Indie and HD Cross Paths at SXSW
Mar 11, 2008 10:37 AM, By Craig Erpelding
Back in 1987 Austin, Texas' arts community took its local talents to a grander scale when they started the South by Southwest (SXSW) Music Festival—providing a place for regional musicians to play, meet, and collaborate. The event proved such a success that six years later, SXSW expanded to include a movie showcase with the festival.
"[The SXSW film festival] started with this idea of just showing movies and cultivating the local talent," says SXSW Film Festival Producer Matt Dentler. "And basically from there, it grew just as Austin grew as more of a major film town. And as the music festival grew more and more, the film festival had the opportunity to become more prominent and attract a higher quality of films. Thankfully, it's becoming better and bigger every year."
Accompanying the growth of this very indie-, regional-driven festival has been the influx of HD movies taking over the SXSW screens. Dentler, who has been with the film festival for more than a decade, says the transformation of the movie submissions over the years has become more dynamic as video-acquisition technologies advanced—making the festival more accessible to a wider variety of artists and filmmakers.
"I think the digital world has definitely opened up a lot of avenues for filmmakers, for artists, for voices that didn't have the access before," Dentler says. "I remember when I first started working at the festival in 1997, and around '98 and '99, I remember seeing the huge revolution with DV. And as the years go by—with HD becoming more and more prominent—we've seen even established filmmakers who have shot various features on 35mm now going and shooting HD."
Dentler also notes that HD technologies, especially the smaller cameras such as Sony's Z1U and Panasonic's HVX200, have allowed indie artists without access to the same purse strings as more established filmmakers to make the types of films that can get into bigger festivals such as SXSW.
"I think people are using HD technologies for stories with greater intimacy," Dentler says. "And I think that's important [for SXSW]. For pictures shot with low light with lots of close-ups, people are realizing that they don't need to go the Super 16 or 35mm route. And don't get me wrong—I'm as much a purist as any cinophile. But that said, you do definitely get the feeling that there are certain stories that are now able to be told because of the accessibility of the equipment. I would say that every year, there's dozens and dozens of features, particularly fiction features, that we play at the festival that are films that never would have been made if it wasn't for HD being available."
To accommodate the influx of HD-originated movies elbowing their way into the premieres and competitions programs at SXSW, Dentler says that they've adopted using HD as a projection format—a symbol of the growth and ever-increasing quality of films submitted.
"This year, I think it’s pretty significant to notice how many features are projecting in HD versus 35mm," Dentler says. "For features, we only project in those two formats. So, sometimes filmmakers are a little shocked that they need to provide an HD copy of their film, but it really is sort of the festival industry standard now. You go to any major festival and their video is 100 percent HD, whether it's Sundance, Tribeca, Toronto, or wherever. A lot of the smaller regional festivals are much more flexible or don't even have HD."
Format aside, Dentler says that SXSW prides itself on the stories told with the technology. And with the resulting accessibility opening up to more and more artists, Austin's regional film festival is grabbing the attention of national audiences. The showcase recently helped launch major awareness for theatrical hit Knocked Up, and this year's lineup includes the directorial debut of Oscar-winner Helen Hunt and Friend's favorite David Schwimmer, plus a handful of Sundance films making regional premieres at SXSW such as American Teen, Gonzo, and Where in the world is Osama bin Laden?.
"For SXSW, it's all about the storytelling," Dentler says. "It really comes down to did the filmmaker use the technology that best suits their story? In some cases yes, and in some cases no. In some cases, you have a film shot on 35mm that really didn't need to go that route. Or, you even have people who jump the gun and shoot on HD, yet don't really know how to shoot with that technology."
"But in terms of actual technical differences in the styles—I think that we are noticing quite a few more smaller, dialogue-driven, character pieces that are actually very strong because people are realizing that they don't need to budget hundreds of thousands of dollars to make those films,” he says “Or, they don't have to throw in a flashy celebrity in order to try and raise that money. They can afford to make a movie with their friends in locations like their apartment because they have this equipment."
And it's those types of movies that has helped SXSW to start gaining similar credibility as larger festivals, yet keep their regional roots—bringing quality filmmakers to a welcoming, local environment.
"I think that SXSW has developed sort of a niche reputation as a place where audiences and filmmakers can come together in a way unlike any other film festival," Dentler says. "I think that what's great is that here the public and the industry watch the films at the same time and have a great opportunity to come together on the same level or playing field. SXSW is more about that audience experience and that sort of down-home, home-grown sensibility versus a number of festivals."
The melding of filmmakers and audiences into a band of film fans and cinema celebrators does make SXSW one of the more unique film festival experiences in the world. And as that experience becomes more appealing for everyone across the board, low-budget HD moviemakers will truly find themselves with an opportunity to showcase their art alongside some of Hollywood's heaviest hitters.
