Sunday was an early morning for the Creative Services department.  I helped to PA an interview at Zoom Café for a “Morning After” conversation with director Drake Doremus, some of his key creative collaborators, and Sundance film festival director John Cooper.  Doremus’s Like Crazy played at Sundance in 2011, and his new film Breathe In premiered at this year’s festival.  He talked about the best ways to create spaces to elicit comfortable, effective performances from actors.

After the morning, I found myself with a rare patch of free time, so I decided to head to a venue I had yet to see for a screening. While waiting in the volunteer line for one of twenty free tickets, I bought some extravagantly overpriced food and made friends with a fellow Sundance volunteer.  The film was Linmania, a documentary about the explosive basketball career of Palo Alto native and Harvard alumnus Jeremy Lin.  I don’t follow sports, and seemed to be the only person in the audience who was unfamiliar with Jeremy Lin before the screening started.  I enjoyed learning about Lin’s incredible success and his charismatic yet humble persona.  The documentary itself seemed somewhat stale: there were a number of repetitive dramatic beats, and the film seemed to strain to amp up drama that appeared to be non-existent.  Still, I enjoyed the experience.

I lost my two hats, which is frustrating, because it leaves me with fewer options for clothes I can lose during the last week of the festival.

On Sunday evening, I gripped for a roving camera that was filming a live stream of a Lili Haydn and Andrew Bird concert at the Music Café on Main Street.  There were three cameras hooked into a tricaster with a team communicating via walkie talkies and ear pieces.  It was fascinating to watch the Creative Services department pull off the technical feat of a three camera live stream.  The concert was pretty good, too.

The Creative Services department prepares for a “Morning After” conversation with director Andrew Doremus

Andrew Bird performs a sound check before his jam-packed concert at the Music Cafe