SLCC alum and filmmaker Dylan Lunt on Main Street in Park City.
For aspiring filmmakers Sadie Lynn Ledbetter and Dylan Lunt, the recent Sundance Film Festival was less about watching movies and more about building a career.
Lunt graduated this past fall from Salt Lake Community College with a film production technician degree. His final project while at SLCC’s Center for Arts and Media was making a short film called Circadian. The movie is about a pilot who wakes up to find that his wife and half of his spaceship are missing, with only artificial intelligence to keep him company. Lunt calls his piece “high quality” and plans on submitting it to film festivals.
While still a student at SLCC, Lunt was offered Sundance credentials through the college that opened access to panels and events during the festival. In all, about 17 SLCC students and alums were engaged in some way during the festival with events, panels and work. At the panel discussion “All About Shorts,” Lunt, a Bountiful resident, husband and father learned more about how to distribute his current film and how to get funding for his next short, which is already in pre-production phases.
Dylan Lunt (center) on the set of his short film Circadian at SLCC's Center for Arts and Media.
“The biggest thing I learned is that there are companies who will fund short films even if you are in the very early stages of pre-production,” Lunt said. “If you have a great pitch and a vision, they will help you make it happen. I am definitely going to reach out to multiple companies for my next film.”
Lunt said he felt “energized” after attending Sundance. “I saw some great films, and that always helps keep that passion burning to create,” he added. “I learned a great deal from multiple panels, and I hope to take that knowledge and apply it very soon to my next project.”
Sadie Lynn Ledbetter talks about her passion for filmmaking.
This past Sundance was Sadie Lynn Ledbetter’s fourth festival working as an intern for crews connected with films that were playing during each festival. Those films included Step (2017), RBG (2018), Clemency (2019) and A Thousand Cuts this past festival. While acting mostly as a driver and runner for the directors and producers of those films, Ledbetter said it was essentially like being a production assistant for a movie.
Ledbetter landed those roles as a result of a partnership between SLCC and the Utah Film Center, which created an internship program for students at a few local schools to help get their foot in the industry door during one of the most high-profile film festivals in the world. The networking opportunities as an intern are through the roof, and a self-described “old fashioned” Ledbetter keeps a spreadsheet of everyone she worked with during the festivals and hand writes letters to thank them and keep in touch.
Proof that a single moment can help clarify a student’s career trajectory, Ledbetter recalls taking time to see a film during the 2020 festival that she also happened to work on as an office production assistant during post-production of Nine Days. Prior to its premiere in Park City, everyone who worked on the film was asked to stand up, and that’s when it hit her like a wave of truth. “If there’s any question or doubt that I want to do this, they’re all gone,” said Ledbetter, who once considered a career in nursing before taking a few film history courses.
Ledbetter, who also works in the family’s burgeoning coffee business, hopes to graduate in spring 2021 from SLCC with an associate degree in film production and a certificate of proficiency in business basics. Her dream is to someday have one of her own films at Sundance or another festival and to enjoy steady work as a writer, director or producer.
