Amy Broadfoot reports on Sundance
Amy Broadfoot has just completed a two month North American networking tour on behalf of her new film marketing business Amičko Films. Along the way she presented five client's films at the Denver Underground FF, had drinks with the SXSW team, lunched with indie film guru John Pierson, talked macro diets with LA film producers, and coffeed it up with the Denver, Dallas, Mexican, San Fran' and LA film festivals, all before the madness of Sundance. This is her blog:
My mission: pitch, network, learn and watch. Sleep and food were the last priority. So Sundance, let's rock n' roll...
I racked up about 60 hours of work in 4 days so I think a step by step account of this would be a hell boring read, so here's a taster of a typical day at Sundance.
Day one: 6am start. Bus ride from Salt Lake City to the home of Sundance, Park City situated in the snowy mountains of Utah. Picked up industry pass and along the way met E! online news journo. Then straight into the Internet Evolution panel which discussed cloud technology and internet 3.0 and how this relates to the indie filmmaker. Then meeting with the CEO of IndieGoGo a new website where you can pitch and raise funds for your latest artist project, interesting stuff! Run to a meeting with the lovely Director of distribution for UK based company Independent, talk film industry hoo-ahh, pitch Amičko clients to a warm response, finish chat with a healthy whinge about Avatar. Now off to the New Frontier to play with new film technologies and catch a presentation by Joseph Gorden-Levitt on this brain child HitRECord.org, truly amazing medium using cloud technology to collaborate with artists world wide for interactive film production. Then to an industry reception (yay free food and drinks), mingle with filmmakers and festival programmers. Time check, can still make late night screening of The Red Chapel which ended up winning Best International Documentary. 17 hour day done, time for bed.
Amičko Films represented three WA films at Sundance, feature documentary 'More 4 Me' by Lincoln Fenner staring Marina Prior, new Perrella and Osborn short film 'It's Just Gary' and 'Fugue' by Jamie Helmer. Amy booked meetings with industry heads on their behalf to drum up attention with international sales agents, festivals and distribution, at one point she had festival programmers peering each other's shoulders to get a look at our catalogue.
My mission: pitch, network, learn and watch. Sleep and food were the last priority. So Sundance, let's rock n' roll...
The Egyptian Theatre - the hub of Sundance
I racked up about 60 hours of work in 4 days so I think a step by step account of this would be a hell boring read, so here's a taster of a typical day at Sundance.
Day one: 6am start. Bus ride from Salt Lake City to the home of Sundance, Park City situated in the snowy mountains of Utah. Picked up industry pass and along the way met E! online news journo. Then straight into the Internet Evolution panel which discussed cloud technology and internet 3.0 and how this relates to the indie filmmaker. Then meeting with the CEO of IndieGoGo a new website where you can pitch and raise funds for your latest artist project, interesting stuff! Run to a meeting with the lovely Director of distribution for UK based company Independent, talk film industry hoo-ahh, pitch Amičko clients to a warm response, finish chat with a healthy whinge about Avatar. Now off to the New Frontier to play with new film technologies and catch a presentation by Joseph Gorden-Levitt on this brain child HitRECord.org, truly amazing medium using cloud technology to collaborate with artists world wide for interactive film production. Then to an industry reception (yay free food and drinks), mingle with filmmakers and festival programmers. Time check, can still make late night screening of The Red Chapel which ended up winning Best International Documentary. 17 hour day done, time for bed.
Dan Gorden-Levitt who happily explained his brother's brain child HitRECord.org
But to recap on the whole Sundance experience, I have to say it was a bit of a let down as far as leading film festivals go. The general industry opinion is that Sundance has peaked, and although still good, it has had its time and we should now be watching new comer SXSW to take over the reigns. 'What, Sundance not so cool?' you say, sadly yes. It's expensive, it's not very user friendly and the admin team do a average job. Perhaps we have too higher expectations of the mighty and all powerful Sundance. But due to the reasons above the industry are choosing to attend other festivals such as Toronto IFF or my personal favourite Karlovy Vary IFF. Don't get me wrong, Im glad I went and the visit proved extremely successful for my clients so big thank you to ScreenWest for providing my travel grant, but I'm in no rush to go again. We'll just have to see what Locarno IFF brings for Amičko Films in August.
Installations in the New Frontier
Amičko Films represented three WA films at Sundance, feature documentary 'More 4 Me' by Lincoln Fenner staring Marina Prior, new Perrella and Osborn short film 'It's Just Gary' and 'Fugue' by Jamie Helmer. Amy booked meetings with industry heads on their behalf to drum up attention with international sales agents, festivals and distribution, at one point she had festival programmers peering each other's shoulders to get a look at our catalogue.
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