Talk:Sundance, Utah
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Can someone verify that Robert Redford did not name the resort after his character but rather the way the "sun dances?" --Jaardon 03:13, 24 February 2007 (UTC)
Since this article is clearly about the resort, and not the festival (which has its own page), I removed the following from the introduction:
- The festival was borne out of the Sundance Institute, which was also launched by Robert Redford, in 1981.
- In 2006, Redford's Sundance Group opens the first in a chain of Sundance Cinema theatres.
The first I would not argue against being in there somewhere but please, not the intro, as the article is, again, clearly about the Sundance ski resort, not the Sundance Film Festival.
The second, however, has virtually nothing to do with the resort, as the first of these cinemas will open in Madison, Wisconsin - not even the same State as the Sundance Resort. Furthermore, it obviously has more of a connection to indie films (it is to showcase "independent, documentary and foreign-language films as well as some studio projects"), i.e. the festival, than it does the Sundance resort.
The worst thing that was left in here, though, was the following:
- The Sundance Film Festival, held in Park City, is a competition for independent film makers that has become a popular January mecca for glitterati, the press and those that yearn to see and be seen. At its core, however, is the convergence of indie film makers, not only highlighting their own work, but sharing ideas and forging relationships with one another. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, and perhaps in the world.
The reasons should be obvious but I'll state them anyway: that is the absolutely singlemost spammish-sounding, POV'd description I have ever read on Wikipedia, bar none. And in case you have trouble distinguishing why, well, I'll tell you why:
1.) "popular January mecca"? OK, maybe I could have let that one slide, but...
2.) Glitterati? What? Since when does a neutral, meant-to-be-intelligent-sounding encyclopedia use words like "glitterati"? By the way, "glitterati" other than being an obvious buzz word (and a particularly self-conscious buzz word at that) isn't even a concept notable enough for an article on Wikipedia; the closest it comes to that is a stub on the film called Glitterati (which isn't even available on DVD, apparently... ever), and a band. It's not a common enough term to use, and even if it were, it's silly-sounding, even worse than "thesps" and "skeins". Also, the "glitter" part of it makes it sound extremely POVish ("Look! Shiny famous people! Come to our resort in January!"). I've seen supermarket tabloids with more mature-sounding turns of phrase.
3.) "Those that yearn to see and be seen" is blatantly spammish as well, and just plain not good for the purposes of the article. For one - explain to me exactly how you can be sure of what anybody else is "yearning" for? Also, "see and be seen" sounds like a very definite advertizing slogan. Yes, I realize how popular the festival is with celebrities, but that doesn't mean we need this article to sound like it was ripped directly from the resort's brochure.
4.) "At its core, however, is the convergence of indie film makers, not only highlighting their own work, but sharing ideas and forging relationships with one another." - again, sounds like advertizing more than anything else (and, like the conclusion to a much larger section that doesn't already redundantly state that it's an indie film festival), and also, that kind of stuff should go in Sundance Film Festival, not here.
I also altered the phrasing of the last sentence because "perhaps" is so very weasel-wordy. Either it's THE largest (verifiably!), or it's merely one of the largest (if you can't verify it being the largest). Don't waffle on it.
Here's how my edit of that paragraph therefore looks:
- The Sundance Film Festival, held in Park City, is a competition for independent film makers that has become extremely well-known and popular in film industry and media. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, and also one of the largest in the world.
Which could probably still use a couple tweaks, but which is still infinitely better than the previous, ripped-from-the-brochure type description. Runa27 23:04, 27 July 2006 (UTC)
