LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y., January 20, 2011 – Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging and the Official Digital Camera of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, will debut a collaborative film, entitled the "The Story Beyond The Still," on Sunday, January 23, at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. This exclusive event will be attended by Sundance Film Festival guests, industry professionals and members of the media. The film will then publicly premiere on Monday, February 7, on the Sundance Channel and Vimeo.com.

"The Story Beyond the Still" began as a year-long contest, launched in January 2010 on Vimeo that allowed photographers and videographers to showcase their creativity in a new style of filmmaking that blended still and video images into a continuous cinematic piece begun by Canon Explorer of Light, Vincent Laforet. The complete short film, including the final chapter starring The Breakfast Club star, Judd Nelson, will be viewed in its entirety at this private event during the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.

"At Canon, we strive to let the visions of all filmmakers be realized," said Yuichi Ishizuka, executive vice president and general manager, Imaging Technologies and Communications Group, Canon U.S.A. "We are proud to be a sponsor of the Sundance Film Festival where we will showcase the full 'The Story Beyond The Still' collaborative film that demonstrates the first-hand benefits of shooting still and moving images with Canon's industry-revolutionizing HD DSLR cameras."

Shooting video on DSLR cameras has become increasingly popular among filmmakers and enthusiasts. Nearly twenty percent of the overall 2011 Sundance Film Festival films were shot on HD DSLR cameras, demonstrating the rapid adoption of these cameras as the shooting equipment of choice among today's filmmakers. More importantly, these cameras are revolutionizing the industry, allowing photographers and videographers to showcase their creativity in a new style of filmmaking that blends still and video images.

Canon will also have a "The Story Beyond the Still" room presence the entire week to showcase its latest and greatest digital imaging products. Located at the Festival Co-op, attendees will be able to view the film, learn about Canon products and be entered into a daily drawing for a Canon EOS 60D DSLR camera kit.

"The advent of full HD video capture on DSLR cameras has opened the doors to new and exciting possibilities to independent and emerging filmmakers," said Trevor Groth, director of programming, Sundance Film Festival. "It is simply amazing to see how independent films are utilizing these cameras in new and exciting ways each year. They have truly changed the game."

As the Official Digital Camera of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, Canon U.S.A. will host exclusive educational workshops led by filmmaker Eric Schmidt, creator of the film, "I Melt with You," which was shot using Canon DSLRs and will premiere at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. These workshops, targeting film enthusiasts and professionals, will highlight the impact and need for DSLR cameras in the filmmaking industry. Attendees will gain both technical and creative expertise to advance their careers and involve them with the new realm of DSLR video. The workshops will take place on the following dates and location:

The contest, sponsored by Canon U.S.A. and Vimeo, invited participants to use the HD video capability of their DSLR cameras to create short, two-to-four minute videos that tell a story based on the final still frame from Laforet's piece, and then from each successive winning "chapter." Videos were submitted online and judged by a prestigious group of well-known filmmakers and the Vimeo community itself.

"The incredibly high-quality work submitted for 'The Story Beyond the Still' from the Vimeo community is a reflection of how truly beautiful and compelling user-generated video can be with the right tools and services," said Dae Mellencamp, Vimeo's general manager. "It was a pleasure working with Canon U.S.A. on 'The Story Behind the Still' as this contest was a natural fit with our online community and collaboratively engaged our members by letting them create and vote on the best video productions."

To kick off the contest, Laforet collaborated with Grey New York to bring his interpretation of a still image to life in a short film entitled "The Cabbie," which served as the first installment of a seven chapter collaborative work in which each participant was asked to interpret the previous winning photographer/filmmaker's final still image as the start of their vision for the subsequent chapter.

"The innovative nature of the "The Story Behind the Still" contest demonstrates how storytelling has evolved to become a wonderful social experiment in collaborative filmmaking," said Ari Halper, senior vice president executive creative director of Grey NY. "The awards won by this campaign, including the prestigious 2010 Cannes Advertising Festival: Gold Media Lion, Silver Promo Lion, Titanium/Integrated Lion, are a testament to how this contest has created a new milestone in filmmaking - one that inspires individuals to express themselves in new and interesting ways using the increased functionality of their cameras."

Canon U.S.A., Inc., is a leading provider of consumer, business-to-business, and industrial digital imaging solutions. Its parent company, Canon Inc. (NYSE:CAJ), a top patent holder of technology, ranked fourth overall in the U.S. in 2009†, with global revenues of US $35 billion and is listed as number six in the computer industry on Fortune Magazine's World’s Most Admired Companies 2010 list. Canon U.S.A. is committed to the highest levels of customer satisfaction and loyalty, providing 100 percent U.S.-based consumer service and support for all of the products it distributes. At Canon, we care because caring is essential to living together in harmony. Founded upon a corporate philosophy of Kyosei – "all people, regardless of race, religion or culture, harmoniously living and working together into the future" – Canon U.S.A. supports a number of social, youth, educational and other programs, including environmental and recycling initiatives. Additional information about these programs can be found at www.usa.canon.com/kyosei. To keep apprised of the latest news from Canon U.S.A., sign up for the Company's RSS news feed by visiting www.usa.canon.com/rss.

Supported by the nonprofit Sundance Institute, the Festival has introduced global audiences to some of the most ground-breaking films of the past two decades, including sex, lies, and videotape, Maria Full of Grace, The Cove, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, An Inconvenient Truth, Precious, Trouble the Water and Napoleon Dynamite and, through its New Frontier initiative, has brought the cinematic works of media artists including Isaac Julian, Doug Aitken, Pierre Huyghe, Jennifer Steinkamp and Matthew Barney.
www.sundance.org/festival