posted 01-28-2004 01:52 PM                       

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Article Last Updated: Tuesday, January 13, 2004 - 4:57:27 PM MST

Dim the lights, start the movies

Film festival and Park City are ready to do the dance

By Nan Chalat-Noaker, Record editor

In an empty city building surrounded by snowbanks, the heartbeat of 2004 Sundance Film Festival is palpable. Projectors are whirring amid stacks of metal shipping cases as a crew of technicians work with magnifying lenses to assemble each of the 240 titles that will be screened over the next 10 days
as part of the Sundance Film Festival.

Bill Hill, the festival's projection and revision manager is keenly aware of the importance of their task. Many of the first-time filmmakers' careers hang on the success of their screenings during the festival. Many have sunk their life's savings into this one chance to gain the attention (and
financial backing) of a big studio.

"This is their baby, says the 14-year Sundance veteran. "Sometimes they want to be here to look over our shoulder, and we let them do it. We walk them through the whole process.

[photograph caption: Bill Hill, a 14-year veteran of the Print Traffic department for The Sundance Festival and his crew will assemble and inspect more than 240 films and deliver them to theaters around Park City over the next 10 days. Grayson West/Park Record]

According to Hill, each of 11 screens in Park City that are used by Sundance, has only one 35 mm projector. Some the smaller reels for each film that arrive in the days (sometimes minutes) before the festival begins must be "built onto Hill's giant silver reels.

"We look at every piece of film at tape that will be shown, he explains. The big reels are then transported by a crew of print runners, many of whom are filmmakers themselves they return each year to help Hill make sure the right film gets to the right theater at the right time.

Though, Hill remembers when the festival did not have a technical director and the Egyptian Theater was the festival's main venue (the Eccles Center hadn't been built yet), he proudly states, "We are world class now. And he disappears behind a black curtain to continue inspecting the latest shipment of films.

There is also a buzz of excitement at the festival box office at the bottom of Swede Alley where volunteers have been printing out and assembling all of the online ticket orders. They are also busy fielding questions about ticket availability, selling tickets to the Music Caf nighttime performances and handing out free tickets to the post festival Best of Fest screenings in Park City, Salt Lake City and at Sundance resort.

"There are just a handful of screenings still available, said festival box office manager Alice Hummons on Tuesday afternoon. Among those tickets still on sale, she said, were a few for the Short Programs and Midnight Screenings. As in previous years, Hummons said there were also a limited number of tickets for the Jan. 25 slots left open for the dramatic and documentary award winners.

"But we will be releasing tickets throughout the festival, she said adding that the best advice she can offer is to go directly to the theater an hour before the film you want to see is playing. There wait list cards will be handed out for $10 in cash. Thirty minutes before screening time wait-listers will be given tickets or will get their money back.

In the meantime, the rest of the city is bracing for 10 days of great films, gnarly traffic, a blizzard of handbills and hours of people-watching. For more information about the Sundance Film Festival log on to sundance.org

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