Eric Hamilton – Celebrity / DJ / Nightlife Photographer

Posts Tagged ‘sundance film festival’

The Deseret news published a one-sided piece about bouncers controlling crowds at the Sundance Film Festival. Event security guards get a bum wrap, and they have a difficult job, but all due respect to the Des. – there are two sides to this story.

Here’s the other side:

Main street in Park City is cold at 1:00am, and there’s a line forming at the new hotspot, Downstairs, partially owned by Danny Masterson from “That 70′s Show”. The crowd is waiting to get in to Paul Oakenfold. There’s a list, but the line is moving slowly. A pretty young girl is calling off names one at a time every few minutes while bouncers instruct the deaf crowd to wait in line. It’s a private party, so nearly everybody waiting is a VIP, on the list, and nobody wants to wait to get in.

Among the VIP’s waiting outside is the well-known Hollywood club promoter, Mac Africa. When she’s not throwing parties at Sundance, she’s playing hostess at Vanguard, or any of Hollywood’s most legendary clubs.

Mac calls out a name, trying to get the attention of whomever is in charge. “That’s not my name!” was the only answer she got. After more than an hour, Mac and her entourage are finally allowed inside. The club is smaller than it looks, with a maximum capacity of less than 100, the crowd packs in tight with their hands raised as Paul queues up “Tiny Dancer” and whips them into a euphoric frenzy.

By the time all the fingers and toes thaw, everybody in the room has forgotten the ordeal of getting through security — almost. After the show, Mac stops to chat politely with the bouncers at the back door. Her genuine smile and elegant poise brace the listeners for the impact of her biting words.

“The key to being a good bouncer at a VIP party is to always listen, because you never know who they are. Listen to the names they’re dropping, send someone to go and fetch somebody who can confirm or deny their story.”

When there is a herd of people lined up at a door jostling to get in, it’s easy to forget that they’re not cattle, but when you’re playing host to the VIPs who keep the entertainment world spinning, it’s important. With connections and influence come nightlife jobs. More large crowds to keep the bouncers busy, and after the slowest Sundance nightlife we’ve seen in years, it’s more important than ever for security guards to keep in mind.

Over all, the security team at Downstairs did a fantastic job managing the unruly crowd. At one point nearly a dozen people tried to glide in on a plus six and no riot ensued thanks to the security team. For the most part, they all kept their cool and remained friendly in a difficult situation, but in the nightlife industry, even one outburst aimed at the wrong person can be costly.

Last night I shot Bassbin Twins at Pearl Ultra Lounge in Salt Lake City. The Sundance Film Festival has officially started, so it’s opening weekend madness here in Utah. Ashton Kutcher has a promotion going called 24 Hours at Sundance. He’s teamed up with Kevin Rose to send a bunch of social media mavens using Qik.com streams on video scavenger hunts all over Park City. They start that Saturday morning at 9:00am and run for 24 hours, with no sleep — so if you’re at Sundance ’09 and you happen to see people running around with little video cameras on a scavenger hunt, help them out. My gut is telling me Ashton isn’t going to make this easy, so they’ll need all the help they can get! Ashton! Send somebody to Lunadance in Salt Lake City to get some video of the hot go-go dancers! Those hits will tripple in no time. VentureBeat’s Matt Marshall is one of the contestants. I want to see Matt Marshall dancing to Paul Oakenfold tonight. Now that would be golden footage. Did you hear that Kevin Rose?

If you happen to be in Park City for Sundance, check out Suntweet – the charity tweetup about how to use social media for marketing (like Ashton and friends are doing, above). My friend Jesse Stay (author of the Facebook developer guide, FBML Essentials: Facebook Markup Language Fundamentals and co-author of I’m on Facebook–Now What???: How to Get Personal, Business, and Professional Value from Facebook) is going to be on the panel. If you’re into social media, check it out. Follow me on twitter for play-by-play updates on fun Sundance related activities.

Recently, I did a photo shoot with Eliza Wren dressed as Dorothy from Wizard of Oz for a photo shoot. We’re still working on the background painting (yes, painting) for the composite photos, but in the mean-time, Eliza’s album release party is coming up! Don’t miss it.

It’s finally here… 3 years in the studio – ELiZA WREN’s Return to Oz double album is finally ready! The album will premiere Jan 21st, 7pm at The Sundance Film Festival in Park City UT (OC Tanner Venue 416 Main St).

The show will be FREE and it will be hosted by actress & star of the film, FAIRUZA BALK! Along with the film screening will be a live musical performance by Eliza & “beheaded” back-up singers (film reference).