Challenge

In Spring 2024, construction forced the Sundance Institute’s long-running Directors Lab to go on the road for the first time. Holden Payne, the institute’s Technical Director of Exhibition and Production, turned the disruption into a unique opportunity and found an atmospheric temporary home for the Lab, the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, CO, Stephen King’s original inspiration for The Overlook in The Shining. Only one thing loomed larger than the possibility of evil ghosts: the old hotel’s power system.

Aputure was invited to provide lighting for the Lab. Payne says, “It was a hotel that was built in 1917, and Aputure came with a lot of low-draw fixtures and [Ecoflow] batteries. It saved our bacon.”

The Lab was a success, and Payne invited Aputure to be the official camera lighting provider for the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. This new challenge would entail lighting the Filmmaker Lodge and café on Main Street, as well as all seven press lines at the screening theaters across Park City. A familiar problem returned from the Director’s Lab; many buildings in downtown Park City are over a century old. The team needed to make do with 20-amp circuits and didn’t have time to deal with big lighting packages or complex power solutions.

Solution

Lighting Designer Andy McCann knows the key to lighting press lines is consistency. Photographers rush from line to line, so the environment, sound, and lighting need to be the same at each venue. For an even wash, McCann used Nova P300c panel lights.

Every year, the Filmmaker Lodge hosts panels, meetups, and events. It’s a space for filmmakers to get away from the rush of the festival. The space allows for more variation and style. “It changes constantly, it’s a variable stage,” McCann says. “Two people, five people, seven people. You try to give it some mood, some attitude, but the key is to have the lighting even across the stage depending on where they want to put people. I try to find a balance.”

Nova P300cs again provided the main wash. “The Novas are fantastic. very bright, very even. Nice soft light,” McCann says. Here, Light Storm 300xs and new STORM 80cs with CF4 fresnels also played a part, lighting the Lodge stage without taking much space or power.

Results

The Sundance Film Festival debuted on January 23, 2025 to the usual fanfare, with celebrities like Cynthia Erivo, Alison Brie, and Conan O’Brien in attendance, and audience hype for films like Sorry, Baby, Twinless, André Is an Idiot, and Atropia.

With the festival potentially moving to a new location after 2026, change in the industry has also come for the indie film standard bearer, but Payne is up to the task. He says, “The reason Sundance partners with companies like Aputure, is we want to get people the tools that they need to tell their story. And it changes over the years. The story that I needed to hear five years ago is not the story I need to hear today. We’re always looking for new voices because we need to tell the stories of today.”

Filmmaker Lodge

Lighting Press Lines

The 2024 Directors Lab