Sundance 2010 – Park City

While I did not secure a press pass for the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, I managed through Shutterstock to get access to two events. Friday night there was the GenArt 7 Fresh Faces of Film and Sunday night the “HIGH school” movie premiere party.

Friday night I first went up to shoot the US Snowboarding Grand Prix which was from 7:00pm until 9:30pm. Shawn White was there to qualify for the Olympic team. After watching the same participants last week at the Dew Tour, then again Friday night, I waited to see Shawn White for the first time live as he missed the Dew Tour and was the last to go. He was amazing and definitely stood out as being the number one snowboarder. His air on each hit was at least ten feet higher than the rest of the field and the tricks were ones no one else was even trying. His run was nearly perfect at 49.50. He came right over me on the first run and I missed him as he was higher than I expected.

The second run I was more prepared and was able to get some good shots and at the awards ceremonies as well.

 

While the snow was gently falling for snowboarding, it started to dump around 10:00pm, right in time for the GenArt party. The red carpet was under a balcony while the press was not covered. It was hard to get around town and everyone was coated in snow. Here are few photos from that event:

 

It was interesting for me to see the press and actors work the red carpet. Being the first red carpet I have covered, it was quite the learning experience on the process, priority to certain photographers, the tracking of names to caption correctly later and getting the actors to look into my camera. Knowing their name helped a lot to get their attention. While none of them were big names they made sure everyone in the press got their name and the correct spelling of their name.

Sunday was the “HIGH school” premiere party before the premiere as the movie started at 11:30pm. The red carpet itself was not impressive. This time the photo area was in a hallway not more then five feet wide. I got a lot of close-ups. There were no lights so they temporally installed a fluorescent light box with four tubes pointed at the background. It was an awful light almost like a flickering spot light. The color was always changing and the fall out was huge. The bigger the star the more they posed and slower moving they were. Slower moving was a good thing. They also made sure each photographer got a good image of them.