While our own Scott Von Doviak and Mike D'Angelo continue to do terrific reportage from and about the Sundance Film Festival, other sites are likewise turning in their own stories about America's most fancy-pants film fest. Sorry, Scott and Mike -- we tried to tell them you guys have got it covered, but they just keep on writing stories. One of those stories, over at Wired, concerns the inexplicable path of web-based video as it concerns Sundance.
Wired reports that, their own hype to the contrary, Sundance has been slowly backing off of internet programming; since debuting their online film content in 2001, the number of streaming videos has dropped from fifty to ten. While the festival's directors talk a good game, and plan on releasing 35 more shorts via iTunes and other content providers after the event wraps, some industry insiders say the timing couldn't be worse, with indie film already in a slump due to Hollywood's struggles and the burden of the writer's strike.
Jason Silverman, the author of the piece, goes on to cast some suspicion on the whole notion of Sundance as indie-film savior, noting that in the year just passed, only 121 of the 3600 feature films released had their debut at the festival. While it's still clearly the destination location for indie hopefuls, its retreat from the web may mean that it's entirely up to Hollywood, a location not historically friendly to independent filmmakers, to find a way to make money on the internet. Ian Calderon, the Sundance director of digital programming, talks a good game about how the festival tries to highlight and support new technologies, but admits "We aren't good at engineering outcomes".