I started going to New Frontier on Main before it was called that, when it was just a warm, dark basement full of chilly festivalgoers and digital cameras and editing software. There were some classes, panel discussions, and no cell phone reception unless you went out the door and into the mall atrium (which now has signage announcing it as the “Cell Phone Atrium”).

Inside, it’s slicked up too—veering away from any trade show booth vibe and towards nightclub/art installation. One of the first big developments was to bring in the online shorts a few years ago; one of the most fun ways to warm up is to sit at one of the computers in the moody lighting and browse the shorts. From there you can move on to the video art installations, check out the irresistable “Artists and Scientists” segments, play with the “editing gloves”, and then choose from the Microcinema panels; some from Sony, Avid, and Panavision on technie stuff, plus issues-based panels with a timely focus on distribution. Oh, and you can see the entire Sony XDCAM lineup in one place. more

Shooting I Love You Phillip Morrs for Bad Santa directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, Xavier Perez’s biggest problem was the Louisiana rain and the summer light. In fact his toughest challenge never made it to the screen—a big shoot in Shreveport in the tank that conjured the storm in The Guardian. “It was pretty impressive,” says Perez of the tank and the logistics, “maybe it will be on the DVD.”

Two stocks: Kodak 5218 and 5229—one for the gentle colors at the beginning of the story and then a much more contrasty look as the true story of a love-crazed con (Jim Carrey) grows increasingly improbably in behalf of the beloved Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor).

As the light gets more contrasty, the camera movement gets increatingly dynamic, “frantic” is the word Perez uses for the feeling. But the angst was apparently all on screen. Perez credits the perfect collaboration with the directors; “we all had the same kind of mind and sense of humor.”

Premiered yesterday, continues Tues 9p.m. in Salt Lake at the Tower and at the Sundance Resort 6p.m. Saturday.

Somehow the tiny budget for Paper Heart paid for trips to Toronto, Paris, and about 12 states including—to the best of DP Jay Hunter’s recollection—California, New Mexico, Nevada, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee and New York, where the man shot 300 hours of Varicam footage in ten weeks. Not surprisingly he thinks Paper Heart’s lone editor Ryan Brown is a hero.

The film is in Dramatic Competition and premiered last night at the Racquet Club. Directed by Nicholas Jasenovec it tells a fictional story of Charlene Yi (the actress’/co-producer’s real name) through both a narrative thread and a documentary one. (The picture at right shows Jasenovec, Yi, and Brown). While Charlene’s story of skeptical love is fictional, her co-stars are not. Hunter says he shot the many interviews with non-actors—friends and acquaintances talking about love–in a narrative style using primes and very deliberate compositions, but that he also tried to shoot the narrative segments with the frankness of a documentary, “obeying the laws of reality.” more

I’m having Asia flashbacks as DP Brent Huffman talks about the big white elephant mall in Guangzhou, the largest mall in the world and an unaccepted failure of surreal proportions. For face-saving reasons, the Chinese government cannot abandon the unfinished (and nearly unoccupied) mall/amusement park with its construction hazards, enormous indoor rollercoaster (dubiously welded), oversized Teletubbies, and population of semi-employed workers and moms looking for something (unsafe) to do with bored toddlers. Which apparently includes launching them onto a river inside human-sized balloons filled with about two minutes of oxygen, to cavort to the point of mild asphyxia before they’re towed back in

How could this not be the subject for a documentary short? Utopia, Part 3: The World’s Largest Shopping Mall premiered last night in the Documentary Shorts program; as the title suggests, it is one segment of Sam Green and Carrie Lozano’s envisioned series on global expressions of utopia. more

Davis Guggenheim started the filmmaking process for It Might Get Loud with an inconspicuous tape recorder. Sitting in hotel rooms across from Jimmy Page, The Edge, and Jack White, he let conversation write the first draft of his documentary, laying down a map for the shooting that would unfold over the next 18 months.

It was a technique he learned “by accident” on An Inconvenient Truth as the best way to draw out Al Gore without the distraction of lights and cameras. For a different reason, cameras inhibit rockstars who are used to creating artifice and performance. But without an audience, all three could talk articulately and intimately about their lives, music and process. And with audio tape practically free, Guggenheim could roll indefinitely.

He then cut together a radio documentary-style outline; the conversations told the filmmakers where to go—to the house in Dublin where The Edge hid out with his songwriting demons and emerged with “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” to Headley Grange where Jimmy Page performed in a hallway where he once heard John Bottom play drums. more

Press Release

Filmmaker Technology Demos, Sponsored by Media Distributors and Sony Electronics, to be Presented January 16-19; Includes Format and Workflow Demonstrations

Media Distributors, a leading provider of services, systems, and products for professional audio and video production, announced that it will present a series of digital filmmaking seminars at the 15th annual Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, from Thursday, January 16 through Monday, January 19, from 2:00-4:00 pm each day. more

Press Release

2009 marks the 15th anniversary of the Slamdance Film Festival, one of the few remaining movie showcases whose sole mission is to nurture, support and introduce truly independent works from first-time filmmakers. The Festival has always prided itself on the eclectic, exciting, something-for-everyone mix of people, parties and events that it brings together every year in Park City. The 2009 Festival will remain true to that tradition, providing unique professional and social outlets for filmmakers, industry executives, the media, and the general public. more

Press Release

Gen Art is excited to announce that it will be co-hosting two important events at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, both celebrating actors who are committed to independent cinema: “7 Fresh Faces in Film” with 7 For All Mankind on January 16 and “It’s Better in the Dark” with Black - Kenneth Cole on January 17. Read on in The Briefing Room

More Sundance 2009 news from The Briefing Room

Press Release

Kodak will once again be an integral part of the Slamdance and Sundance film festivals, both on and off the big screen. The two festivals, which showcase independent film, run concurrently in Park City, Utah, beginning January 15.

At Slamdance, Kodak will present a fireside chat with eminent cinematographer John Bailey, ASC (As Good as it Gets, The Big Chill, The Accidental Tourist). Taking place January 16, the discussion will center on Bailey’s work on Brief Interviews with Hideous Men and The Greatest, which are both in the dramatic competition at Sundance. Bailey shot the two independent movies on Kodak 35mm motion picture film – both on limited budgets. Read on in The Briefing Room

More Sundance 2009 news from The Briefing Room

Throughout the opening of the Sundance Film Festival, filmmaker-hopefuls are pitching their movie ideas to the world at the Avid Technology booth in the New Frontier (333 Main St.).

In the contest, your 60-second pitch could result in a range of prizes including consulting time with Hollywood execs, a spot in the Sundance Independent Producers Conference, and Avid product packages. Stop by between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. Jan. 18-22 to get your pitch into the mix or upload a 60-second pitch clip of your own to the Perfect Pitch website.

Just today, Park City local John Servoss (pictured) threw his hat into the ring with a “race for the money” idea staged in the Utah mountains.

For full rules and regulations, as well as the list of prizes visit avid.com/pitch.