Park City, Utah, a small mountain town known for its alpine skiing, has become very lively in recent days, and the annual Sundance Film Festival attracts a large number of visitors, and the town is now more eye-catching than Hollywood, with directors, actors, production companies, journalists and movie fans all over the streets.

Many of them are already well-known stars, since Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" turned over Bruce Willis and John Travota, and also created Uma Thurman, participating in independent films has become a cool thing, and many stars have begun to jump in regardless of pay, hoping to bet on a good film and call for a second spring, or want to successfully transform and break through.

Of course, there are more unknown newcomers on the street, who come to the exhibition with their works, hoping for opportunities and appreciation.

The 16th Sundance Film Festival officially opened last night, and this year's organiser, the Sundance Institute, also received numerous requests for films, and they finally selected 100 feature films and 50 short films to be exhibited. The director of 50 short films is likely to win an investment and a contract, and the 100 feature films are the focus of all studios.

In order to come to the Sundance Film Festival, Wang Yang paused the editing of "When Happiness Knocks on the Door", and he plans to stay in Park City for a few days before returning to Los Angeles to see if there are any good films, and secondly, he enjoys the atmosphere, and now the air here is filled with the smell of independent films. Quentin Tarantino once said, "Independent cinema is when the director takes all the money he has, even the money he doesn't have, from his parents, stolen from his parents, or in debt for the rest of his life, to make a movie." Some of these movies can be as good as they can be, and some can be as bad as they can be. But it's their film, an independent film. ”

Sometimes it's because the director doesn't want to be influenced by investors and producers, like one of Sundance's original intentions to "fight against Hollywood", and sometimes it's because of his own film dream to be able to enter Hollywood. But in any case, it is often the best independent directors who end up finding a balance between business and ego and becoming Hollywood's hottest figures. And good independent films often create commercial miracles, so Sundance also has a commercial side, studios are waving checks to buy films, scripts, etc., and Flame Pictures has 10 million available funds this year.

"Boss, the latest news, last night's opening film "You Can Count on Me", several companies have already bidd. Mark Slunt put down his phone, carried his briefcase, and said with Wang Yang as he walked outside the hotel: "Paramount, Miramax, new line...... They are all very interested, and now the copyright price has probably risen to more than 3 million, and its investors are happy, and the cost of this movie is only 1.2 million. ”

Wang Yang was wearing a gray coat, but when he walked out of the hotel and came outside, the wind near evening still made him feel a little chilly, he put his hands in his pockets, walked to the booked taxi, looked at Mark Slent, and asked, "Do you think we should bid?" He didn't have the information about the film in his mind, but in the information about the 73rd Oscars (2001), he found that the movie "You Can Count on Me" had two nominations, Best Actress and Best Original Screenplay.

Mark Slunt replied: "This movie has some potential, the heroine's performance is quite good, and with Martin Scorsese as an old guy as a producer, at least there is some security." He opened the door of the taxi and said, "But I think the maximum price of that movie is 5 million, let's just wait and see, after 5 million? ”

"Mark, your analysis this time ......" Wang Yang smiled and gave a thumbs up, bent down and sat in the taxi, and said, "Not only is it nominated by the association, but there is also a great chance of being nominated for an Oscar." ”

Mark Slant on the other side also got into the car, he leaned on the back of the car, slammed the door, looked at Wang Yang next to him and said with a smile: "Oscar nominations? But my boss, there's good news I haven't told you yet. He coughed and said mysteriously and happily: "The company's public relations department has inquired about reliable news that "Youth Musical" will be nominated for an Oscar!"

What?Oscar nomination!?Wang Yang was slightly stunned: "Really?" He smiled and wowed, and said with a smile: "Is it Best Picture or Best Director?" Mark Slant shrugged: "It's just Best Original Song, and maybe there will be several songs shortlisted at the same time." And the total number of candidates for this award is dozens. Wang Yang also shrugged his shoulders and said, "It's better than nothing, isn't it?"

At this time, the taxi was activated, and the street scene outside the window kept reversing, and the place they were going to was the Redstone Theater, where the film festival was held, and the organizers arranged for the premiere of more than a dozen films today.

Just when Wang Yang wanted to ask Mark Slant "What's the movie today", the taxi driver in front, a middle-aged white uncle, looked at the rearview mirror and smiled: "Hey, Amazing Young, and Mark? Hello, I actually wrote a script." He let go of the steering wheel with both hands, quickly took out a thick stack of printing paper from the top of the front dashboard, a bound script, he smiled and handed it to Wang Yang reflexively, and said with a smile: "Take a look, this is it! See if it can be made into a movie?"

"Oh, I'll see, you can drive well!" Wang Yang took the script and pointed to the uncontrolled steering wheel. The white uncle turned around with a smile and put his hand back, looking at Wang Yang who was reading the script in the rearview mirror with both eyes, and introduced the story of the script: "This is a horror movie script, the male protagonist is a taxi driver, his car is a ghost, this story starts from his car accident......"

This script is written in a rigorous format, Wang Yang read a few pages of content, and listened to the white uncle talk about car accidents, passengers killed by ghosts, etc., and couldn't help but smile and frown, he is sitting in the taxi now!

"That's right!" the driver's uncle seemed to suddenly remember something, and once again left the steering wheel with both hands, rummaging around the front of the car, and said, "I still drew a few pages of sub-shots, where did I put them...... Oh, come out......" Seeing that he didn't look at the road in front of him, Mark Slunt suddenly shouted nervously: "Man, pay attention, pay attention!" Wang Yang couldn't help but shout: "Don't really have a car accident!" Uncle Driver glanced up at the front, and while continuing to search, he smiled and said: "It's okay, I can drive this road with my eyes closed, don't worry! Haha, I found it!"

The driver's uncle took out a few crumpled pieces of paper from the crack in the chair, pulled the steering wheel casually, then turned around and handed it to Wang Yang, and said, "Take a look!" Wang Yang took it and reminded again: "Be careful to drive!" Mark Slunt leaned over and looked at the storyboard for a few moments, and said to the driver: "Hey, man, it's very professional!"

"Of course, this is Sundance. Uncle Driver smiled. On the next road, he was selling his script, and soon the taxi arrived outside the Red Rock Theater, and he personally sent Wang Yang and the two out of the car, and said with a smile: "You can take the script, my contact information is at the end, if you have any shooting plans, contact me!"

Looking at the slowly departing taxi, Mark Slunt breathed a sigh of relief and said, "It's a miracle that there was no accident!" Wang Yang nodded approvingly, and smiled slightly, maybe this is Sundance.

Although the film exhibition was held in the Red Rock Theater, the same people came and went in the square outside, very lively, the two were about to walk to the theater, but Wang Yang suddenly saw a place in the distance, a small white cloth screen was erected, a mobile film projector was working in front of him, and several people were talking about something next to him, because the distance was very far, he could only vaguely see the image on the screen, and said to himself in confusion: "What's going on there?"

Immediately, he figured it out, maybe someone who was not selected for the exhibition list still brought his own film to "exhibit", he had considered doing so, if "Ghost Shadow" was not selected, he would rent a projector to play outside the venue, but he didn't expect someone to do it now. He was suddenly curious, gave Mark Slant a "very interesting" look, and walked over and said with great interest: "I'll go over and have a look!"

"Oh, boss, your curiosity is so high. Mark Slunt followed behind, muttering, he probably knew what was going on, but he didn't think that a work that even failed to be selected for the exhibition would be so good, the people at the Sundance Institute are not stupid, in fact, many of the 100 feature films every year are basically made up, let alone those who failed to be shortlisted.

Wang Yang came to the front of the projector, listened to the sound of the film turning, stopped to watch the picture on the screen, and immediately saw that he was a very amateur actor, and he looked at the few people who were talking, three men with briefcases, suits and leather shoes, who seemed to be from the production company, and a young girl with black and brown hair, and what surprised him a little was that the young girl was the director here.

I saw that the girl in a light brown coat and a fisherman's hat was tall, with a pretty face, and her bronze complexion was obviously mixed-race, and she raised straight eyebrows, and introduced to the men: "This story is mainly about a girl named Amy, who has loved acting since she was a child, but she has no talent and has not received a good education...... You can take a look at it first, and now it's a 15-minute short film. ”

"Girl, how old are you?" one of the blonde white men shrugged his shoulders with a look of interest, "You know, it's rare to see such a young female director!" The black-brown girl replied casually, "I'm 19 years old, but ...... Hey!?gentlemen, what does this have to do with movies? Let's watch my movies first!" The white man shook his head and said, "Your movies are not very good, but you can actually be an actor, are you interested?"

"No, it's Amy, not me. The girl smiled very funny and said softly and very firmly, "I want to be a director." She suddenly frowned, and said seriously: "Gentlemen, I'll pour the film back and let you start from the beginning!" As she spoke, she looked over the projector, and also found Wang Yang standing next to the projector, and she shouted a little anxiously: "Dude, don't touch my projector!"

Wang Yang held his palms wide and said, "I'm just watching a movie." The black-haired girl walked over in a few steps, and when she saw his appearance clearly, she suddenly glared, and a trace of imperceptible excitement flashed on her face, and blurted out: "It's you! Oh, hi, my name is Nancy......" She exhaled again, as if to say "damn", she stepped forward and stopped the projector, took out the film disc and turned it upside down, while quickly speaking to Wang Yang, Mark Slunt and others: "This is a 15-minute short film, but not all the content......"

"Well......" Wang Yang listened silently, and the three men in suits turned to leave after listening for a while, and walked towards the gate of the theater, Nancy hurriedly chased two steps, and shouted loudly: "Gentlemen, wait a minute, you haven't seen it yet!

Mark Slang gave Wang a look and said, "My boss, let's go." Wang Yang looked at Nancy's sweaty appearance, sighed in his heart, frowned, and said, "Let's watch it for a while, right?" Mark Snenter rolled his eyes and said, "You've been watching it for a while just now, did you buy her movie?" Wang Yang was stunned, and opened his mouth to say something but couldn't say it. Mark lowered his voice and said, "Young, look at this square, how many people are waiting for the opportunity? How many tribal works are there in Sundance this year? 1,000? 2,000? Do you want to buy them all? Please, my boss, you can't do this! Even if you buy them all and distribute them all, a bad movie is still a bad movie." ”

"Mark, I know. Wang Yang pressed his forehead, although he felt a little uncomfortable, but this was indeed a fact, he could only harden his heart, nodded and said, "Okay, let's go." ”

At this time, Nancy over there finally poured the film, she put the film tray back into the projector, and said with a smile: "I'm going to start the screening, gentlemen!" She turned around to look, but saw that Wang Yang and the two seemed to be leaving, and the smile on her face suddenly condensed. Wang Yang smiled at her, pointed his thumb to the theater, stepped forward and patted her on the shoulder, and said, "Nancy, good luck!" With that, he and Mark Slimt walked to the theater.

Looking at Wang Yang who was gradually walking away, after a long time, Nancy withdrew her gaze, she turned her head to look at the small white cloth screen, and pursed her mouth tightly.

(To be continued)