Sundance Insitute Announces 1998 Lab Participants; Michelle Satter Discusses The Evolution of the Lab Program

Michelle Satter, the Founding Director of the Sundance Institute's Feature Film Program spoke with indieWIRE on Tuesday, and was asked about how the labs have changed since their inception in 1981. "The core (of the original program) was the June Filmmaker's Lab. That was the only program we did during the year. (It) now exists as a year-round program," adding, "when we look now at 1988, it's a program that involves the screenwriters lab in January and the June directors lab and the writers lab that immediately follows it." The Institute works with the projects throughout the year in different ways. "Sundance exists as a kind of a resource to the filmmakers that we select in any given year, which is between 15 and 20 projects."

Satter also mentioned the various support programs run by the institute including the recently introduced screenplay reading series. The Institute used to conduct staged readings only as a part of the labs, but decided to bring them to New York and L.A. "It's an opportunity to allow a writer to see a script on its feet with actors...it really allows these writers another step in terms of a process (of creating a script)."

During the discussion, Satter touched on an element of the indie film world discussed at the recent Midwest Filmmakers Conference at the Cleveland International Film Festival. "In the indie film world, he producer I think is a key person," adding that "One of the things we try to do with each of the projects, and it's very much an individual process, is help them find producers, and in many cases help writers or directors to find agents." One way in which this is accomplished by the institute is through inviting the participants from the June lab to the annual producers conference run at Sundance. Which, according to Satter, "sort of functions as a kind of cinemart for the June filmmakers," allowing them to "set up one-on-one meetings with six or seven of the producers and companies that are there. It's not set up as a market, but a lot of those relationships..will ultimately extend."

Activities for participants continue outside of the labs and conferences, as well. "As a writer finishes the next draft, we'll set up meetings outside of the lab. Right now there's as much activity going on outside of the lab, as in fact there is during the lab. Although the labs are a real focal point for the creative work going on."

The artistic director of the lab is Gyula Gazdag, and this year's creative advisors include: Allison Anders, Jon Avnet, Sally Field, P.J. Hogan, Frank Pierson, Stewart Stern, Robert Redford and Wally Strick.

[Tomorrow indieWIRE will present a part 2 of our interview with Michelle Satter, where she discusses the international scope of the Feature Film Program and the Sundance Institute's foray into working with film composers.]

For a detailed list of participants in this year's labs please click here.