Overnight success
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Company
Sundance Online Film Festival
Beverly Hills, California
Challenge
- Extend the Sundance Film Festival experience to worldwide audiences
- Create professional, behind-the-scenes broadcasts — including a full broadcast graphics package, interstitial documentaries, Q&As, and interviews — to be aired every day at the Sundance Film Festival
Solution
- Use HP workstations and Adobe Video Collection software to bring original content to the Internet and screens at the Sundance Film Festival
- Operate quickly as a team, leveraging each other’s work with Adobe Video Collection
Benefits
- Extended the Sundance experience beyond Park City, Utah
- Surpassed the popularity of other SOFF website offerings with behind-the-scenes content
- Produced original content of exceptional quality
- Met daily deadlines
Tool Kit
- Adobe Video Collection.
- Products used include:
- Adobe After Effects
- Adobe Encore DVD
- Adobe Photoshop CS
- Adobe Premiere Pro
- Macromedia Flash
- HP workstations running Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional
- Canon video cameras
Sundance Online Film Festival brings Sundance to millions of viewers each year using Adobe Video Collection software
Long known as a celebration of the new and the unexpected, the Sundance Film Festival premiers the best in independent film from the United States and around the world. Each year, the festival draws 30,000 people from 27 countries and presents a 10-day program of more than 200 films to an audience of directors, writers, producers, actors, film aficionados, and industry leaders.
In 2000, producers of the Sundance Film Festival were seeking a way to extend the festival’s reach beyond the Park City, Utah location. To meet the needs of people eager for festival happenings and news, but who cannot attend the event, Sundance launched the Sundance Online Film Festival (SOFF). The online festival produces original, sophisticated content that is showcased interactively using Flash on the Internet, as well as broadcasted on large plasma screens at the Park City event.
Sundance is committed to bringing the core of the Sundance experience to worldwide audiences. The Sundance Online Film Festival (SOFF) is the answer. For those who can’t make it in person to the festival, SOFF broadcasts exclusive behind-the-scenes filmmaker interviews, sameday video coverage, and the Frontier on SOFF, a collection of the most experimental media created exclusively for the Internet.
SOFF uses Adobe Video Collection software each year to create original content. "Because of a strong ongoing relationship with Adobe and the success achieved using Adobe tools, Sundance plans to use Adobe Video Collection software for many years into the future to develop original content and programming," says Joseph Beyer, associate programmer to the Sundance Film Festival and producer of Sundance Institute Online.
New and expanded content
Producing rich content covering the 10 days of the festival is no mean feat. In 2005, the fifth annual SOFF launched with new and expanded content free to anyone anywhere in the world. Bringing the Sundance Film Festival experience to Internet users, the SOFF presented a diverse selection of 29 short films, as well as five Interactive Digital Projects premiering exclusively on the SOFF. Bringing the core of the Sundance experience to worldwide audiences, the SOFF broadcasted exclusive behind-the-scenes filmmaker interviews, same-day video coverage of the Sundance Film Festival, and the Frontier on SOFF, a collection of the most experimental media created exclusively for the Internet.
“There is no way we could turn around the content as quickly as we did without the integration among the tools in Adobe Video Collection. We use Adobe Video Collection software for a smooth, streamlined workflow that makes it all possible.”
creative director, Trifecta Multimedia
For 2005, SOFF contracted with Trifecta Multimedia, a video production company with clients such as US Airways, Cranium, and Miller Brewing Co., to produce a series of daily video updates covering multiple events at the Sundance Film Festival. A team from Trifecta shot daily coverage in Park City, and created pieces showcased online and at the festival.
"We chose Adobe Video Collection to produce the work because we needed an integrated toolset that would enable us to work quickly and experiment creatively," says Rob King, creative director for Trifecta Multimedia.
Behind-the-scenes scramble
Behind the scenes, creating daily content from the festival is a tremendous undertaking for both Sundance and Trifecta. Video producers at Trifecta created several three-minute pieces such as Q&As with filmmakers and interviews with Robert Redford and people on the street. These all had to go live the next day. Trifecta shot on Canon video cameras and brought the video back to a network of HP computers on-site for editing. For everything from creation to delivery the team used an all Adobe workflow incorporating Adobe After Effects®, Adobe Premiere® Pro, Adobe Photoshop® CS, and Adobe Encore® DVD software.
"There is no way we could turn around the content as quickly as we did without the integration among the tools in Adobe Video Collection," says King. "We use Adobe Video Collection software for a smooth, streamlined workflow that makes it all possible."
Trifecta Multimedia used Adobe Video Collection to create a full broadcast identity package for Sundance Online Film Festival, including lower thirds, bumpers, and graphics. The Trifecta team had to work quickly, often working late into the night, to complete each day’s programming.
Working well into the night
Beyond just broadcasting interviews and other content, Trifecta created a full broadcast identity package including lower thirds, bumpers, and graphics, using Adobe tools. As one person on the Trifecta team cut footage, another created graphics such as lower thirds and animated text. "We were sometimes laying content and broadcast graphics together at midnight to be shown the next morning," says King.
After the content was finalized, Trifecta created interactive DVDs of all the materials using Adobe Encore DVD. King says his team was impressed with the integration between Adobe Encore DVD and Photoshop CS to create buttons and menus. "The integration between Adobe Encore DVD and Photoshop CS enabled us to work quickly — especially because buttons and other elements remained editable throughout the project," says King.
“Adobe Video Collection software is very stable and its integration is exceptional. For instance, if one artist made updates in Adobe Premiere Pro and another made changes in After Effects, the changes automatically ripple to the other program. This was essential to producing each Sundance broadcast in a day's time. ”
creative director, Trifecta Multimedia
Professional features
Whether working for Sundance or for other clients, Adobe Video Collection is the centerpiece of Trifecta’s workflow. The Trifecta team relies on the professional feature set of Adobe Premiere Pro, including real-time editing that enables editors to see the results of their work quickly and make fast, informed creative decisions. According to King, color correction in both Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects continues to become more powerful, enabling artists to finesse and match colors with speed and ease. In addition, After Effects offers in-depth effects tools that helped the team create sophisticated broadcast graphics with animated text, fly-throughs, and more.
"Adobe Video Collection software is very stable and its integration is exceptional," says King. "For instance, if one artist made updates in Adobe Premiere Pro and another made changes in After Effects, the changes automatically ripple to the other program. This was essential to producing each Sundance broadcast in a day’s time."
Trifecta needed an integrated toolset that would enable fast work and creative leeway, and chose Adobe Video Collection software. Through an ongoing relationship with Adobe Systems, Sundance Online Film Festival uses Adobe Video Collection software each year to create original content.
More original content on the horizon
Since 2003, delivering original content for the Internet such as interstitial documentaries and interviews with Robert Redford and notable filmmakers such as Stacy Peralta has been a major priority for the Sundance Film Festival. Each year, the effort is expanded. "The behind-the-scenes content we produced in 2005 quickly became the most popular feature on the web site, usurping the popularity of the Sundance shorts," says Beyer.
Because of the success of the original content Trifecta produced in 2005, Sundance has even bigger plans for 2006. Potential ideas for original content include streaming Q&As, podcasts of panels, and other content designed to satisfy global audiences craving the Sundance experienc
Concludes Beyer, "With the web site, Adobe software, and SOFF, we are able to give everyone in the world a more cinematic view of the Sundance Festival."
