeed, well-produced documentary entertainments like Gibney’s and Spurlock’s, following in the footsteps of Michael Moore’s box-office successes, have raised the bar in terms of what the public expects of theatrical documentaries. Anyone who attends Thom Power’s superb Stranger Than Fiction series at the IFC Center in New York undoubtedly has noticed that documentary production values have climbed lately. This is partly due to 24p technology introduced in Panasonic’s DVX100 and later extended to low-budget HD in the form of Panasonic’s HVX200 and JVC’s HD100. (Sony’s popular Z1 is not progressive.)

But this morning’s national headlines tell us that, economically, we’re poised to follow Alice down the rabbit hole (not a reference to Gonzo-worthy substances but Phoebe in Wonderland, a magical Sundance film held together by the star-making turn of Elle Fanning, Dakota’s little sister), which has deep resonance here since many indie films are financed by hedge funds or their managers, or comparably wealthy folk who can afford losses and write-offs in exchange for a cherished producing credit. The fear felt here is that as the economy contracts, so will ready investment in quirky indie dramas and documentaries.

(Depending upon which figures you believe, 3,700 or so films were submitted this year to Sundance, 120 were chosen. What happens to the investments in those other 3,580? Now, consider that only a handful of the 120 will be picked up, and of those picked up, few if any will perform to distributors’ expectations, at least theatrically. Which is why, as an investment, your odds are better in Las Vegas. Perversely, indie filmmaking needs the rich to stay rich. But I digress.)

At a private Technicolor dinner last night, a veteran Canadian financier remarked to me that “runaway” production and post, which once flowed north to Toronto, now flows south to New York due to the record weakness of the U.S. dollar. With economic uncertainty growing at a time when expectations of screen quality are rising, even in low-cost productions, it’s almost providential that new 24p HD camcorders showcased at Sundance’s New Frontier technology lounge bring high-end technology into the realm of micro budgets for the first time.

Word of Sony’s EX1 is already out: a Handycam-type camcorder bearing both XDCAM EX and CineAlta logos for a strikingly low $7,790 MSRP. (See my detailed description here ) The Sony guys doing demos at New Frontier told me today that the EX1 has been “mobbed.”

Sony is also introducing, in February, a follow-up (not replacement) to the Z1 called the Z7 ($6,850) along with a shoulder-mount version of the Z7 called the S270 ($10,500). Both feature three 1/3″ progressive CMOS sensors; recording of HDV, DVCAM, and/or DV to both tape and Compact Flash; interchangeable lenses; a sharper viewfinder than the EX1; and sensitivity matching Sony’s PD150/170 series.

Don’t take my word for it: if you’re still at Sundance, check out the EX1’s or Z7’s superior low-light sensitivity in the darkened club-like environment of New Frontier, or peek through the outstanding color viewfinder of the Z7, to which Sony has mounted a 7mm Zeiss DigiPrime (using a Fujinon 2/3-in. to 1/3-in. optical adapter) along with a Chrosziel follow-focus with matte box and rods.

Yes, I know, the 7mm DigiPrime costs three times as much as the Z7, another sign of topsy-turvy times. But as the good Doctor Thompson said, “When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.”

Or at Sundance’s New Frontier, as the going gets tougher, companies like Sony are turning low-cost camcorders pro.

The good doctor also liked to say, “Buy the ticket take the ride.” With the EX1 and Z7, Sony has discounted the fare.

Which is why I expect even better-looking rides at Sundance in coming years, struggling economy or not.