Confessions of an Independent Filmmaker 3: Breaking Sundance

The third part of my filmmakers guide/memoir went live on Amazon and Barnes and Noble today.

It documents what was perhaps the most stressful two weeks of my life: promoting a film during the 2004 Sundance Film Festival.

We made a film about the whole experience called The Misbehavers, but because of legal issues with those involved in it, music licensing, and the threat of lawsuits, it will never see release. In fact, I"m almost counting days until I get a cease and desist about this book. But since everything contained herein is the truth, and I have video evidence and journal entries to back up my story, I'm not too worried about anything like that affecting me.

But in case it does, buy the book now.

Here's the trailer for the movie the book is inspired by:

Here's the blurb from Amazon:

In the third part of his "Confessions of an Independent Filmmaker" series, he documents his time promoting a film called Abby Singer at the Sundance Film Festival. Abby Singer featured Brad Pitt and Jake Gyllenhaal and was renowned for its guerilla marketing campaigns. From stealing cameos to breaking into every major film studio lot to drop trailers, Abby Singer had done it all. And when it wasn't programmed in the Sundance Film Festival, the filmmakers turned to the author and his cohorts to market the film.

They navigated the strict laws against most forms of film promotion in Park City, Utah, and launched one of the most talked about marketing campaigns in the festival's history.

This first hand account brings readers through the drama, the struggles, and the marketing avenues taken to put the name "Abby Singer" on the tip of every tongue during one of the biggest independent film festivals in the world.

Be sure to check out Part 3 on on Amazon and Barnes and Noble today.

Here's Part 1 (Amazon)
And Part 2 (Amazon and Barnes and Noble)

Anatomy of an Opening: The End of the Affair

Instead of breaking down a scene from a movie, this time we'll break down the opening of a book. (Previously, I've done scenes from City Lights, Citizen Kane, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. I've also broken down the opening to Starship Troopers.)

Graham Greene's The End of the Affair is absolutely one of my favorite books. The writing is lyrical and story heart-wrenching and beautiful. Greene's style of writing is such that he always has me gripped, whether it's the beginning of the book or the end. And he shows you so much about the character in his opening lines.

So, here are the first two paragraphs from the book:
A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which, to look ahead. I say 'one chooses' with the inaccurate pride of a professional writer who - when he has been seriously noted at all - has been praised for his technical ability, but d…

The Symbiotic Relationship Between Art and Politics

Art is inherently political.

Let's just get that out of the way. We all have things we want to say (or things we want to not say) in our personal lives that shape the art we make. And artists, more often than not, are trying to say something with their art, even if their goal is to not say something.

There is no doubt that this has been a turbulent week in the country I live in. There are many of us that are confused and shocked and afraid of what might be to come in the future. That's understandable. As artists and writers, I feel like we're typically more empathetic than the general population. It's easy to think about what it's like to be in someone else's shoes because we spend so much of our creative time almost literally in someone else's shoes. And we need to pass that understanding on to our readers or viewers or however else they're consuming this art.

I've seen this troubling idea, though, that art needs to be purely for escape and that p…

Writing is Listening

In many social situations, I'm a talker. I like to think of myself as a raconteur, but it's more just like I don't know how to shut up. At least in the right situation. I've done a lot and know just a little bit about so many different things, it's easy for me to find something to talk about with people. When I can come out of my social anxiety shell, I actually like talking to people. But there are times when I can't really talk, I don't have the energy, emotional or physical, to do it. Instead, I just drink in the surroundings.

I like to listen. I like to observe.

It's something we writers have to do. We have to take in all the input we can. And sometimes that means shutting the hell up and just listening. Listen to your friends tell their stories. Listen to how they talk about other people and describe them. Listen to the words they use. Listen to the emotion in people's voices as they're talking. Watch how they talk. What sorts of things th…

The stories of Bryan Young

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