Backstage at Sundance : See_2006

The 2006 HP Charity Auction

amy brock — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 12:54:00 GMT

Posted by Susan Getgood

In addition to their portrait, each celebrity autographed an HP Photosmart printer. Here are some of the things they wrote on the printers.

Amber Tamblyn
“Lots of Love & Change in the New Year”

Michael Rapaport
“NYC 2006 “Special” Sundance Film Fest. Peace! Peace!”

Terrence Howard
“What would you do if you were not afraid?”

William H. Macy
“Habitat for Humanity – Oh Yeah”

To whet your appetite, here’s a picture of the printer they signed:

Photo by Jemal Countess - © WireImage.com

Image courtesy of WireImage.com

Preview of All Access by Kevin Mazur

amy brock — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 12:34:00 GMT

Posted by Jennifer Russell

I guess the unexpected will always occur at an event like Sundance. When I first arrived, I had no idea of an amazing project that was about to come my way.

Kevin Mazur, a highly respected music and celebrity photographer who was in Park City with WireImage to photograph celebrities at the People Magazine Luxury Lounge, plans to have a book of his photographs published this later this year. All Access will document his years photographing the top musicians in the industry. Prior to publication, he wanted to have a 20 page mock up produced for talent consent purposes. I was asked to help Kevin to get the mock up printed while at the Festival.

Wow! How lucky was I? Over the past month, I had managed the production of signage for the various HP venues at the Festival so I had a great printing vendor mind for the job, Rastar in Salt Lake City.

I met with Kevin and his business manager, Sheryl Olson at the Luxury Lounge. Both are perfectionists! We reviewed files they had chosen for the book. Sheryl selected media and the cover composition. The high resolution files where loaded on the ftp server. Rastar put the book into production on the HP Indigo Digital Press 5000. Two days later, 25 copies of Kevin's book were delivered to the Luxury Lounge. Kevin and Sheryl were so very happy with the HP printed book. It was a very impressive production.

Later that evening, approximately, 90 attendees from the annual HP Graphic Arts Summit attended dinner at Shabu. Kevin talked with the audience about his experiences with HP technology.

We are very lucky to have Kevin Mazur as one of HP's biggest fans. He uses and loves HP products and technology. His book and promotional postcards were printed on the HP Indigo Digital Press. His portfolio is printed using the HP Designjet NR130 and he has previously used HP Photosmart 8250. His celebrity images at the Festival were printed on a HP Designjet 5500. He even used an HP Photosmart 475 GoGo printer to print photos of his family at Christmas. Kevin graciously signed ten copies of his sample book and raffled them to some very lucky media and analysts.

It is gratifying to help an artist like Kevin Mazur share his vision with people all over the world. I am certainly looking forward to reading the completed book, All Access by Kevin Mazur, later this year. Aren't you?

Images: Jennifer Aniston, Catherine Keener, The Police and cast of “Alpha Dog”

amy brock — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 14:37:00 GMT

Posted by Susan Getgood

Jennifer Aniston and Catherine Keener with Friends with Money director Nicole Holofcener

“Alpha Dog” Nick Cassavettes, director, Anton Yelchin, Emile Hirsch, Ben Foster and Justin Timberlake

Photos by Jeff Vespa - © WireImage.com

Images courtesy WireImage.com

Auction Portraits 2/04/2006

amy brock — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 14:29:00 GMT

Auction portraits: Guy Pearce, John Waters, Michael Rapaport, Rufus Wainwright, Kevin Smith, Wilmer Valderrama

Guy Pearce

John Waters

Michael Rapaport

Rufus Wainwright

Kevin Smith

Wilmer Valderrama

Photos by Jeff Vespa - © WireImage.com

Images courtesy WireImage.com

Reader-submitted Sundance Blog

amy brock — Sat, 04 Feb 2006 10:39:00 GMT

Mr. Robotoblog

Looks like they had a great time at Sundance! Thanks for sharing your blog with us.

Auction portraits 2/03/2006

amy brock — Sat, 04 Feb 2006 10:36:00 GMT

Auction portraits: Lucy Liu, William H. Macy, Aaron Eckhart, Gina Gershon, The Beastie Boys

Lucy Liu

William H. Macy

Aaron Eckhart

Gina Gershon

The Beastie Boys

Photos by Jeff Vespa - © WireImage.com

Images courtesy WireImage.com

Auction Portraits 2/02/2006

amy brock — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 23:18:00 GMT

Auction portraits: Laura Prepon, Jessica Biel, Joel Madden, Daryl Hannah, Josh Hartnett

Laura Prepon

Jessica Biel

Joel Madden of Good Charlotte

Daryl Hannah

Josh Hartnett

Photos by Jeff Vespa - © WireImage.com

Images courtesy WireImage.com

Auction portraits 2/01/2006

amy brock — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 20:43:00 GMT

Terrence Howard, Matt Dillon, Amber Tamblyn, Toni Collette, Nick Cave

Terrence Howard

Matt Dillon

Amber Tamblyn

Toni Collette

Nick Cave of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Photos by Jeff Vespa - © WireImage.com

Images courtesy WireImage.com

Congratulations Oscar Nominees

amy brock — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 20:28:00 GMT

We were excited to hear that three of the celebrities who are in the HP Charity Auction to benefit Habitat for Humanity were nominated for Academy Awards.

Terrence Howard, Best Actor, Hustle & Flow
Matt Dillon, Best Supporting Actor, Crash
Catherine Keener, Best Supporting Actress, Capote

Felicity Huffman, who signed a portrait and printer in last fall’s auction to benefit DATA and the American Red Cross, was nominated for Best Actress for Transamerica.

2006 Sundance ends, HP charity auction begins

amy brock — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 13:01:00 GMT

Posted by Susan Getgood

Cross posted on Marketing Roadmaps

Well, Sundance opened with “Friends with Money” and closed with “Alpha Dog.” There has to be a message in there somewhere – perhaps more than one. :-)

The awards were given last night – FilmBlab has the list and all the corporate sponsors and beautiful people are packing up and going home. Returning Park City to the residents, skiers and boarders that normally make up the winter population.

It was nice to see so many films by and about women: the afore-mentioned “Friends with Money,” “Stephanie Daley,” and “Come Early Morning” among them. And to hear about films like “Little Miss Sunshine” that almost didn’t get made…. and then hit big. I’m also looking forward to “Thank You For Smoking,” the uncut version. :-)

Now that the film festival is over, the work on the HP Charity Auction to benefit Habitat for Humanity began in earnest. My job, as I’ve mentioned before, was to reach out to the online fan bases of the celebrities who participated. They are, after all, pretty likely to want to bid on a signed poster and autographed photo printer of their favorite star.

Here's the complete list as of January 29th, 2006.

Jennifer Aniston (pictured with Catherine Keener)
Jessica Biel
Nick Cassavettes (“Alpha Dog” group photo)
Nick Cave
Toni Collette
Matt Dillon
Aaron Eckhart
Ben Foster (“Alpha Dog” group photo)
Gina Gershon
Al Gore
Daryl Hannah
Josh Hartnett
Emile Hirsch (“Alpha Dog” group photo)
Terrence Howard
Catherine Keener (pictured with Jennifer Aniston)
Lucy Liu
William H. Macy
Joel Madden of Good Charlotte
Guy Pearce
Laura Prepon
Michael Rapaport
Kevin Smith
Amber Tamblyn
Justin Timberlake (“Alpha Dog” group photo)
Wilmer Valderrama
Rufus Wainwright
John Waters
Anton Yelchin (“Alpha Dog” group photo)
The Beastie Boys
The Police: Sting, Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers (photo only)

Cast of Alpha Dog joins auction

amy brock — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 12:50:00 GMT

We have a group photo of Nick Cassavettes, director of “Alpha Dog” and cast members Anton Yelchin, Emile Hirsch, Ben Foster and Justin Timberlake.

Images courtesy WireImage.com

Check out this week’s People, See Sundance images by WireImage photographers!

amy brock — Mon, 30 Jan 2006 17:41:00 GMT

Posted by Lisa Tucker

Well, the film festival may be over now, but the buzz is really just beginning. Check out this week’s People magazine where some of our favorite WireImage photographers’ pics are displayed prominently in a four-page spread about Sundance.

In that spread, the William H. Macy photograph was taken at the HP Portrait Studio by Jeff Vespa – mentioned here by Alison Watterson in a post last week. Also, by my count, I see seven or eight photos by Kevin Mazur, another WireImage photographer I had the pleasure of meeting.

I was given a great tour of Kevin’s studio – located in the Luxury Lounge. What an amazing place – and his techniques for getting the celebrities to relax and open up are among the best in the industry. You can easily spot Kevin’s photos by the very simple environment – white backgrounds and natural lighting. And, incidentally, Kevin is big fan of HP printers and uses them professionally. He even spoke at a dinner for the attendees of our Graphic Arts Summit last Wednesday in Park City. Anyway, check out his pics in People – I think they are awesome.

v While visiting Kevin’s studio and having dinner with his team later in the evening, I met Bethenny Frankel, the runner-up on Martha Stewart’s Apprentice. Besides being on The Apprentice, Bethenny is the owner of Bethennybakes.com, a low-fat, wheat-, egg-, and dairy-free cookie company in New York. I haven’t actually tried her cookies – although for the sake of this blog, I’m certainly willing to give it a go. I’ve heard that they taste pretty yummy – even with all those ingredients taken out. Bethenny was here at Sundance checking out the scene, doing a bit of networking , brainstorming on new business opportunities and giving away cookies to the stars.

Oh, and in case you were wondering – Bethenny says the experience on The Apprentice was amazing, although not necessarily enjoyable at the time. She says the constant stress really started to take its toll on her. Just as I imagined it would …

More images from Sundance

amy brock — Sun, 29 Jan 2006 12:27:00 GMT

Jennifer Aniston and Robert Redford
at the "Friends with Money" Opening Night Premiere

Photo by Jeff Vespa - © WireImage.com

Images courtesy WireImage.com

What does an autographed HP 475 printer look like?

amy brock — Sun, 29 Jan 2006 12:16:00 GMT

Posted by Susan Getgood

I’m sure everyone has a pretty clear idea of what a signed celebrity portrait looks like (and don’t worry, we’ll be posting the images next week after the festival is over). But, how exactly does someone autograph a printer?

Well, wonder no longer!! Here are a few pics of the signed 475 compact photo printers.

Signed by Laura Prepon

Signed by John Waters

Signed by Joel Madden

I have an earlier model (from the previous auction!) and I have to say the brushed metal front on the 475 is pretty cool.

Images courtesy WireImage.com

Printer musings

amy brock — Sun, 29 Jan 2006 12:07:00 GMT

Posted by Lisa Tucker

Kevin Smith, director of Clerks and Dazed and Confused, Dogma, Chasing Amy, etc., wins the prize in my mind for writing the best comment on the hp475 printer. (He signed it for our eBay charity auction.) It says, “Print Fake Money with This.” I guess the image quality is just that good. HP of course, does not endorse using its printers for such illegal activity.

Photo by Todd Williamson - © WireImage.com

Other printer musings:

Terrence Howard wrote his comment backwards, so you have to read it in the mirror to know what it says.

Jessica Biel drew a mountain range – signifying the mountains around Sundance.

Jennifer Aniston wanted to make her printer signing special after being told that it would potentially fetch more money for charity. She asked Catherine Keener what to do, and then herself suggested the Aerosmith wings that she ended up using.

The Beastie Boys drew dogs, doing what they do, or doo as the case may be. You gotta love it!