So, I don’t expect to sleep tonight. Nor do I expect to be able to concentrate for the morning tomorrow. Tomorrow, at 1pm, we find out about Sundance.
Now, for those of you who don’t know…for the past 5 or 6 years, if you were in Sundance (as a feature), you knew a week or two before. Calls were put out, and you were asked not to tell anyone, so you didn’t tell anyone except the publicist you were hiring (who immediately started positioning you for feature articles), your sales agent (who began positioning you to distributors), your principal cast and all their reps (so they could make plans to be there), and your principal crew. So, essentially…everyone. The couple weeks before the official Sundance announcement it was an open secret about who was going and who wasn’t.
but now, with the big push to take Sundance back to an independent festival, and keep it out of the hands of the agencies and studios…no one knows. A couple of things have gotten out. From what I know, 2 features know they are in, a couple filmmakers who have had films there before have gotten the gentle “no thank you” call…and that’s it. The rest of us will ACTUALLY find out when the rest of the world does.
And it’s killing me.
Sundance isn’t the be all, end all, on the festival circuit, but for a film like ours, it’s probably the best positioning. We are a truly independent production, funded through private equity, starring a great cast who fell in love with the project, and helmed by a first time feature director. It’s dark, and funny, and we have great response from the industry we’ve shown it to.
So, we would normally have heard by now. Either way.
Which, as much as I know the reality of the situation, and the fact that we won’t know until tomorrow (or Thursday if we’re selected for screening but not competition)…brings up the nervousness and insecurities that are just beneath the surface. What if the film isn’t good? What if the performances aren’t what we think? What if, in strategizing to keep it out of the hands of most people until we can announce our festival premiere, we have created an environment so insular we no longer can recognize what the film is?
What if everyone I know is lying, and they’ve all heard about every other film except this one? Or what if they’ve already heard bad news about this one, but don’t want to be the ones to tell us?
And so, I understand that tonight will be a sleepless night for me, with a useless morning until 1pm PST, when announcements are made.
Wish us luck.
Tags: A Little Help, business, business owner, film, producer, work life