Welcome to Post.

After a lovely morning spent surrounding the TV watching history, the RIS crew hugged it out, shook off the warm fuzzies and got back to action.

Teamwork is the theme of the day, as everyone crowds round the powerful Dell machines running the CS4 suites that make it all possible. Progress was made, with editors mouse flying and motion graphic artists pens scratching as fast as directors ideas could spill from their lips. Time is ticking, the screening a mere 80 hours away......

Work Work Work

11:30pm -
The weekend has little or no meaning at the festival. Days seem to blend together into a mix of movies, shooting, editing, design, promotion, parties and of course bit of the ole' mentor downhill.

As the hour grows late here, all teams have finished their teaser trailers for the upcoming documentaries and you can view them here:
http://youtube.com/realideasstudio

But I digress, because before Sunday comes Saturday, here's what you may have missed....

S-days:
TEAM EIGHT
Attended a seminar and learn more about the workflow of film post production and the various options that people have in terms of which medium (film or digital and which type of film or digital format would be best) should be used based on the type of filming people are doing. Never really thought about the g-forces involved when one bungee jumps and what effect that would have a digital camera that uses dv tape. Following that we had the honor of attending the independent film “Weather Girl” which was actually a pretty good flick. Very funny with a very good cast whose chemistry was undeniable. At this point the only thing that remained was going out and gathering some footage of our subject for our film. The footage that we gathered was, well, quite interesting to say the least. It ranged from lost guitars and the drama they cause all the way to singing cab rides. Good times.


TEAM THREE
On the search for Dirty Dan Matt and we headed to the Canyon slopes for some B-roll of the Rockies. We managed a free ride on the Gondola to the top and got some great footage. Earlier we thought about going for a hot air balloon ride, but instead stuck Matt's camera out the window of the Gondola and got some areal views while riding down the mountain.

Upon our return to Park City, we managed to get some great interviews from people only to return to the house realizing that we had major sound problems with our interviews. We all spent about two hours freaking out and then settled our emotions with an $80 Thai dinner for four. We didn't leave the restaurant until we felt tired and happy.

Tomorrow we will reconnect with our film.

TEAM ONE
This is team one. We had a pleasant shoot today as well as an intense scripting session. Everything went according to plan and it was almost surreal. We cannot discuss further about what we shot and where for reasons everyone will find out on the screening day. Over and out.

GO!

9am:

On this cold January morning finds our intrepid filmmakers making the brisk walk from The Chateau Apres to their production studio high in the hills of Park City. Here they pitch their documentary ideas to the RIS mentors and receive their first tutorials on the cutting edge CS4 software suite from program sponsors Adobe. Cameras in hand, our teams will then take to the streets and hills of Park City in search of their story.

Deciding daily what to do is often the biggest problem and day one is no different....

1pm:

After gaining full access to Slamdance now, some of the students used the inspiration from the mentor meetings to finally put vision to their thoughts; while others made their way to the Slamdance headquarters at the Treasure Mountain Inn for a fireside chat about filmmaking presented by Kodak and hosted by cinematographer John Bailey. Even with technical malfunctions which reduced his clips to being shown on a 13” television, he managed to eloquently convey his points with his examples of documentaries that he was a part of or made by respected colleagues.

After the lecture, members of RIS approached the moderator and filmmaker Lorette Bayle who took a genuine interest in our RIS program and expressed how impressed she was of the steps the students were taking to fulfill our dreams. She even followed up her feelings by inviting us to the Kodak party on Tuesday to join them in their celebration of sponsoring both the Slamdance and Sundance festivals.

3pm: TEAM DIRTY REPORTS IN

Malak received five emails from her Craigslist post to find Dirty Dan. We got leads that took us to the Treasure Mountain Inn. After eating lunch we asked a local cop to give us an interview. Turns out we forgot to get tapes from the house where the equipment resides. We made the uphill trek back to the mountain house and retrieved the tapes. After some camera trouble we headed out again, not expecting to find too much in the first day. We interviewed Steve, a man who owns a candy shop and who gave us the original lead about a no named man who for years has walked down Main Street every day with his skis. We went to the Volunteer Center and found Joan who made a few phone calls and successfully nailing down the pseudo name of Dirty Dan. Some people who have seen him around town but only know him by the nickname of Dirty or Desert Dan.

After the first two days, it seems the town of Park City shuns the man, or the legend, of Dirty Dan who mysteriously walks the streets with a long gray beard and a pair of skis.

5pm:

More notes from the field as another team reports in...

Alright, so started off our second day at Park City continuing work on our short documentary. Our group had decided to study an interesting guy by the name of Big Chicago Mike and get some more information on his organization and what he was all about. On the surface that may sound a bit too much on the informative side, but after meeting Mike the four of us have reached a unanimous decision that there’s definitely going to be something more to this. Our thoughts were confirmed while we got to hang out at the Spur Bar & Grill where Mike was MCing while various bands and solo artists from around the country played in order to not only get noticed but to also provide and share quality; unique music for all those in attendance. The most interesting person we got to see was on stage was Victoria Vox a young girl whose instrument of choice was none other than a ukulele. I was as skeptical at first as those of you who are probably reading this right now, however, Victoria, as you’ll most likely see, made it work in a phenomenal way. Quite talented to say the least. Anyway, beyond ukulele’s, Mike hooked us up with an interesting event today. I won’t spoil the surprise for all of you.

9pm:

Another day done, the RIS crew spread the love with some people taking in an evening filmwhile the thirsty found their friends at the Slamdance happy hour.

Set....

Real Ideas Studio supports those who support indie filmmakers and creatives, and few support indie and emerging creatives like the good people at Slamdance.   As a sponsor of the 2009 Slamdance Film Festival, the emerging filmmakers of RIS receive full accreditation  and access to the true Indie films that comprise the festival's program.

And what would a festival be without parties? Finding kindered spirits is always easier with libations and the sound some live music.  This was certainly the case when the RIS crew rolled into the invite only Slamdance opening night party at the Star Bar.  Rubbing elbows with the festival's featured filmmakers and the cast and crew of some of TV's most provocative series, the RIS crew was right at home dancing the night away.  Knowing that their work would truly begin with sun  rise in the cold morning sky, they took full advantage of  a warm welcome.

Ready...

On January 14th emerging and established filmmakers alike began arriving from points global to Park City Utah to partake in a one of a kind experience at the Slamdance and Sundance Film Festivals 

With 25,000 plus frequent flier miles amassed, our filmmakers finally converged and met their respective teams.   After introductions, the brainstorming began like a blizzard dumping inches of fresh ideas over the Park City landscape.