Sundance Enters Digital Era by Jason Silverman 3:00 a.m. 21.Jan.99.PST PARK CITY, Utah -- The quick evolution of digital filmmaking -- some are calling it a digital revolution -- will be a focus of the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, which begins here Thursday. Just as 1915 is remembered for The Birth of a Nation, the first Hollywood epic, and 1927 for The Jazz Singer, the first talking picture, 1998 could go down in film history as a watershed for digital film. Three digital movies reached theaters last year, including Bennett Miller's documentary The Cruise, a horror film called The Last Broadcast, and Thomas Vinterberg's The Celebration, a likely candidate for a foreign language Oscar nomination. But unless you were reading indie publications like Res magazine, you might not have known. The New York Times and Roger Ebert, in reviews of The Cruise and The Celebration, did not use the word digital. Thanks in part to the festival's New Media and Technology Center, though, Sundance '99 is taking stock of recent advances in digital technology. During the 10 day festival, the New Media and Technology Center will host numerous events marking the rise of digital filmmaking. Included are demonstrations of Sony digital cameras and Avid nonlinear editing systems; panel discussions on digital cinematography, sound, and editing; a seminar exploring the changing realities of distribution in a digital world; and "The Digital Shoot-Out," a side-by-side demonstration of various formats, including Digital Beta, mini DV, Beta SP, Hi-8, and 35 mm film. According to Ian Calderon, a founder of and senior consultant to the Sundance Institute, the New Media and Technology Center, instituted in 1996, represents but one portion of Sundance's long history of commitment to video and digital filmmaking. In 1981, the Sundance Filmmakers Lab began using video as a "sketchpad" to work out problematic scenes before committing them to film. Nearly two decades later, video, Calderon said, is considered "finished product." "The independent-film community in 1981 considered video second class," Calderon said. "Fast forward to 1999, and digital video is becoming an accepted state-of-the-art technology for independent filmmakers. It can take a while to size up a new technology, but video and digital video are now fully engaged by the filmmaking community."

it's a great movie channel...

Our cable company doesn't carry it at present.

I get it on the dish out in Cedar Creek but not on our cable in Austin. I don't like having to put in one of those little black boxes.

Alexis Ferris and Jeffrey M. Brown are in a condo with as many as 13 people from their crew, trying to relax 18 hours before their film's big premiere at Sundance. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/artsentertainment/2002161821_sundance27.html I talk more about Sundance. See Spring's main page at http://spring.net

PARK CITY, Utah (Reuters) - If sex sells, as the advertising saying goes, the independent film world should be pleased with this year's Sundance Film Festival that features a slew of movies with explicit sexual themes and scenes. Teen sex, elderly sex and gay and oral sex fill a range of movies from dark comedy "Pretty Persuasion" to "How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer," about three generations of Mexican women. Among the most talked-about early films of the festival, which entered the second half of its 10-day run on Wednesday, was "Inside Deep Throat," a documentary that tells the story of the most famous porn film of all time and includes sexually explicit scenes from the original. Even the films that do not feature sexual scenes or themes seem stripped down to basic human emotions, such as former "Friends" star David Schwimmer's portrayal of a drunken casino boss whose life spins out of control in "Duane Hopwood." It seems to be working, so far, for the film distributors who show up at Sundance to acquire movies. Bidding has been hot. Paramount Pictures and MTV Films combined for a $9 million purchase of rap music film "Hustle & Flow." In recent years, the top deals at the festival ranged from $2 million to $5 million. The filmmakers say the sex in their movies is there for a reason, not just to challenge mores in an increasingly conservative United States. "The sex in our movie is designed specifically to hit on one issue ... underage sex and teen sex," said Marcos Siega, 35, director of "Pretty Persuasions. "I don't think adults realize how rampant sex is in the culture today." Siega's satire follows a high school girl, played by Evan Rachel Wood, who uses sex as a weapon to manipulate others. It has been a hot ticket in the first half of the festival as has "Garcia Girls," which explores the sexual longings of a teenage girl, her mother and her grandmother. THIS AIN'T HOLLYWOOD The low-budget indie arena has always been a place where moviemakers can freely explore sexual mores and norms, and the same can be said for writers and directors more concerned with human nature than Hollywood-style action and special effects. In "Hopwood," Schwimmer's fans from the old television hit "Friends" can see him spiral downward through divorce and a lost job due to alcoholism. Continued ... http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=entertainmentNews&storyID=7443106