BACK LOT Colorado Springs

The new Indie Spirit Film Festival is starting off big. Big, as in 80 films being shown in seven venues over three days.

With such a smorgasbord, film lovers will have their hands full picking what they want to see.

We can't tell you what to choose, and there's no way to see everything, but here are interviews with the directors of three films with Colorado ties to get you started.

"EVERYONE BUT YOU"

Directed by Eric Shiveley
8 p.m. today, Kimball's Twin Peak Theater

Eric Shiveley starting shooting his film "Everyone But You" almost accidentally.

Three years ago, the Denver musician sold off nearly everything he owned and bought 40 acres outside of Alamosa, intending to build a combination home and recording studio. Taken with the natural beauty of his new surroundings, he decided to record the project.

"I've been here before, but you have to live here to know just how pretty it is," he said. "It just seemed like it would be crazy to not at least videotape building the house."

So he rode his bike to Wal-Mart in the middle of the night and bought a cheap camcorder.

And for the next two years, he taped everything: the construction, the setbacks, the trips to Denver, a trip to Texas, his puppy, his puppy's death, flirting with the pretty local girl, her rejection of him. The film became a diary of a strange and powerful period of his life.

"I wanted to make a documentary about building the house and any band I recorded," he said. "But other stuff just came up and the movie ended up pretty different."

Shiveley, now 39, ended the film on Dec. 31 only because he needed to find some closure on the project. In the months prior, it was looking like all the pieces of his life were coming together - only to have them fall apart again.

He nearly deleted the film several times, not wanting evidence of his failures.

"It was really, really hard to finish the movie," he said. "It was no fun at all finishing the movie, but that's probably the best part, the strongest part."

Shiveley said recording his own life, and then telling his own story, wasn't as strange as it might seem.

"After filming for long enough, I realized that whatever happened was going to happen," he said. "Whether I was filming this all or not, I'm pretty sure I would have done this all the same - but I was glad to get it all on camera."

And even after finishing, Shiveley is still taping.

"Since I finished that, it's crossed my mind that if the movie ever got somewhere, that it would be crazy to not capture what it's like to go from nothing to actually getting somewhere," he said. "Eventually, I'd like to feel obligated to not capture everything. Who wants to be the annoying guy carrying the camera everywhere?"

"THE BILBEE BOYS"

Directed by Matthew Nelson
5 p.m. Sunday, Pikes Peak Center Studio Bee

Colorado Springs writer and director Matthew Nelson planned to make "The Bilbee Boys" as a comedy - three nerdy brothers pursuing the beautiful girl who moves in next door.

As he went on, though, the film became more painful as it became more personal.

"I did a really stupid thing when I was younger and I ignored this girl," he said.

Nelson, a 24-year-old who grew up in the Springs, wrote "The Bilbee Boys" while working the night shift as a security guard.

"I'd go into a cubicle at 2 a.m., 3 a.m. in the morning," he said.

Actually shooting the film was a trip through the school of hard knocks, Nelson said. He began shooting, using locations around Colorado Springs, in late 2006, but weather problems and other issues pushed completion back to mid-2007.

"We had stupidly shot all of our interior stuff when we should have shot our exterior stuff," he said. "That caused a huge delay that set us back three or four months."

In the end, however, he got the film he wanted.

"We made so many mistakes, but I learned from all of it," Nelson said.

If he were to start over, he said, "I'd make the same film, I'd maybe schedule it a little bit better."

Nelson hopes audiences will take his movie for what it is - a small story most people can relate to. There's no need, he said, to read more into it.

"I didn't want to make a film that had a message," Nelson said. "I hate films that grab you by the throat and hit you over the head for it. If anything, I want people to walk away thinking if there's something you want, you need to go out and get it."

"305"

Directed by Dave and Dan Holechek
Noon Sunday, Pikes Peak Center

"305" started as a goof: Take the swords-and-sandals action hit "300" and shoot it in the style of the NBC sitcom "The Office."

Twin brothers Dave and Dan Holechek, who graduated from Air Academy High School and now live in Los Angeles, shot it over a weekend in May 2007, with a group of college friends.

The 5-minute short became a YouTube sensation, with nearly 4 million views (search for "305" on you tube.com to see the original short).

If that Internet attention can translate to sales of the feature-length DVD, which will be released in July, the Holecheks may have pioneered an entirely new business model for the film industry.

"We think we're actually the first feature film that's been developed and released off a YouTube video," Dave Holechek said. "There's not really a precedent for what we're doing."

As remarkable as the movie's business model is, what the Holecheks were able to produce with a tiny budget is just as impressive.

"300" was a fantasy retelling of the Spartan stand against the Persians in 480 B.C. at Thermopylae, shot entirely on green screen using computer-added imagery for the backgrounds and effects. The Holecheks, who both work in film editing and production, re-created the look using a green screen draped over some pipes in a rented warehouse.

"We were able to pull off a pretty convincing battle scene just based on what we could do on the computer," Dave Holechek said.

"A lot of it is just the knowledge of working with visual effects."

For the feature, the actors improvised much of the script, stealing breaks to watch "Office" episodes on their iPods for inspiration, Dan Holechek said.

"They're really the people that make the comedy work," Dan Holechek said.

In addition to being shown at a half-dozen film festivals, "305" is being featured on the A&E Network, and the Holechek brothers have a development deal for shows that will appear on ABC's Web site.

"We shot it in a warehouse and now we're on the red carpet," Dan Holechek said. "It's kind of been a surreal experience the last few weeks."

FESTIVAL SCHEDULE

TODAY

8 p.m.,"Everyone But You," Kimball's Twin Peak Theater

SATURDAY

10 a.m. to noon, Short Series 1, Edifice Gallery
10 a.m. to noon, Documentary Series 1, Antlers Hilton Learning Center
10 a.m. to noon, Documentary Series 2, Antlers Hilton Carson Room
1 p.m. to 3 p.m., Short Series 2, Poor Richards Bookstore
1 p.m. to 3 p.m., Short Series 3, Edifice Gallery
1 p.m. to 3 p.m., Animation Series, Antlers Hilton Learning Center
1 p.m. to 3 p.m., Documentary Series 3, Antlers Hilton Carson Room
3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., Documentary Series 4, Poor Richard's Bookstore
3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., Short Series 4, Edifice Gallery
3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., Native American series, Antlers Hilton Learning Center
3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., Documentary Series 5, Antlers Hilton Carson Room
6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Documentary Series 6, Poor Richard's Bookstore
6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Short Series 5, Edifice Gallery
6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Documentary Series 7, Antlers Hilton Learning Center
6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Horror Feature 1, Antlers Hilton Carson Room
9 p.m. to 10 p.m., Documentary Series 8, Poor Richard's Bookstore
9 p.m. to 10 p.m., Documentary Series 9, Edifice Gallery
9 p.m. to 11 p.m., Feature 1, Antlers Hilton Learning Center
9 p.m. to 11 p.m., Horror 2, Antlers Hilton Carson room

SUNDAY

10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., Pikes Peak Center - "War Eagle, Arkansas"
10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., Pikes Peak Center Studio Bee - "Freezer Burn"
Noon to 2 p.m., Pikes Peak Center - "305"
Noon to 2 p.m., Pikes Peak Center Studio Bee - "Broken Fences"
2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., Pikes Peak Center - "The Stone Angel"
2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., Pikes Peak Center Studio Bee - "Minotauro"
5 p.m. to 7 p.m., Pikes Peak Center - "The Bilbee Boys"
5 p.m. to 7 p.m., Pikes Peak Center Studio Bee - "Yesterday Was a Lie"
7 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., Awards Program, Pikes Peak Center - Honoring the best of the festival.
7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m., Pikes Peak Center - "Windcroft"
7:30 p.m., Pikes Peak Center Studio Bee - "Kill Kill Faster Faster"

details
Indie Spirit Film Festival

WHEN: Today through Sunday

WHERE: Kimball's Twin Peak Theater (115 E. Pikes Peak Ave.), Edifice Gallery (325 N. Tejon St.), Poor Richards Bookstore (320 N. Tejon St.), Antlers Hilton's Learning Center (4 S. Cascade Ave.), Antlers Hilton's Carson Room (4 S. Cascade Ave.), Pikes Peak Center (190 S. Cascade Ave.), Pikes Peak Center Studio Bee (190 S. Cascade Ave.).

TICKETS: Individual tickets $10. Passes $40 (Saturday and Sunday), $50 (Friday-Sunday), $100 (VIP, with access to the filmmaker's lounge); 576-2626.

INFORMATION AND FILM DESCRIPTIONS: www.indiespiritfilmfestival.org