Tampa Film Fan

local filmmakers marcus koch and joe davison on webcast tonight

Local filmmakers Marcus Koch and Joe Davison will appear on Tampa Bay’s Media Talk tonight to discuss their new horror film 100 Tears.  Watch the webcast tonight (or later) at www.tampabaysmediatalk.com.  Congrats, guys!

in the spotlight:local filmmaker eric haase

Local filmmaker Eric Haase almost died and lived to tell about it.  “My personal story sometimes still amazes me when I contemplate it.”  While on his way to attend a play one night in February 2004, Haase suffered a rare brain aneurysm that usually severely impairs the 2% of people who even survive.

“I was fortunate in that the emergency brain surgeon I wound up with was one of the best and he removed the damaged area rather than just stopping the bleed. However, aneurysm rates are on the rise, so are any of us safe?”

After months of rehab and recovery, Haase emerged partially blind, heavily in debt and very happy to be alive with his verbal and writing abilities still intact.  Since then, he has written two books, three screenplays and started a new website.

“My film Apocalypse Near (which I just finished writing and am also working to secure the funding for) is the culmination of things I experienced while dead and the way my mind is working now because of that experience. In a way, I prefer the way I am now to the way I was before. I’ve become hyper-sensitive to the glow of life surrounding us.. Nothing is taken for granted anymore…Ironically, I wanted to take my life last year because of the physical pain I live in and the mental pain of seeing humans trash this world in selfishness, nefarious desire and utter greed.

…Then there’s the fact that I was out of my physical body and in my light body, but I was thrown back to this density and I was mad as hell about that.. I mean, why show me heaven and throw me back to Hades? I know this now: I don’t…we don’t get a say in when why and how we leave here. So I’m no longer in danger of killing myself.

My film Apocalypse Near wrote itself in just a few days, beginning at my lowest point. I was ready to pull the blade across my throat when a new door opened and reminded me that I was a filmmaker and that everything I was trying to do on my Conscious Consumers website and with my Viridian REVELution “REFORMance art” website did NOT have to occur in actual reality. I could write a film about it and make it occur, first on movie screens and then in 3-dimensional reality… So that’s where all this came from.”

In addition to his various projects, Haase was one of the cameramen on the local film The Ghosts of Ybor:The End Is Blossoming. “I’m helping a little bit with the final draft of the feature film that will be made from this pilot and will work on the production when it begins.” 

To view a trailer or to learn more about Haase’s film Apocalypse Near, click here.

don’t beam down to the planet if you’re wearing a red shirt

The Husband and I finished watching Season Three of Star Trek:The Next Generation this weekend.  Bleech.  It’s my least favorite Star Trek and his favorite.  Even though the “red shirt deaths” started on the original Star Trek, I figured there was enough of a connection to this hilarious comic by local cartoonist/writer Greg Williams.

From Wikipedia’s WikiWorld by local cartoonist Greg Williams:

st. pete ironweed film club meeting may 30

Received via email:

After taking April off, the St. Pete Ironweed Film Club is back this month with two exciting documentary films.

Short Film - Walleyball: Yeah, Yeah. We Speak English. Just Serve (2006, 3 min). Sit on the sidelines for a cross-border volleyball game between Team U.S. and Team Mexico.

Feature Film - This Film Is Not Yet Rated (2006, 98 min). Kirby Dick’s film is an investigative documentary at its best. When the MPAA denied his team access to the inner workings of the film ratings board, he hired a private investigator to uncover their process and their identities, in a humorous sleuth-style quest. Between raw interviews with filmmakers whose work has been unfairly rated and a bold exposé of the MPAA’s ratings system, it’s no wonder that this film is still not yet rated.

Date: May 30, 2007
Time: 8 p.m.
Location: The Studio(at)620, 620 First Avenue South, St. Pete
Admission: Free for Studio members; $5 for non-members

Visit The Studio’s website for more info.

tampa bay on demand showing local indie films

From the Tampa Film Network: 

Bay News 9’s Tampa Bay On Demand (Bright House Channel 340) is going to start showing local indy films in the next coming weeks. It will be a part of the YOU On Demand section under Short Films. They just need some films to be shown. Here are some of the rules and what they are looking for:

• Films must be 10 minutes or less.
• Must be on DVD or VHS format when submitting. (They will not send the DVDs or VHS copies back to you, so make sure you’re not sending your only copy.)
• CANNOT SHOW…films with adult language, violence, sexual content, nudity, adult themes, etc. Sorry, it’s television. But, if you want you, can edit your film for television and you can probably get in.

Mail submissions to:

TAMPA BAY ON DEMAND
ATTN: YOU ON DEMAND
700 CARILLON PARKWAY, SUITE 9
ST. PETERSBURG, FL 33716

TBOD is on Bright House Cable Channel 340. Please, if you want your films on TV send them to that address.

For more info, email local filmmaker Chris Woods at cwoods4(at)tampabay.rr.com.

the 15th annual hamptons international film festival

I think film festivals are fascinating.  For those of you who do too, here’s part of this week’s Without A Box weekly email I received recently: 

Hamptons International Film Festival; East Hampton, New York; October 17 to 21, 2007:  Just a couple hours’ drive - or short ride on the Long Island Rail Road - from New York City, the Hamptons are renowned for providing a relaxing yet artistically stimulating respite from the urban rush. The Hamptons International Film Festival itself exudes these qualities, and welcomes thousands of visitors each year who are looking for the best in independent entertainment.

At the heart of the Festival mission is the commitment to foster independent cinema and filmmakers’ careers at early stages of development. The visibility that comes with a Hamptons selection is invaluable to an emerging filmmaker looking to make their way in the industry, and a Hamptons win takes a filmmaker even further.

The esteemed Golden Starfish Awards are the centerpiece of the Festival. The juries, a stellar gathering of industry professionals, honor filmmakers in three categories: Feature Length Narrative, Feature Length Documentary and Short Film/Video. Documentary and Short winners take home cash and in-kind prizes, and the Fiction Narrative winner receives a generous package of essential goods and services to be used towards the making of their next feature film.

The Festival is an Academy Award qualifying event for short films, making it a “Must Submit” for quality shorts. Three of the five Live Action Short nominees at the 2006 Academy Awards premiered at the Hamptons, including the winner Six Shooter. The 2007 Oscar went to West Bank Story, which was featured in the Film of Conflict and Resolution Short film section of the festival…making 2007 the second year in a row that the Oscar has gone to a Hamptons film.

June 7 - Regular Deadline (Upgraded projects save $5 off this deadline)

MISSION AND OBJECTIVE: The Hamptons International Film Festival was founded in 1993 to celebrate independent film - long, short, fiction and documentary - and to introduce a unique and varied spectrum of international films and filmmakers to audiences.

MORE ABOUT THE FESTIVAL:  The Hamptons is an elite venue for industry veterans and rookies alike. Recent Hamptons premieres include Nowhere in Africa, Open Water, Osama, Birth, Napola, Sophie Scholl:The Final Days (Oscar Nomination, Best Foreign Language Film), Sir! No Sir! (Gotham Award Nomination, Winner of Best GSA Documentary Award), Walk the Line (4 Academy Award Nominations), Avenue Montaigne and Into Great Silence.

Awards come with prizes as well as prestige. The Golden Starfish Awards for Best Fiction Feature, Documentary, and Short are collectively worth $165,000 in cash and in-kind goods and services. Other awards include the $25,000 Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Feature Film Prize in Science and Technology, the Kodak Award for Best Cinematographer ($6,000 in-kind), the $5,000 Zicherman Family Foundation Award for Best Screenwriter, and the $5,000 Brizzolara Family Inspirational Film Award. Graduate and Undergraduate awards are given to eight student filmmakers who receive $1,000 each.

Visit www.hamptonsfilmfest.org to learn more.

actor carl wright has died

Actor (and Orlando native) Carl Wright (Soul Food, Barbershop) has died of cancer at age 75.

memorial day news and notes

• Gary Sinise received the G.I. Spirit Award Saturday at the inaugural G.I. Film Festival, held this weekend in Washington.
• Hispanic Americans have served in every war in this country. Some Hispanic veterans’ organizations recently denounced Ken Burns’ PBS documentary The War (airing in September) for not including the Hispanic perspective when telling the story of World War II through the voices of four different communities.
• I wish I could have spent this Memorial Day weekend in Winterset, Iowa at the John Wayne Birthday Centennial Celebration.

limited edition silver surfer coin and the search 4 $ilver

Received via email: 

20TH CENTURY FOX CHALLENGES AMERICA TO SEARCH 4 $ILVER!

Limited Edition “Silver Surfer” Coin Is This Summer’s Silver Ticket

This summer, silver is the new gold standard – for movies, with the June 15 release of Fantastic Four:Rise of the Silver Surfer, and for movie promotions, as Twentieth Century Fox and the Franklin Mint join forces to create an original limited collector’s edition “Silver Surfer” U.S. quarter that will challenge moviegoers to Search 4 $ilver.

The collector’s “Silver Surfer” U.S. quarter will be emblazoned with the image of the legendary Marvel Comics character who takes a leading role in the movie. This legal tender coin is a 2005 California statehood commemorative quarter minted by the United States Mint and specially color-enhanced by The Franklin Mint for Twentieth Century Fox.

Fox will launch the Search 4 $ilver in grand style by sending a specially-outfitted fleet of silver-armored trucks out to deliver 40,000 coins to cities all across America, in time for Memorial Day weekend.  Then begins the Search.  Those who find the special coins will be directed to the film’s official website, where they can register for a chance to win a 4 day/3 night trip for four to the June 12 world premiere of Fantastic Four:Rise of the Silver Surfer in London, England.  The winner will be announced on or about June 4.  Also, the first 400 people to register will be entered for a chance to receive one private screening of the film for their friends and family the night before the film surfs into theaters everywhere.  In addition to the above prize opportunities, every fan is invited to visit the film’s website (www.riseofthesilversurfer.com) everyday until June 12 to flip a “virtual coin” for a chance to win instant prizes.

The Fantastic Four meet their greatest challenge yet in Fantastic Four:Rise of the Silver Surfer, as the enigmatic, intergalactic herald, the Silver Surfer, comes to Earth to prepare it for destruction.  As he races around the globe wreaking havoc, Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben must unravel the mystery before all hope is lost.  Fantastic Four:Rise of the Silver Surfer, opening everywhere June 15, is the second installment of the live-action film series based on what fans around the globe know as The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine.  Fantastic Four, directed by Tim Story and released in the summer of 2005, had a worldwide theatrical gross of $330 million and became one of Twentieth Century Fox’s most successful DVD titles ever. 

Search 4 Silver Contest Rules:  NO PURCHASE NECESSARY.  Ends 6/1/07 for Grand and 1st Prize, and 6/12/07 for Instant Win. Open only to legal US residents (except Puerto Rico) 13 and older and is subject to Official Rules. For Official Rules, visit the Fantastic 4 page at www.foxmovies.com. Odds of winning depend on the number of entries. Void where prohibited.

Visit www.riseofthesilversurfer.com for more info.

charles nelson reilly has died

Flamboyant game show guest and Tony Award-winning actor Charles Nelson Reilly (How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying) died Friday at age 76 from complications from pneumonia.