You Ought to Be in Pictures

Company information

HP brought new meaning to the term 'moving pictures' at the 25th anniversary of the Sundance Film Festival, held January 19 - 28, in Park City, Utah. To commemorate its 4th consecutive year as a Presenting Sponsor of the Festival, HP commissioned a fleet of Segway Transporters with studded snow tires and created roving photo-taking teams to capture images of moviegoers and tourists alike. The images were then available for pick-up at the HP Snapshot Chalet in the heart of downtown Park City, where visitors could also purchase digital cameras and printers. HP employees staffed the Chalet to interact directly with consumers and better understand their photo and printing needs. "We provided a valuable and fun service, especially for those visitors who wanted to download images from their own cameras," said Daina Middleton, HP IPG Interactive Communications Manager.

HP's colorful presence

In addition to the Segways, HP also continued its robust presence at the Festival, which included the hosting technology for the Sundance Online Film Festival; the PCs and printers for all Festival operations; a series of HP Workstation filmmaking workshops at the Sundance Film Studio; the printing technology for the HP Wireimage Portrait Studio; digital entertainment equipment at the Intel Digital Experience Zone; a celebrity photo auction; the donation of all graphic arts and commercial printing needs of the Festival; and the sponsorship of two customer conferences — The HP Entertainment Technology Summit and the HP Graphic Arts Summit. "HP's presence was awesome this year," said Robert Dick, Associate Director of Corporate Relations at the Sundance Institute. "They touched every facet of the festivalgoer and made the experience more enjoyable for them."

HP helped underscore its role of providing enabling technology at an exclusively sponsored panel titled, "A Brave New World, Entertainment and Social Change". The panel featured a who's who in the production, financing, direction, distribution of today's socially conscious films — filmmaker Robert Redford; MPAA chairman Dan Glickman; Jeff Skoll, founder and CEO of Participant Productions; indie producer Bingham Ray; producer Jake Eberts; and moderator Pat Mitchell, President and CEO of PBS. The panel focused on whether new technology models could place a focus on socially relevant films. HP is a founding promotional partner of Participant Productions and is providing prize packages as incentives to signing up on their activist network.

Wordplay, the documentary

In addition to its sponsorship presence, HP received unexpected exposure when one of its employees, Al Sanders, a project manager from Ft. Collins, Colorado, was the subject of a critically acclaimed documentary, 'Wordplay', about the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. Sanders was given red carpet treatment by the Festival which included press interviews and presence at three premieres where he answered questions to standing room audiences. "It was a special time for me and I had no idea that the film would be one of the audience favorites of the entire Festival," said Sanders, a Tournament finalist. "Now it's back to business as usual." 'Wordplay' was the first documentary purchased at the Festival, increasing the odds that it will be released widely.

HP is not only a Presenting Sponsor of the Sundance Film Festival, but actively supports the year-round efforts of the Sundance Institute and their mission of encouraging the discovery and development of independent artists and audiences. HP's involvement with Sundance is intended to support the independent, creative spirit and provide technology tools for everyday consumers and filmmakers. Be sure to read the exclusive backstage blogs and view the celebrity photos via 'Backstage at Sundance'.