Alright, Sunday night

was a busy one. After the Gen Art Interview, we hit up the Fuji party at this colossal, ultra-swanky lodge outside of Park City. There's so much money at Sundance it's a bit staggering. 'Seems every industry has it's hands in the cookie jar....I dunno how much money Fuji threw at this party, but it was probably on par with the GDP of a small Central American country, complete with four open bars, an oxygen bar, massage room, photo booth with costumes (in case you'd like a picture of yourself dressed as a Viking before the oxygen wares off) and pole dancers.

I think around midnight a few drunk cinematographers commandeered the portable stripper-poles and showed off their moves until one of them tipped over the whole contraption and nearly took out the DJ booth.

Around midnight I snuck out to have a drink with a few agents I had met earlier --- except I was up against some problems. One, I had no ride. Two, I had an address, but no earthly clue how to get there. And it was freezing. Then I met a few programmers at the coat-check who up and offered me a ride --- perfect. Except when I piled into the back of their SUV the windshield was completely frozen over.

One of them said, Oh I got it! and proceeded to pour the contents of her water bottle all over the windshield --- which immediately hardened and multiplied our problem as you can imagine. I ran off and found some ski bum smoking a blunt and listening to Huey Lewis in his AstroVan and borrowed his scraper for a minute....and success! Minutes later I was pouring myself a drink at this insane cabin/mansion and thinking, It's gonna be a hard fall back to reality when I get back to East LA.

A long cab ride back to our cabin that night.....

The next day. Monday. I was starting to feel the burn. Sundance is intense, and I think at this point I had slept maybe three hours a night for the past four nights....I could feel my brain falling apart.

So I struggled to stay awake as Daniel and I attended a panel with the cast / crew of Blue Valentine, including director Derek Cianfrance, Ryan Gosling, and Michelle Williams. Really, really cool and informative --- it took Cianfrance twelve years to get the movie made. Endurance.

After that, a quick meeting with a really cool manager (actually the gentleman who signed Dustin Cretton last year, the kid who won the shorts competition with the amazing SHORT TERM 12), then off to meet a rep from Fox Digital, the branded content arm of Fox. AKA the part of Fox that makes webisodes and those funky long-form commercials you see on the internet. What exciting stuff. This industry is so new it seems nobody knows how to use it --- you can do anything. I'm in.

Yesterday, Tuesday, after a blitz of meetings I hopped a bus to Park City High School to teach a filmmaking class as part of "Filmmakers in the Classroom." Amazing! These kids have the life! They were really positive and had a million questions --- and the whole time I'm thinking, What I would have given to have grown up at the foot of a ski resort.

Then it was off to the Shorts Reception --- the culmination of the shorts program. Somebody had the ingenious idea to have the party at a bowling alley, so I ended up bowling with Patrik Eklund (hilarious Swedish director of INSTEAD OF ABRACADABRA) and good ol' Martin Stitt.

Alas, the prize went to DRUNK HISTORY, which I've heard is pretty funny.

TOMORROW, it's ski time.