Anchor Down Productions: One Monster Down

Well, I believe I have officially recovered from the wonderous, near sleepless 48 hours of film making last weekend. From the great turn out of over 75 participants, I nabbed a solid crew, as I am sure many of the several other teams did as well. I'll attempt to give a spoiler free yet interesting recap from the production.

After the drawing of genre and sponsor, we were left with Crime & Gangster/Film Noir. We commenced pitching ideas and picked up the second idea pitched from my teammate Michael Spalione. As we all wrote, teamster Brian Buck storyboarded along. He also sketched up this nice logo for our production team.

Story writing moved along extremely well with aid from Shaun Daniel and Kathleen Almquist. I was amazed with the quality of ideas, backstories and psychology that went behind our story. We hashed out a script with enough filler material to write a feature length, but condensed into a nice little concept. By 12am we were out of White House Coffee with a film tentatively titled "Delusions of an Idealist" referencing Nietzsche's poem of the same name.

Our shooting went fairly smoothly. We did need to find a rotary phone (which was donated thanks to Dawn's Delights), which held us up a little, but it worked out fine as we set up our scene in a house and waited for our younger actors, both of whom did a superb job. From there we moved on to Serendipity whose owner was over the top amazing and allowed us to use the location for a tux fitting as well as using the upstairs for voice over recordings.

We did some quick rewriting replacing the lower ranking mob members with one. It turned out fine and the story didn't have to change a bit. I also nabbed a patron of The White House Coffee House to play a body guard along with my father to play a low ranking mafia don. We wanted to have some Spalione blood in there with a grandfather and father, but couldn't swing it in the last moment. Turned out nicely though, in one take even with me experimenting with a new shot! I think that is one of the coolest things about 48 hours is the freedom to experiment with your film with little guilt. I hope to see some intriguing techniques from some of the other teams at the premire.

We had some moments of hilarity and corpsing from some text message suggestions from a member who wasn't able to be with us. It happens after a long day. We recorded a take, but ended up not using it. I think the best part about our large writing team was our ability to throw ideas into the ring and our ability to shoot them down. At the end of the day, one quick rewrite of the voice over gave us a name for our film that we felt encapsulated the whole thing: One Monster Down.

Over the course of the film we dented my friends car door in a scene of violence, I directed with my hands literally tied behind my back, and our car almost didn't make it to the gravel pits. Also, in this shot we forgot about something very crucial that allowed us to practice our masking skills. Whoops. Very small hiccups, making for a great day, with aid from over 18 people on my team between team and friends. Other than some muddy audio I feel like the final piece came out quite nicely for our short time period. But you can judge for yourself Friday, Aug 20th at 10pm on Depot Street where all of the films will be shown. I can't wait to see the others. Come early for some live music!

- Luke Zwanziger, Director

La Grande Summer Film Project: Production Begins Tonight!

Tonight, Friday the 13th in La Grande, Oregon marks the kick-off for production on the La Grande Summer Film Project as part of
Eastern Oregon Film Festival and Crossing the Blues: La Grande Summer Festival.

Join in the project by attending a kick-off social event tonight at 8:00pm at White House Coffee. We have received 9 team entries and hope to add one more at tonight event. The teams will utilize additional participants who attend the event as well as feature local business locations in there 48hour production period. Additionally information on October’s 2nd Annual Eastern Oregon Film Festival and offer opportunities to support the growth and success of the event.

Teams:

There a great line-up of local and regional filmmakers participating this year along with some new faces, excited youth, and more. Filmmaker teams from previous year include Callandar Films, Surbulation Station, and The Big Productions, along with many new teams. (view last year’s films by the teams mentioned)

Locations:

Special thanks to all of our sponsoring locations for this year’s La Grande Summer Film Project. 2010’s locations are Bella Main Street Market, Benchwarmers Pub & Grill, Eastern Oregon University, The Maridell Center, Serendipity, Bodywork,Sunflower Books, Marie Josephine, and The La Grande Community Garden.

Watch For:

With filmmaking commencing at 9:00pm this even keep an eye out on the La Grande Summer Film Project Production Blog, The Eastern Oregon Film Festival Facebook Page, and Twitter to catch a few updates of how it is going for the teams.

Screening:

Plan to attend Crossing the Blues on Friday and Saturday, August 20 & 21 to view the completed project. The film will be screened OUTSIDE on Depot Street by Mt. Emily Ale House around 10:00pm. Befroe the screening catch live music by MarchFourth Marching Band, and Wasteland Kings. There will be a beer garden available and other potential vendors and entertainment. The project will run on a loop Saturday 21st upstairs at the Ale House as well.

The project serves a number a great purposes and is accessible by all. Please plan to participate by either making, viewing, and supporting the efforts of Eastern Oregon Film Festival and our local filmmaking community.

La Grande Life Morning Drip Features Film Project

Mike Surber, filmmaker and participant, put together this weeks Morning Drip for www.lagrandelife.com featuring fellow filmmaker Brian Wallis and discussing the fun from last years event and promoting this years event. Check out the video here: http://lagrandelife.com/2010/08/the-morning-drip-37-two-dudes-shooting-each-other/

The Genre's in the Mix

Oh the list! Here is the compiled list of genre's that we will lotto off to the teams. This list was provided by Chuck Peters at Valley Video Services and uses wiki definition links for a little more information. Which one do you want? Which one will you get!

Comedy: A genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humor. Also, films in this style typically have a happy ending (the black comedy being an exception).

Musical: A film genre in which several songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative.

Western: Western films commonly feature as their protagonists stock characters such as cowboys, gunslingers, and bounty hunters, often depicted as semi-nomadic wanderers who wear Stetson hats, bandannas, spurs, and buckskins, use revolvers or rifles as everyday tools of survival, and ride between dusty towns and cattle ranches on faithful steed: (Modern Western is up for interpretation)

Action: A film genre where in the story is largely told through physical action as opposed to dialogue. The action typically involves individual efforts on the part of the hero.

Science Fiction: A film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, science-based depictions of phenomena that are not necessarily accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, ESP, and time travel, often along with futuristic elements such as spacecraft,robots, or other technologies.

Fantasy: Are films with fantastic themes, usually involving magic, supernatural events, make-believe creatures, or exotic fantasy worlds.

Thriller: A genre of literature, film and television that uses suspense, tension and excitement as the main elements.

Mystery: A sub-genre of the more general category of crime film. It focuses on the efforts of the detective, private investigator or amateur sleuth to solve the mysterious circumstances of a crime by means of clues, investigation, and clever deduction.

Crime & Gangster/Film Noir: A genre that involves various aspects crime and the criminal justice system. Stylistically, it can fall under many different genres, most commonly drama film, thriller film, mystery film, action film , caper film and film noir. Films focused on the Mafia are a typical example of crime films.

Horror: Are unsettling movies that strive to elicit the emotions of fear, disgust, panic, alarm, shock and horror from viewers through the means ofmacabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres. Horrors also frequently overlap with thethriller genre.

Doc-Mock-umentary: Documentary film is a broad category of moving pictures intended to document some aspect of reality. A "documentary film" was originally a movie shot on film stock—the only medium available—but now includes video and digital productions that can be either direct-to-video or made for a television programme. Mockumentary (also known as mock documentary) is a genre of film and television in which fictitious events are presented in documentary format

Thriller: A genre of literature, film and television that uses suspense, tension and excitement as the main elements.

Countdown to Production

Friday night marks the kick-off event for 2010's La Grande Summer Film Project. Come to White House Coffee at 8:00pm on Friday August 13th to socialize and meet filmmaking teams and discuss resources. 9:00pm will mark the delivery of specific criteria for the 48 hours films. Bring friends and invite all of those who may be interested in participating in the project.

Locations
We have a great handful of sponsoring locations. Teams will be required to feature one of these locations in their shoot. Sponsors include BELLA, Eastern Oregon University, Benchwarmers Bar & Grill, Serendipity, Meridell Center, and Body Work. We are still looking for a few more before kick-off. The locations will be raffled off to the teams. For some photos of the location visit www.lagrandefilm.com/locations.html.

Genres
The teams will be given a random genre to work with. This potential list will be supplied by Chuck Peters at Valley Video Services. We will aim to post the possible genre list this week before the event.

Eastern Oregon FIlm Festival
Additionally we will be providing some information on Eastern Oregon Film Festival and will be doing some efforts to raise some money through sponsorship, donations, festival passes, raffles, etc. Bring your excitement and support for this 3 day event in October.

This should be a great time - see you there.

Looking like we have 1 week! Spare some Change?

Run to your couches, flip off the cushions and dig! - We could use the spare change.


Coming down to the wire and I have not yet secured a large sponsor to aid with the outdoor screening. Time for a little grass roots fundraising. Toss some dollars in to secure a great resource for La Grande filmmakers and film lover's. We need $2800.00 by monday. Still active looking for sponsors - just putting out the good word! -

5 locations down 5 to go

Special thanks to the current location sponsors for this year's La Grande Summer Film Project. Currently we have BELLA Main Street Market, Eastern Oregon University, Serendipity, Benchwarmers Pub & Grill and soon to be added (Unsure of their name but The new La Grande Family Fun Center).

LGSFP is still looking for 5 more locations to be a part of filmmaking for August 13th - 15th production. If you have a great store, building, or private location and would like to have it featured in this year's project please visit http://www.lagrandefilm.com/locations.html for complete information and form download.

Working hard for a Great Outdoor Screening!

Been in negotiations with outdoor screen service providers from Maryland, Fun Flicks working hard to secure the best possible screening environment for this year's project. There affiliate in Oregon will be unable to receive licensing in time, so our only option is to purchase a screen. This will pay it's self off with 2 years worth of project - so we feel it is a reasonable investment. We could also use it for future fundraisers, social events, etc... and have it available for community check out.

I have a simple plea into the company asking there support in sponsoring us by lending us the use of a screen in exchange for advertising opportunity, recognition, and the satisfaction of knowing they are contributing to positive change in Eastern Oregon.

If you want to help support the cause and get the valley a unique resource for continued use in our community feel free to leave a donation, become a Eastern Oregon FIlm Festival Sponsor, buy Festival Passes, become a location sponsor, or leave your change in front of our office doors:)

Will keep you posted as we shape the screening event.

NOW I JUST NEED FILMMAKERS?~? : You know who you are - fill out the form. Return it. Make it official. Thanks!

LGSFP 2010 Now Seeking Participants

Hooray! 2010 participation info is now available. We are looking for a minimum of 10 teams this year both from La Grande and out-of-the-area participants. Check out the main page of http://www.lagrandefilm.com for information and sign up forms. We are looking forward to starting up 2010's production blog again - to keep you in the loop of how the teams are fairing in their 48 epic hours of filmmaking.

Eastern Oregon Film Festival 2010: now seeking submissions « La Grande Life

Eastern Oregon Film Festival 2010: now seeking submissions « La Grande Life
Eastern Oregon Film Festival (EOFF) has officially opened its Call-for-entries for 2010. The festival will be held October 21, 22, & 23 in La Grande, OR.

If you are a filmmaker (local, regional, etc) consider submitting your film to this year’s festival. For complete information, submission forms, and payment options visit http://www.eofilmfest.com/call_for_entries.html

and participate in a growing and ambitious new event for Eastern Oregon.

Deadline for submissions are July 15th (Early Bird) and final deadline August 15th, 2010.

Eastern Oregon Film Festival is a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating a cinematic experience in Eastern Oregon that promotes discovery, entertainment, and education via artistic exhibition and viewership. Through the mediums of independent film and music we aim to expand the cultural experience within our community.

EOFF 2010 will be an intimate, three-day event held in and around downtown La Grande, OR. In its first year, EOFF received films from local, regional, and internationally recognized filmmakers including Kentucker Audley, Brett Gaylor, Ray Robison, Sara Colangelo, Levi Abrino, Ian Clark, Hart Ryan Noeker, Mike Surber, Patrick Gill, Samuel Kuhn, Andy Gately, Chris Jennings, Chris Wunz, Chuck Peters, David Macasaet, and Brett Eichenbacher.

The festival will screen short and feature-length films of all genres and will again include live music from local and regional artists. Finn Riggins and Boise’s Hillfolk Noir are rumored to be playing at this year’s event. Updates on programming, music, workshops, parties, and more will be forthcoming – so stay connected!

Find and connect, contribute, participate, fuel, fund, and enjoy. Connect with EOFF:

Web: www.eofilmfest.com