Fiction author Robin Brande talks about writing, reading, and other vital matters

Some random tidbits from this week at Sundance:

–People do not observe proper sneezing and coughing etiquette (FYI: we always sneeze or cough into our sleeve, not our open hand, so we don’t spread the joy onto every single thing we touch), and so you can feel the disease spread throughout the jam-packed theaters and the even more jam-packed shuttle buses, and every time you see yet another person do the big slime lugey into their palm and wipe it on their pants (as if that sanitizes anything), you want to ask them to please go back to Girl Scouts and learn about manners and hygiene, if you don’t mind.

–People talk, and people are fascinating. You learn so much standing in lines and cramming together on buses–about which movies are secretly great and which secretly suck (thanks to friendly strangers, I dodged a real creepy movie yesterday and substituted the lovely Sunshine Cleaning); about which actors are and aren’t gracious to strangers they talk to around town; about random details like washing machine delivery men breaking the water pipe and flooding one woman’s home, and the insurance company demanding she pack up and leave within six hours of that so they could send in a crew to pull up the carpeting and put every stick of furniture in storage, and the woman ended up having to live in a hotel for three months, all because of a careless delivery man, so let that be a lesson to all of us; and other interesting stories.

–Everyone is so completely strung out by this time of the week–too little sleep, too many cookies and lattes, not enough exercise, too many hours in dark rooms watching some great and some truly awful films. Saw another really bad one today, and it was the first one I walked out of. Usually I’ll stick it out, but I just couldn’t see wasting even another minute of my life.

–Not everything that gets in is great cinema. In fact, sometimes you see a really amateurish film and wonder how in the world it ever got past even the first round. If I were a filmmaker with a decent flick that almost made the cut, and then I saw a few of these awful ones, I’d be pretty damn unhappy. It’s one thing to be beat out by a superior product, but the one I saw today could only be loved by the filmmaker’s mother. Sheesh.

–The days start early–up at 5:45 to stand in line to get tickets to the first morning show. By the evening movie at 6:30–after you’ve already seen two or three other movies that day–you’re pretty bleary-eyed, but also pretty happy. If you love movies, this is such a great way to spend a week.

–The best part (in my opinion) is the Q & A session after most of the screenings. The director and screenwriter (who are often the same person) get up there and give us all sorts of juicy behind-the-scenes details. I love it because it gives me a glimpse into the part I want to play. I’ve always loved movies, but it’s a different thing to be on the creation side of it instead of just the audience side. And to hear that some of these screenwriters worked for multiple years to get their projects made–one of the movies today took 10 years–is both daunting but also inspiring. If they can stick it out, so can I.

–The clothing here is pretty interesting. There are people like me in jeans and fleece and hiking boots, and then there’s the fancier crowd in fur coats and stiletto heels and private limos. And then there are the directors and screenwriters and movie stars in their jeans and t-shirts, and I just love to see that. I want my stars unfancified, thank you. Except at the Academy Awards or something. But otherwise, just relax and be natural and wear clothes that I can actually copy, please.

–Some of the movies here are so great you can’t believe you’re getting to see more than one of them a day. And some, as I’ve said, are so bad you can’t imagine who was drinking what when they voted that one in. But oh, well, it’s still interesting to see what other people like in their art. It teaches us something about who makes up an audience.

So there you go, just a few random thoughts that I’ve excluded from my last several posts.

I’m not actually sure whether any of you want to hear anything about my week here. It’s kind of like reading about books that aren’t going to come out for another nine months–you think, “Yeah, that’s interesting, but I’ll have forgotten it by the time it comes out.”

I’m also not sure if this isn’t just like reading about someone else’s vacation, or looking at all their pictures.

But on the off chance that some of you out there are actually curious about what it’s like up here (because I would be), I’ll just keep nattering away.

But not anymore tonight. Very tired tonight.

And the awards were announced earlier. Two of the movies I saw and loved–The Wackness and Man on Wire were big winners. Yay! Tomorrow morning I’ll be in line at the box office by 7:00 to get tickets to all the winners I want to see, but haven’t yet. And I guarantee I’ll be standing in line with at least 200 other people.

And hoping they understand about sneezing into their sleeve.

Technorati Tags: Sundance Film Festival, Film Festivals, Independent Films

Posted on Saturday, January 26th, 2008 at 9:44 pm under Movies & TV . Subscribe to responses: RSS 2.0 Comment Feed. . Comment, or trackback.