Girls Night Out!
by Karen Pecota

On the Sundance party trail, filmmakers Rhea Gavry, Marti Kullen and I attended a fun event celebrating up-and-coming local student talent from the Salt Lake City area. The students showcased their wares pertaining to the arts and entertainment industry. The event was located atop the Park City, Frontier on Main Building at the SIDECAR bar and sponsored by several local business partners who joined the (a)perture marketing campaign: LOCALS TAKE BACK! 2010.

The evening was taken over by fun-loving students learning the ropes in art, fashion design, hair & make-up artistry, radio and music fusion, and film. Their family, friends and festival attendees were privy to view several creative works and party on-down in celebration. The work on display in the SIDECAR came from students enrolled in two well-known Salt Lake City Schools: The Art Institute of Salt Lake City (Ai) and Salt Lake Community College. The schools collaborated with the owners of (a)perture, Heidi M. Gress and Anne Cummings-Anderson to organize an exciting community event with a two-fold purpose: 1) to showcase student work in fashion, art and entertainment, 2) to strategically partner with branding campaigns.

Rhea (a professor in the Ai film department, as well as a film director) explained to Marti and me that the film posters on display came out of an integrated class project from two of Ai’s departments: Mr. Kyle Iman’s students in Graphic Design, and Shay Bingham’s students in Film. The film students were assigned to write movie scripts for their Creative Writing class. The scripts were then taken to the graphic design students in the Conceptual Imagery class. Each student from that class was to create a typical movie-size (27 x 40) poster based on one of the student scripts. In my opinion, the outcome was impressive (see below).

Film Posters (film & graphic design), Fashion Design, Musical Fusion with Media were the categories and then each school had representation from at least ten students. The energy was high because this was a first-time collaboration visible at Sundance. The effect? Not sure! The evaluation has yet to occur, but on the surface, it was a positive experience that challenged each student involved. And, it was a fresh start for the students to show off their work in a trendy, gallery-type atmosphere grooving to tunes that even made the walls dance.

An hour into the party, the line to enter the venue continued to circle all around the second floor landing of the Frontier on Main building. Knowing that our exit would allow others entrance, we decided to leave, grabbing our coats, swag bags and purses from the gracious coat checkers. We headed out of the SIDECAR front door to be greeted with applause and voices of “thank-you,”which escorted us through the crowded landing and down the stairs that took us out of the building onto Park City’s Main Street. We turned to each other, took a deep breath to allow the fresh, cold air to fill our lungs and laughed out loud about our party exit. No need for comment with kindred spirits!

In high spirits but needing a little peace and quiet, we walked (actually slid on the icy streets) to the local ice creamery for a caffeine-free nightcap. Once we sat down at our table of choice, we were ready to get up to speed on the latest personal happenings, and, with great anticipation, listened to each other describe her news. The most recent came from Rhea explaining how an anonymous donor gave a large monetary grant for her documentary. The grant was the perfect amount to bring the documentary to fruition by the fall of 2010. In awe, Marti and I listened intently at the wonderful news. Rhea went on to explain that the twist of a deeper storyline continues to develop, even though it is in post-production. The working title remains Blue Man Red State but Rhea mentioned the name could be changed if they choose to bring in a side angle to the main character. Our inquiring minds shot off questions one after another, similar to rounds of a firing gun. Marti and I enjoyed listening to Rhea’s answers and her reasons a change could be noteworthy to the message of the film. Still in awe, we caught a bird’s eye view of her job as a film director and observed her task was not an easy one with the multitude of decisions to be made. When we see Rhea’s film on the big screen, Marti and I will look at her piece with appreciation and pride. Her message will shine because of her convictions to get the message right. But, for now, we are two fans who anxiously await Rhea’s finished project. Yep! It’s going to happen!