So typically the buzz at festivals has to do with films. This year at Sundance and Slamdance the buzz includes all sorts of new experiments to keep independent and foreign films in the "black box" without pandering to the multiplex.

Like the first screening I went to where Living Room Theaters announced their initiative for high-end boutique theaters to show independent and foreign films. It's a brand spanking new business plan and they'll be opening up in Portland and Miami to start. Hopefully they'll work out the kinks around ticket prices (they're target audience includes "Baby boomers in the process of retiring with high purchase power and considerable free time" and "College students"). The same day, the Sundance Institute announced plans for a new arthouse initiative. They brought a dozen arthouse curators here to Park City to develop their programs for this year.

And at the IndieWIRE party last night, IndieWIRE announced a partnership with The San Francisco Film Society to launch www.sf360.org.

The Web site will act as a kind of online networking center for everything related to the Bay Area film and visual arts community. Filmmakers will be able to find resources related to filmmaking, and film fans can get daily news relating to everything from local documentaries and experimental films to Pixar and George Lucas. (Read more at The Examiner)

Among their future plans, sf360.org is planning city wide movie nights and school screenings of films both with and without distribution. I was pretty pumped about the idea of viewing San Francisco from space and seeing the lights of outdoor projectors all over the city. Then I turned to chat with some guys at the party who turned out to be Ironweed. They're part of coordinating the film event efforts around San Fran and they've got a Movie of the Month Club going now that looks pretty sweet.

I can't help but wonder if I am the cause of all these new initiatives. I have been blogging about this other theater experience for a while now. But nobody is giving me credit for their business plans. That's just the way it goes. Maybe I'll become one of these guys that thinks up ideas and files patents all day long.