It’s fascinating to watch a new idea morph over time to become something greater, worse, or completely other than that for which it was first conceived. Einstein’s mind-blowing equations are probably the most obvious and jarring illustration of that. E-mail is another good one; it was initially developed in the 1960’s and was then improved upon in the early 1970’s as a way for the guys who were figuring out that whole Internet thing to be able to communicate with each other more efficiently than by telephone or letter.
E-mail has become an entity unto itself, and while it has not replaced letter writing, memos and phone calling, it has certainly made a significant dent in their usage. Even people who don’t habitually trawl the Internet for the staggering amount of information it has to offer will at least check their e-mail (I know this to be true because I used to be one of those people).
Not quite as tremendous a morphed-idea as Einstein or e-mail (though I’m certain it is to those film school graduates whose careers were launched as a direct result of it) is the Sundance Film Festival. Sundance was developed as a way for unknowns in the film industry to get their work shown. Now, because Sundance was such a great concept and has proved to be a better judge of art and of quality film than the current box office sales standard, having your work stamped with anything related to the Sundance name can pave your way to Hollywood glory. There’s a festival, there’s an institute, there are awards, etc.
There used to be only a teensy handful of film schools in this country; now they’re all over (even in Oklahoma). Using my supreme calculus skills, I did a little math and figured out that the increased number of film schools equals an increase in the number of starving film school grads being turned loose on the planet to fight for some elbow room in Hollywood. Added to that there’s the user-friendly digital video technology that has brought forth a generation that can shoot and edit their own movies before they graduate from high school.
It was already a competitive industry, but now it’s getting to the point where film school graduates might need to start promising their firstborns in order to get a break. So you can see how coming at Hollywood sideways via an independent film festival like Sundance might be considered a swell idea.
Further Reading:
Budding Filmmakers Crave a Break
FSU Film School Grads Garner Accolades, Awards From Sundance Film Festival, Major Industry Awards
23 Facts About 23 (Official) Years of Sundance
Posted by Alexa Harrington
