Sundance 2012

If you love films and have never been to the Sundance Film Festival, you absolutely have to go.  We recently got back from the small town of Park City and I wish we could have stayed longer as it was definitely a source of creative inspiration for me.  Splitting time with the ski slopes, we did manage to watch a couple world premieres but the best experience was getting to rub shoulders with some of the brightest filmmakers in the entertainment business, like Shane Hurlbut, ASC who was DP for Terminator Salvation, Swing Vote and We Are Marshall.

His latest film, Act of Valor, comes out February 24 and is certain to entertain those who love fast-paced action (check out the trailer below).  One thing that really excites me about this film is that it stars active Navy SEALS, which definitely adds a level of authenticity to the film often lacking in military-based flicks (the 1990 film ‘Navy SEALS’ with Charlie Sheen is a perfect example).  Growing up and watching movies with my dad (now retired Special Forces) often led to me asking the question ‘does that really happen in real life’ and the answer was almost always ‘no!’.  The other really interesting part is 75% of the movie was shot on the Canon 5D, a $2,200 still photo/video DSLR that has really made filmmaking available to a much larger audience, even Hollywood.

Watching films at Sundance was great, don’t get me wrong, but hearing Shane pick through his latest film frame by frame, and seeing how he got his shots and action sequences was really inspiring.  Real Navy SEALS, yes, but everything was also ‘live-fire’ as well, real bullets, real RPG’s, so he definitely had tons of stories on how he and his crew avoided getting shot while filming.  He also had tons of stories on how several of the camera’s didn’t make it, but the good news is that instead of overnighting a 6 figure ARRIFLEX 535B from Hollywood, they would just go to Best Buy to replace the 5D!  With the cameras being so small, they were able to capture an angle not typically seen in action films.  Really interesting talk, I can’t wait to see the movie next month, here is the trailer:

Act of Valor 2012 – Trailer from SEALFIT on Vimeo.