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Under discussion:

Bang the Drum Slowly  (1956)

Jaws  (1988)

The Princess Bride  (1987)

This Is Spinal Tap  (1984)

We Go Way Back  (2005)

My Effortless Brilliance  (2008)

Medicine For Melancholy  (2009)

Director Lynn Shelton’s follow-up to My Effortless Brilliance, Sundance Dramatic Competition entry stars Mark Duplass (HumpdayThe Puffy Chair) and Joshua Leonard (The Blair Witch Project) as two college friends who meet up a decade later and somehow end up pacting to make a boy-on-boy sex tape together. Answering our 4 Questions We Ask Everyone, Shelton declared her love for The Princess Bride, named the crew member she poached from Medicine for Melancholy, and explained her philosophy of low expectations.

Tell us about your movie: who did you work with, what did you shoot on, why did you make it? Give us the reductive, 25-word or less, “It’s like [pop culture reference a] meets [pop culture reference b]!” pitch, then explain what the quick and dirty sell leaves out.

Humpday is like Bang the Drum Slowly meets Jaws. Only no-one dies. Either by tumor or by shark.

It’s about the reunion of two old college buddies, Ben and Andrew, who haven’t seen each other for years. Somehow, within 24 hours of being in each other’s company again, they manage to box themselves into a mutual dare to have sex with each other on film. For an “art project”. Which wouldn’t be so radical or weird except for the fact that Ben’s married, and both guys are about as straight as straight can be.

The film’s about fear of conformity; of not living up to your own image of yourself; about long-term romantic relationships; about a certain kind of male friendship between two guys who adore each other but who also bring out the most absurdly competitive aspects in each other.

Why I made the movie: 1) an overwhelming desire to work with Mark Duplass, and, 2) a sadistic desire to watch a couple of straight guys squirm.

I’d met Mark Duplass in August of 2007 on the set of True Adolescents, a film shooting in Seattle that he was acting in and I was shooting stills for. Watching him act, seeing how generous he was with the other actors, and how far he was willing to go in every single scene, I knew immediately that I wanted to work with him. We bonded at the craft services table and I pitched the idea for Humpday to him about a month or two after the production had wrapped and he’d gone back to LA. I think Mark found the premise—of two straight dudes deciding they had to try and have sex together—an intriguing, if slightly insane, challenge. He introduced me to Joshua Leonard as his potential co-star almost immediately and the two of them seemed to have just the right kind of chemistry for this intense, nutty, onscreen friendship. I brought in Alycia Delmore, a great Seattle actress, to play Mark’s wife and, soon thereafter, Mark convinced me to play the supporting role of Monica, Josh’s love interest, myself.

We shot on two HVX-200s over the course of 9-10 days at the end of June, 2008. Ben Kasulke (who shot my first two features) was the DP and Nat Sanders (who I’d met on the festival circuit last year…he edited Medicine for Melancholy) moved himself up to Seattle from LA to edit the film with me over the next two and a half months.

If you funded your film through a “day job” or through working on projects that were not your own, tell us about that. If not, tell us a story from your past work life, before you became a professional filmmaker.

I funded the film through grants and donations and fed myself and my family by teaching part time at the Digital Filmmaking program at the Art Institute of Seattle. My most exotic past employment experience: working for 4 months on a factory trawler in the Bering Sea when I was twenty-two years old.

Have you been to Sundance before? If so, tell us your best moment (or worst, which ever is funnier). If you haven’t, what are you most (or least) looking forward to based on your impressions of the festival?

I have never been to Sundance before, (although I have been to Park City; my first feature film, We Go Way Back won Slamdance in 2006.) I am imagining long lines, icy sidewalks, and a constant headache the first few days due to the high altitude. (I like to keep my expectations low so if I end up having a fabulous time, it will all just be a pleasant surprise.)

Let’s get hypothetical: You’re on death row. The night of your execution, you’re allowed to watch any two films of your choice. What would you pick for your last-night-on-Earth double feature?

This is Spinal Tap and The Princess Bride.

Peter and Vandy, starring Jess Weixler (Teeth) and Jason Ritter and adapted by director Jay DiPietro from his own play, hops around in time to show a romance’s beginning and end simultaneously. Answering our 4 Questions We Ask Everyone, DiPietro talks about gift bags, threats from Mike Ditka, and why Scenes From a Marriage could make facing instant death seem bearable.

Tell us about your movie: who did you work with, what did you shoot on, why did you make it? Give us the reductive, 25-word or less, “It’s like [pop culture reference a] meets [pop culture reference b]!” pitch, then explain what the quick and dirty sell leaves out.

Peter and Vandy is a love story told out of order.   The title characters are Jason Ritter and Jess Weixler.  Love them.  We shot it on super 16 with my DP’s camera (Frank Demarco who used the same camera for Hedwig, Shortbus, and some other cool stuff).  My editor, Geoff Richman, is a big doc editor (he did Sicko, Murderball, etc.) – he was perfect for this as well.  We had a great crew – top to bottom.

The quick and dirty is, “It’s like Manhattan meets Memento but with no voice-over.”  What does that leave out?  I guess it leaves out the tone of the film.  The scenes are written without any real exposition.  You are figuring out where they are and who they are by the way they order food or pick a movie…  The aim is to show scenes that are really familiar to anyone who’s ever been in love – for better or worse.  Their biggest fight is over how one is making a sandwich the wrong way – displaced anger – that kind of thing.  I think that’s how most people are.  The real truth comes out when you’re talking about something else.

Anyway, it’s kind of this true-to-life / romantic puzzle to put together.  Also, we have a very cool soundtrack with songs from The National, Animal Collective, Patrick Wolf, Menomena, Frightened Rabbit, Les Savy Fav, and more.  And we’re whores for laughs.

If you funded your film through a “day job” or through working on projects that were not your own, tell us about that. If not, tell us a story from your past work life, before you became a professional filmmaker.

After getting out of acting school, I learned how to write and I wrote Peter and Vandy as a play.  We did it downtown in NYC.  I acted in it, directed it, built the sets, etc.  The play was a hit - got some awards - was optioned as a film - didn’t get made for two years – I got the option back – found new producers – made the movie.

While I was in acting school I had a bunch of jobs.  A good job I had was working in sports television.  One time I was working in the studio for a halftime show and heard Mike Ditka threaten to “punch a guy in the asshole.”  He was kidding, but that didn’t make it any less raw.  Is that the kind of story you’re looking for?

Have you been to Sundance before? If so, tell us your best moment (or worst, which ever is funnier). If you haven’t, what are you most (or least) looking forward to based on your impressions of the festival?

I’ve never been to Sundance.  Aside from the screenings, I’m most looking forward to being with the cast and crew again.  Making a movie is such an intense process and you really do develop such affection for all of these people.  It’s rare when you can get everyone back together like that.

Also the gift bags intrigue me.

Let’s get hypothetical: You’re on death row. The night of your execution, you’re allowed to watch any two films of your choice. What would you pick for your last-night-on-Earth double feature?

It’s tough to pick just two, so I’ll have to approach this analytically.  I want one movie that is funny, that I know really well and still love.  I’m thinking Midnight Run would be a good crowd-of-one-pleaser on my last night.

Then I’d want to watch something a little weightier.  I’m going with Bergman’s Scenes from a Marriage, … THE 5 HOUR VERSION!  That way, I’m getting the most bang for my buck as far as runtime goes.  Also it’s existential, truthful, brilliant, etc. which I think would fit the moment.  As an added bonus, it’s just bleak enough to make the forthcoming execution seem not so horrible.

Or maybe I’d take a chance on 2 movies I’ve never seen.

Under discussion:

Shine  (1997)

The Spitfire Grill  (1996)

Trainspotting  (1996)

Ridicule  (1996)

Kolya  (1996)

Sling Blade  (1996)

Emma  (1996)

Marvin's Room  (1996)

The English Patient  (1996)

Each day this week, Christopher Campbell will take a look back at a “classic” film that played the Sundance Film Festival. Today’s installment: Scott Hicks’ Shine (1996).

1996 was a monumental year for independent film. It began with a Sundance Film Festival that, according to Peter Biskind’s book Down and Dirty Pictures “would go down as Ten Days That Shook the Indie World,” because of the tremendous buying frenzy that occurred, including the infamous acquisition of The Spitfire Grill by Castle Rock for $10 million. The year then transpired with a slew of popular specialty titles that boosted business at many arthouse multiplexes while also exposing them as being unsuited for large crowds (the boom in indie film attendance was something I experienced first hand, having that year begun my first career at NYC’s Angelika Film Center). And the year ended (in 14-month Hollywood terms) with an unprecedented number of specialty films receiving nominations for Academy Awards.

Most astonishing, certainly, was the fact that four of the five Oscar nominees for Best Picture were specialty titles, one of which had been discovered at Sundance. The film, Shine, might not have had a chance at such an honor, however, if Miramax and Harvey Weinstein had gotten their way.

As much as the 1996 Sundance Film Festival was remarkable for its number of films sold, it was also noteworthy for producing negative stories, too. Before The Spitfire Grill opened to empty theaters that summer to become the greatest embarrassment of that year’s festival, Harvey Weinstein and Miramax had a particularly humiliating experience during the fest involving their unsuccessful bid for Shine.

The full details of the story can be found in Down and Dirty Pictures, but basically Weinstein thought Miramax had picked up the film until he heard official word stating otherwise, that Shine had in fact been bought by Fine Line. The incident was defended as a miscommunication but treated by Weinstein as a boldface lie and resulted in a nasty fight between him and Shine producer Jonathan Taplin. Miramax’s Tony Safford, who ended up getting fired as a result, was hardly at fault, despite it being his task to seal the deal on the film. There was never any way that Miramax was going to get Shine, because its director, Scott Hicks, had had a bad experience with the distributor and had no intention of working with them. As Biskind puts it, “the Shine folks would rather have taken less money than go with Miramax.”

And there was great reason why Shine was better off anywhere else but at Harvey’s house — well, besides the fact that Weinstein was known for being a jerk with scissors for hands. Miramax had the Oscar-bait epic The English Patient (not to mention fellow eventual Oscar nominees Sling Blade, Kolya, Ridicule, Emma, Marvin’s Room and Trainspotting), and although Shine likely would have still picked up at least a Best Actor nod (and win) for Geoffrey Rush, it probably wouldn’t have received all of its six other nominations, especially not the one for Best Picture, with Weinstein’s attention primarily on that other, more costly film.

Of course, The English Patient won the top award and earned more than twice the box office gross of Shine. But the film’s reputation and esteem were still positively affected by the controversial sell to Fine Line over Miramax. And hopefully it taught subsequent Sundance filmmakers about the need to sell to the distributor that’ll give the best attention to the film, instead of the distributor that’ll pay the most.

Below is a clip from Shine featuring Rush’s Oscar-winning portrayal of pianist David Helfgott.