A weekend in Park City, Utah showed me just how effective a good soil-prevention program can be in even the most adverse conditions.

It was just past midnight last Thursday when the five of us rolled into Park City. Time is tight but life is short, and three days of cinematic excess at the 25th Annual Sundance Film Festival with good friends and fellow cinephiles seemed like just the thing to shake some rust off the creative process.

The plan called for 10 films over 2-plus days, so there’d be little dillying and no dallying. But while rushing from venue to venue, I couldn’t help but notice what the traffic wrought by thousands of Uggs, Merrells and other assorted heavy, deep-treaded footwear was doing to the entryways and indoor areas. Or more to the point, what it wasn’t doing.

All manner of snow, slush, mud, muck and ooze was being traipsed in and out on a more or less constant basis, yet there was little evidence of the devastation such activity had the potential to render. True, we’re not talking about the most delicate of floor coverings here: the heavier the duty the better. But considering the massive amount of foot traffic they were seeing, the efficiency with which the floors were maintained in nearly every venue I entered was quite impressive.

To borrow (and paraphrase) shamelessly from Tabbuchi, “[A clean floor] isn't a state of perfection. It has to be improved, and that means constant vigilance.”

We wrapped up having made seven of the planned 10. A pretty good effort, all things considered. The same goes to the BSCs running the show out at Sundance: nice job guys.