Park City, Utah is known throughout the United States for its skiing, but every mid-January, movies will become the first and unrivaled theme of this small town, and filmmakers like Murphy who are struggling to find opportunities are like sharks who have smelled the smell of blood, converging here from all over the world in the hope that they can strike it rich and complete the metamorphosis from obscurity to fame and fortune.
To put it simply, countless filmmakers use the Sundance Film Festival as a stepping stone to start their careers.
It's also home to a wide variety of movie evaluators and buyers, from distribution companies to video publishers.
They all have one thing in common, the ability to push an individual movie to a wide audience.
Changing into thick clothes and walking through the streets of Park City, Murphy could see movie-related content everywhere, and the streets were filled with professional watchers in suits hurrying past, who not only paid attention to the works officially shown in theaters, but also sometimes whispered a few words to the people selling their own works on the side of the road, and did everything they could to find films that could bring in profits.
When passing through a plaza, Murphy purposely called out to Paul Wilson to watch for a while, even though it was only half an afternoon, there were already quite a few people gathered here, who brought with them improvised screening equipment, and when it got dark they would show their works.
It was also a form of salesmanship, and the work they had in their hands, shot on video cameras, might just be picked up as the next Blair Witch.
Without an invitation, Murphy might have been one of them, but getting an invitation was just having a slightly more advanced ticket to the show.
And that admission ticket also required the payment of money.
Passing through the square and turning another intersection, Murphy came to the place where the organizing committee of the film festival was working, inquired at the entrance, and quickly found the corresponding office, took out the invitation letter and the corresponding cadre of materials, and went through the relevant screening procedures.
"Mr. Stanton."
Behind the desk was a middle-aged woman wearing eyes, she said formulaically, "According to the schedule, your film will be screened at the Morris Theater on the afternoon of the 20th, you need to pay an entrance fee of $3,000, $200 for printing materials, $300 for theater screening money, and $300 for staff remuneration... ..."
Listening to this series of fees, Murphy's head was spinning for a while, but there was nothing he could do about it, for a movie that wanted to participate in any film festival, the producer would need to submit an entrance fee to the festival side, which was often not a lot of money, and there were also all kinds of expenses submitted, such as the cost of printing promotional materials, transportation costs, staff remuneration, expenses at the screenings, funds for public relations activities... ...
Fortunately, this was the St. Denis Film Festival, where the fees were relatively low, and Murphy eventually paid $5,000 and completed all the formalities.
Murphy can only sigh, film is an art, want to realize this art, money is the most basic condition.
Most people who have been to the film festival know that organizing a film festival requires a lot of venues and manpower, the expenditure is not expensive, although the festival will also have sponsors to pay, but in addition to charging the basic costs, including the St. Dennis Film Festival and most of the three major European film festivals within the film festival will also be from the film festival deal in the film to extract a certain share.
Leaving the organizing committee's office, Murphy had no interest in going around, and now the most people in Park City were those similar to him.
The sky is covered by the night, back to the hotel room, casually asked for a dinner, Murphy sat by the window, while eating and looking outside, Park City is brightly lit, people come and go on the streets, looking down from the heights, you can see a slightly larger open space, all flashing with the unique light of the silver screen, this place has become a movie night city.
After dinner, he first called Bill Rossis, the other party has a number of clients under his banner, it is impossible to serve only for himself, will not come to Park City until the day of the exhibition of "Fruit Hard Candy", and he also contacted a few distribution company's professional watchers, they will be present in the theater at that time.
Perhaps it was the distance from Los Angeles; perhaps it was the fact that he'd been so busy in recent months that there was always someone around to work with; or perhaps it was the fact that this pre-dawn wait was the most torturous of all; Murphy was surprised to be left with a sense of loneliness when he hung up the phone.
In the eyes of Bill Rossis, he was a man who was studying up, a potential stock.
In Paul Wilson's eyes, he was lucky as hell, directing a real feature film in his early twenties.
In James Franco's eyes, he's despicable and a guy who doesn't even need to tell a lie.
In Carey Mulligan's eyes, he's understanding and the nicest guy in the world.
Murphy had a general idea of what they thought of him, and knew in the back of his mind that he wasn't who they thought he was as a person.
For some reason, Murphy thought of Carla Faith, who had traveled far away to New York, and they were truly on the same page, but Carla Faith had returned to her alma mater for further study funded by Fox Television, and when she came out her career would inevitably be plucked up once again, and what about him?
Although he got a key, but Murphy knows that his road ahead is still chaotic.
Subconsciously touched the cell phone, input Carla Faith's number, Murphy was just about to press the dial button, but the phone suddenly rang, the screen showed a very strange number.
He pressed the answer button, "Hello, this is Murphy Stanton."
"Hi Murph."
A crisp voice rang through the receiver, "This is Kerry."
"Listen out."
Hearing the familiar voice, Murphy's somewhat depressed mood changed for the better, "Why are you calling at this hour?"
"I just snuck out of the house and am calling you on the public phone." Carey Mulligan on the other side answered, "Murph, is the movie screening time set?"
Murphy stood up, "The twentieth of this month."
"Looking forward to it." Carey Mulligan's crisp voice gradually turned lower, "I ... miss you, Murphy."
Switching hands to hold his cell phone, Murphy frowned slightly, and before he could say anything, Carey Mulligan on the other side added, "I had a dream about you. Well, enough about that, my mom's coming over to see me, and it would suck for her to find out I called you."
The phone was quickly hung up and that cute baby face suddenly popped into Murphy's mind, he couldn't help but shake his head and laugh, he wasn't James Franco.
Probably daydreaming, when he slept at night, Murphy actually dreamed of Carey Mulligan, the blonde girl in his dream held a sharp knife, and walked step by step towards him tied to the top of the chair, the delicate doll's face with a cute and innocent smile, but the knife was venomous and cut to his vitals ...
For two consecutive nights, Murphy was awakened by such dreams, but fortunately, with the upcoming screening of Fruity Hard Candy, his energies could finally be put elsewhere.