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Our Pilgrim looks at ROAD TO PARK CITY
Hey folks, hadn't heard a thing about this film, so I pass it on to you... What have you heard? This Pilgrim seemed to really latch onto it. What say you?
I just saw the pseudo-documentary "Road to Park City" at a screening of winners from the New
England Film and Video Festival, and I was so impressed that I felt that I should notify you of
the movie's excessive hilarity.
Man, this movie kicked ass. It's written and directed by Bret Stern, who I guess has done a
couple of other features that I've never seen. It starred John Viener as John Viener, a career
Production Assistant who decides one day that he's going to make an independent film and take
it to Sundance. In order to become a director, he purchases a baseball cap.
The movie was so god damned funny, I can barely describe. I work on independent films, so I'm
familiar with all of the film crap that John Viener has to learn about throughout the course of
the film, so it was extra funny for me, but the people I was with (non-film people) were also
laughing their asses off.
I don't know what will become of this fine film, but I hope that it will get into Sundance, as
they certainly earned a shot by saying the word "sundance" about 800 times during the hour and
a half movie. I hope it finds a distributor, as I actually would like to see it again. It was
so good, though, I'm not too worried. This won't be the last time you hear about "Road to Park
City."
Pilgrim
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I was interning at the festival that night, and had screened the movie before it premiered. Interestingly, it started out as a 27 minute short and developed into the 73-minute mockumentary (think "And God Spoke") that was shown. Interestingly, according to director Stern, Boston Film/Video Foundation, the group that runs the festival, accepted the film at its short running time, but allowed the filmmakers to keep adding to it. One of the first scenes in the film has Jon approaching an indie filmmaker about how to be a director, and the only advice the director can give him is, "you'll need a hat." This had been added since I screened a video copy a month ago. It actually adds to the ending, having seen this new early scene. The movie, apparently, is based on a book by Stern, which may have the same name as the film's subtitle, "How to make a movie without getting arrested." Perhaps that could help.
Also at festival that night, Bobby Loves Mangos, Lo & Jo, The Apple is Delicious, and Between Worlds. Heard of any of those, Harry?
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Why the hell do so many filmakers make films about filmaking? Nobody else cares about the process other than the people doing it. I read so many damn scripts about writers holding development execs hostage to get a quick read, and directors robbing convience stores to finish their films-- It s like "Hey! Your writing a screenplay, good for you. Now why don't you write about something other people care about." Actually, sort of like this post.
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This one is VERY tongue-in-cheek about the industry. For example, this is not Robert Rodgriguez here talking about making guerilla-budget action films, this is an IDIOT (played convincingly by Viener) who has no script, no money, no equipment (or the knowledge how to use it), no luck, and friends who not only won't help him, but are doing bettter at making films than he is. The only thing that keeps him going is the deluded notion that not only will he make it IN to Sundance, but that he will WIN at sundance. It's drive like that I haven't seen since Rudy. Also, it's very educational. How many comedies can you say that about these days?
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The movie sounds good, and I'll check it out, but only because it is of a subject interesting to me (otherwise I wouldn't be typing on this site right now). I guess I just wanted to publically encourage young writers and directors to exert some energy to create something bigger than their immediate "world". Filmmaking stories are so small in concept-- I mean they are basically the same joke over and over again-- and the punchline isn't that funny unless you've been through the process. You want to make an impression with your creative effort? Show the audience (be it a studio exec or a person in a theater), something NEW. Create a world we have not seen before. Pay attention to the details of that world because life is in the details (or whatever that saying is). I think most of the "great" movies do this and the rest live or die on random factors. I will more than likely post a better argument when the bright white flashes of light behind my eyes stop reminding me that $1.50 Coors is not that great a deal...
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I saw R2PC as a Work in Progress at the Independant Feature Film Market in New York last September. Shameless plug warning-my film, Island, was screened there as well. Anyway, I thought it was pretty funny, after watching it the biggest problem I thought it had was that the general public wouldn't get a lot of the jokes. One of the funniest scenes was when he went to get his film develop at the lab. You had to be a real "film dork" to get a lot of the humor. Fortunately I am so I laughed. In all fairness I only saw thirty minutes of it so it could be completly different now. The director before the screening, trying to get people to attend would yell out things like, "Come see R2PC it's funnier than Saving Private Ryan" or "It's less confusing then Mission Impossible." Funny guy.
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