Feature Story

Perhaps one of my hardest stories to figure out. The stress of being a graduating senior, filming a capstone and meeting a deadline for this project all had to come together at once. Originally I was going to do a feature story about my girlfriend being the first of an immigrant family from Cuba to not only attend secondary education but the first to be graduating as well. But she is also a graduating senior filming a capstone who has a different schedule then me so the alignment never worked out. After that finding something I thought was worth sharing was hard. But then I realized I had a combination of photos on my phone and computer from Sundance that I took as memories and for our shooting fast and slow assignment that didn't exemplify a fast or slow lens. I have photos of celebrities as if I were a part of the paparazzi as well as some that would align with press photos or news photos for the events. While I was there newsworthy events were taking place like, Tomi Lahren kicking out famous Youtuber, Shane Dawson, along with his boyfriend and other friends from a private, invite-only party because they were gay and made her feel uncomfortable. While I missed the event I saw the yelling ensue outside the party and was able to speak with the party who was kicked out and immediately took to the internet. I will include a few screen-grabs from what happened on the internet the following day. I was surrounded by news and rejected it until I realized what is actually newsworthy and not just a memory from my life.

These first two photos are of Nat Wolff. I saw him coming out of a steakhouse on the corner and he really hurried along with his girlfriend, Margaret Qualley, to get into the car before being recognized. When I saw him come out of the steak house we made eye-contact and I recognized him but the look on his face told me that he didn't know me so it took me about a minute or so to realize that he wasn't someone I knew from school or a party but rather that he was Nat Wolff.


Copious amounts of traffic and copious amounts of snow. That's the best description for Park City during Sundance.

I had to use my iPhone for photos during the Q&A sessions and sadly I didn't have press seating so I never was able to be lined up for a great shot. The digital zoom makes the photos grainy and the dark lighting doesn't help. But all of the Q&A photos show the true heart of Sundance which is a connection. Being able to talk to the filmmakers and actors about a film helped me to understand so much more about each one.

In this photo we have the cast and crew from "Columbus" answering questions about their drama that focused a lot on beautiful cinematography and architecture. This is the director's first film, Kogonada is on the far right with the microphone. In the center are three of the stars, John Cho, Haley Lu Richardson,  Rory Culkin. And the rest on stage are part of the crew.

"Band Aid" is one of the best films I've ever seen. Director, Zoey Lister-Jones who also starrred, wrote, produced, wrote the music and performed the music for the film did something that had never been done with this one. Aside from cast members, everyone on set was female. Having an all female crew was a statement to show that women can do anything. Co-Star of the film, Adam Pally, said it was a unique experience and he loved to bring his daughter to set to show her not to limit her dreams. Fred Armisen also guest stars in this film and was a huge supporter of Zoey Lister-Jones' choices in how to make the film. "Band Aid" will hit theaters this June.


The directors and cast of "Sidney Hall" did a very early Q&A with this 8 am premiere time. From left to right we have actors Blake Jenner, Michelle Monaghan and associate producer, Brendan Hubbard, writer and director, Shawn Christensen, writer and producer, Jason Dolan, and star, Logan Lerman. This film was an emotional rollercoaster and this group right here was a great example of why. Lerman seemed almost awe-struck throughout the Q&A at the positive feedback toward his film and even stayed after to interact with patrons. The writers shared that not everything in this movie is sentimental, in fact a lot of important dates and things were just last minute additions based on what day they finished writing or a date that sounded good.  The whole cast and crew was very light hearted and fun with the Q&A but the movie was a much more emotional experience.



I am still waiting on feature stories to be posted so I can edit a raw take. Those will be on a post titled "Feature Story - Peer Edit"