Eccles.
Some thoughts on hitRECord Sundance:
Overall, I enjoyed the show. I thought all of the videos shown were fun and entertaining.
I like what they did with the interspersed clips of re: Independence, as opposed to showing a whole composite video. I had wondered if they would go that route, so it was neat to see them give it a whirl. I thought it helped drive home the theme of the evening. And of course, the tiny story videos they showed were great.
I really, really enjoyed the two records featuring MarieIv’s animations - Turnip Head and Starwberry Bootlaces. Those were excellent and turned out really well.
I loved the new “You Can’t Turn the Lights Off Now” record. That all came together so quickly, and it left me so impressed with what can get done in such a short amount of time. Another thing I love about this video is that I think there’s still room for remixing and adding more, much like the community did with the first installment.
I really enjoyed Blue Dildo. Jamie Chung’s performance - and really the entire cast - was excellent. I loved the vibrating phone, and I liked that the movie didn’t try to go over the top with the humor. It was very subtle and very dark.
I liked the direction And A New Earth was taking, but I still think there’s lots of room for remixing on this one. To me, this particular collab is an example of one that needs time to grow and develop. Because the typography is so important, each piece of typography needs to be the perfect fit. And some were, but I didn’t feel every single piece was. But it’s a good direction, and when we get there with it, it’ll be really amazing.
The live scenes were interesting. I don’t think the singalong worked out as well as it could have because the words and melody were a bit more complicated than, say, the Garden (which we did at the Vista show). The people Joe brought up on stage from Twitter - that’s always going to be hit or miss. Parker Posey was an interesting addition, and the performance of the fence scene from Tom Sawyer was an interesting idea, but it went on a bit too long.
As for the absence of LRRH - that’s such a huge undertaking, I can understand if it was deemed not ready to show at Sundance. We’ve done so much with it, but I do think there’s still a ways to go; it’s 11 minutes after all.
And a few other things. I’ve been to 3 live shows and have watched live streams back when we used to do them in 2010. Watching from a live stream, while fun, is always something of a disappointment. It’s difficult to get a good feel for the energy in the room from a live stream. So far, I’ve read several different reviews from people who were at the show, talking about the amazing energy of the night, etc. And that’s good to hear, because it can be hard to tell when you’re hundreds of miles away watching from your computer screen.
