At this year’s film festival epicenter of Park City, Utah, the presence of the advertising community was stronger than ever. People came and consumed, promoted and acquired in vast quantities. As with the spot arena, the proliferation of dot com companies, hungry for content and eyeballs, was immense. Was the NODANCE Film & Multimedia Festival relevant to the advertising industry, as I presented in a "Your Shot" a few months ago? Yes—but in unexpected ways.
As a talent market, Park City in January 2000 was an exciting place to find the next hot young director. For our alternative festival, NODANCE.com, the popularity of the shorts program this year legitimized what folks in commercials have known for years: You can tell a compelling story in a short period of time. The short film directors are the perfect next generation of commercial directors. But as much as these films were a popular part of our program en masse, the commercial production companies didn’t come knocking. Hollywood online did.
Web channels, looking eagerly to the media convergence predicted by computer gurus and salient entertainment industry leaders, gobbled up as much content as their pre-IPO budgets could handle. It was a (Web) banner year for NODANCE. com directors, who struck deals for future films and will potentially reach millions with their films online. It doesn’t take longer than an instant to project how this will affect the ad industry. When that almighty day of fully streaming media on computers and televisions occurs, the world will be watching. Spotmakers will create ads for TV and the Internet; audiences will click onto sites for content and consumer goods. People may still use traditional mediums to pull audiences to the sites, but truly creative production companies (think crossover) will craft advertising in all mediums as well as editorial content. To have creative people on staff that understand other areas, like the music or indie film industries, will become a major asset when pitching that future spot/short film/CD bundled project.
So if new talent wasn’t the goal for all of the advertising industry attendees, what was? At all of the festivals this year, programs were populated with films by commercials directors. Spot and music video directors presented their directorial capabilities to new audiences with solid support from their production companies. In addition to being personally validating and satisfying, these directors and their representatives know that Hollywood’s interest and the media attention add incredible cachet on Madison Avenue.
For those of us at NODANCE. com, a completely independent and digitally focused festival, it was interesting to note that the mainstream festivals touted themselves as digital fests, and attempted to prove indie status by dividing up into smaller mini-festivals. It was exciting to witness others embracing what we know to be a revolution in the "film" arena.
NODANCE.com attendees were excited by the idea of cheap and inexpensive digital production and DVD presentation; they also came searching for good entertainment. Technology is only as interesting as the means to bring good stories and content to life. Whether it comes in a 30-second or two-hour format, created on film, for TV or the Internet, the idea is king. Hopefully, we presented stories that inspired, provoked and challenged our audiences, no matter what industry they belong to. Now we’re taking our DVD show on the road to the SXSW film festival in Austin in March, and to France in May for Cannes 2000. Hope to see you there!
