Ben Richardson and Daniel Bird’s stop-motion animation movie SEED won Slamdance’s Grand Jury Sparky Award for Best Animated Short. Inspired by David Attenborough's wildlife documentaries, this post apocalyptic follows a battle between an egg and an apple as they build competing radio towers in order to grab the attention of a lone transistor radio. It is both fantastic and surreal. Ben says that they were “delighted in stop-motion's ability to turn real, physical objects into emotional beings.” The shoot took 605 days plus six months of pre-shoot. The filming took place in Prague because “the rich history of Czech animation and puppetry there means projects like this are taken more seriously. There are also a huge number of incredibly talented people with skills that are harder or very expensive to find elsewhere.” Ben says that “being invited to Slamdance was the very best end/beginning we could wish, and winning was more than we'd dared to hope for… winning felt like being reborn.”
Slamdance, however, wasn’t the only festival in town to showcase low budget films. This year Sundance added something new to their line up to reclaim the low budget spirit that is at the core of independent film. Under the banner NEXT and the descriptive logo < = > (less than equals greater than) eight films were presented.
Homewrecker's Brad Barnes and co-writer Sophie Goodhart.
Homewreckers was winner of the Best of Next Award. The comedy was directed by brothers Todd and Brad Barnes and co-written with Sophie Goodhart. They made this film because funding fell through on another project, so they went back to an old idea. Being aware of a limited budget, they worked on a script where, as Brad says, “a lot of decisions were made on what was producible. We wanted to do something we had total control over. We wrote things to be in one location.” The comedy about a locksmith who is on work release from prison and a free spirit blonde who convinces him to spy on her boyfriend was shot in thirteen days. They had two cameras running so they could have fewer set ups. “If there is limitation built in, it forces you to be creative.” Sophie adds that a limited budget “makes you more original. Makes you choose outside of what you might have decided before. [But] you don’t have to eliminate the main idea.” Brad says one of the great things about making a low budget films is that “there is no one else to answer to. We decided when to move on. We didn’t have to ask permission, didn’t have to submit budget. It’s a great feeling.”
Unbeaten's Steven C. Barber and gold medalilst, Oz.
Even if a film does not make into the festival, that does not mean you cannot market it there. Case in point is Steven C. Barber ‘s inspiring Unbeaten which he screened at the National Ability Center in Park City. The documentary starts with three paraplegic men as they train in wheelchairs for a 267 mile, six day race in Alaska, documents the grueling race itself and then follows elite handcyclist Oz Sanchez to the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing. Though shot over 3 years ago on a Sony PD150, it is just making it to Sundance. Steven insists “every time somebody would reject me, [the film] would get better.” After a donor disappeared, Dan Aykroyd heard about the picture and gave an introduction. A composer backed out of the picture, and then Clint Black stepped forward to write a song. “Every time I thought it was a rejection, it was kind of like success sneaking in the back door.” He recommends that aspiring filmmakers to “look at rejection as a jumping off point to get you to where you need to go.” He also believes in finding people who are better than yourself so you can hand your project off and it can get “bigger and more powerful.” He also adds that documentarians “shouldn’t be in the doc business to make money.” You must be passionate.
