Blood and Brides and Robots Oh My!

Okay there was only one Bride and one Robot… but there was plenty of Blood.  Fresh from it’s world Premiere last weekend at the Derby City Film Festival and screenings earlier this week in Muncie, Bloomington and Lafayette,  My Bloody Wedding had it’s Indianapolis Premiere last night at the Indiana State Museum IMAX. The crowd was enthusiastic and certainly not disappointed.  Director and co-writer Morgan Mead hosted the event along with actor and stunt coordinator David Fultz. David plays a crazy gardener that seems to know what’s going on long before the other main characters. Many other cast and crew members were in attendance.

The film was co-written  by The Director Morgan D. Mead and the Lead Actress Morgan C. Mead.  Morgan (the Director) explained how the two met. Both having the same name and both bring in the filmmaking business one of them had been credited with a film that the other had worked on. This mess-up with the Internet Movie Database caused them to contact each other, www.imdb.com They realized that they had similar tastes in films and vowed to work to gether at some point…

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Posted by admin on February 28th, 2010 :: Filed under Events, Film Premiers, Film Screenings
Tags :: David Fultz, Morgan Mead, My Bloody Wedding

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There’s nothing like being at a movie premiere.  Especially for a film you’ve worked on and know half the people on the screen. This was a private screening for cast, crew, and close friends.  The Film Was TOW… which stands for Tainted, Obsessed, Wayward Soul. The Screening was held Friday December 4th at IUPUI campus. Truth be told I barely can say I worked on this film. I put in about half a day as the location sound mixer(recordist). As it turns out I was there for the big climatic confrontation scene. It was fun to see how the stuff I worked on fit into the lager picture. The main cast and crew worked on this film for months and they did a great job with very limited resources. I’m glad I got to be part of it.

TOW is the brainchild of Adam Newell. He wrote, directed, and stars in the film. The female lead is Emily Wood. I had worked with Emily on a few projects over the past couple of years. She is an amazing actor. She throws some great emotion into her character in TOW. The chemistry between the two leads is a great thing to watch develop.  Another actor who stood out anytime he was on screen was Louie Lawless. He played a strong supporting role as the local Sheriff. This was the first time I’d worked with Louie… though we have worked together since wrapping TOW.  Louie is a great dramatic actor… who between the takes kept everyone laughing.  The antagonist of this film is actually a filmmaker in his own right, Kelly Lynch. Kelly at times seems to be summoning some of Keith Ledger’s Joker as he takes the main characters by surprise and leads them to his own twisted version of reality. While everyone in the film is in some way Tainted and Wayward… Kelly’s character is very Obsessed.

The film was shot During the summer and fall of 2008. Adam had the help of his sister Erin Newell as producer of the film. Though each of them took on many different roles during the production. Even the cast members helped out while not on screen. One of the highlights of the film is the soundtrack. All of the music is from local independent artists. Artist such as Mike Akers, Red Moon and Hum.V. The multi-talented Emily Wood preforms several of the music tracks in the film.  The film starts off awkward and ends beautiful as all the peaces fit together. Everyone walked away from the screening proud of their work… and for good reason.

The Film is now off to the Film Festival Circuit, where I believe it will do well.

You can buy your own copy of TOW or check out the latest news on the film via the website http://towthemovie.com/

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Posted by admin on December 9th, 2009 :: Filed under Film Premiers, Film Screenings, Film Shoots
Tags :: Adam Newell, Chuck Budreau, Emily Wood, erin newell, Kelly Lynch, Louie Lawless, Mathew Allen, TOW

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The First Annual “Wet Your Pants Comedy Film Festival” was held on Saturday, November 21, 2009 at the Carmel Community Playhouse. I was fortunate to be asked to help out with the event.  The idea for this fun packed festival came from a personal tragedy for it’s founders.  Steve Pearce fought a long battle with Kidney Disease. Along the way he became an ardent supporter and volunteer for the Nation Kidney Foundation. He did a great job spreading awareness and raising funds for the foundation. He also made a lot of good friends and was always making the lives of everyone who knew him better through laughter. When he finally lost his battle earlier this year his family decided to keep his spirit alive through what he loved most… laughter. All of the proceeds from the festival went to the National Kidney Foundation.

Heading up the Festival was Steve’s brother Brian Pearce and their parents. Brian has Produced several films and is currently a Voluntary Board Member of the Indiana Filmmakers Network. This year’s festival was arranged at a break-neck speed. They had only a couple of months to put together what most festivals take a year to organize. It was very important for the family that the festival be held on November 21st… Steve’s Birthday.

In the short amount of time they actually got twice as many entries as needed for the festival. The submissions were whittled down to the fifteen films selected for screening. Most of the films screened had some kind of local connection. There was no shortage of laughter.  There were several feature length films  including, Zorg & Andy, Open Mic’rs, and 29 Reasons To Run. There were also a dozen short films…

Waffles For Virginia

Do Pencils Go To Heaven

Delusions

Cat Clock

Clones Gone Wild

The First Date

I’m Not Talking To You

The Last Bottle

PHAT

If A Tree Fell

Das Spiel

Tree Talk

Many festivals take years before they turn a profit for their charities… not this one. The very first Wet Your Pants Festival was able to make a generous donate to the National Kidney Foundation. The attendance was great and everyone had a wonderful time. The day was split into four blocks of films with Q&A sessions between each. There was plenty of time to meet the filmmakers.

The films competed for three awards.

“Best Film of 2009″ award was decided by a group of local industry professionals and personalities. It was won by Gary Weeks’ film “Clones Gone Wild” . A story of what happens when your clone is cooler than you.

“The Audience Choice Award” as it’s name implies, was decided by the audience members…hmmm what a neat idea. This award also went to Gary Weeks, this time for his film “29 Reasons to Run”. A cross country journey by two friends who really need to get their lives together.

The Third award was the “Steve Pearce Memorial Award”. This award was presented by Steve’s family to the film that most matched Steve’s odd sense of humor. It was given to Director Steve Wright’s short film “Cat Clock”. I can’t really describe this film… it would give the whole thing away and wouldn’t nearly do it justice.

The Family has already started making plans for next year’s festival. I’m really looking forward to what it will bring.

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Posted by admin on December 8th, 2009 :: Filed under Film Festivals, Film Screenings, Film Shoots
Tags :: Brian Pearce, Film Festivals

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I first met Morgan Mead a little over a month ago. He was spreading the word about a film he had been working on for 3 years. It was quite an undertaking. Morgan is the Director of “My Name is Jerry”, a film about a 40 something guy whose life is boring and stale until he accidentally stumbles upon the wrong party. The 20 somethings at the party take an odd liking to to Jerry and it turns his life around.  The film is funny and fast paced. The premiere was beyond my expectations.

There were over 800 in attendance Thursday night at Muncie’s Horizon Convention Center. The City of Muncie and Ball State University really opened all of their resources to the film and this amazing premiere event. The university actually funded a large portion of the budget. It also supplied students, filling a huge part of the crew. The students received credit hours for their participation in the shooting of  “My Name is Jerry”.

The cast were all professionals. The lead was Doug Jones (Silver Surfer, Pan’s Labyrinth, Hell Boy). Doug is an amazingly versatile performer. He as well as most of the cast and crew were Ball State Alumni.

The attendance alone makes this Premiere something special. But the calabre of talent in the room and the appreciation shown to all involved in the process of bringing this film to life, was refreshing and inspiring. Truly a night to be remembered.

Photos by Kate Chaplin

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Posted by admin on May 8th, 2009 :: Filed under Film Premiers, Film Screenings
Tags :: Ball State, Doug Jones, Morgan Mead, Muncie, My Name is Jerry

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There was a great turnout for the premiere of Brian Pearce’s latest film “Illusions of Life”. The premiere was help Saturday Night December 20th, at the Hamilton 16 Theater in Noblesville.  Leading up to the screening were five other short films. Including Pearce’s award winning “The First Date”, Kate Chaplin’s “First They Came For…”, Steve Wright’s “Killing Time”, Philip Paluso’s “Miracle Mile: Don Bowden”, and Mark Searles’ “The Horn Player”. It made for an incredible mix of locally produced films.  “Illusions of Life” is the story of Tobey (Timmy Tzeiranakis), a guy who needs some extra cash so he signs up to be a lab rat. That’s when things start going strange…

The film was shot in over the course of 5 days in August of 2008 at locations across Indiana, Including IUPUI Campus and The Indiana Dunes State Park. Director of Photography Angie Pop flew in from California for the shoot. The premier was the first chance that some of the cast and crew had to meet, since they were not all there for each day of the shoot.

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Posted by admin on December 21st, 2008 :: Filed under Film Premiers, Film Screenings
Tags :: Brian Pearce, Hamilton 16, Illusions of Life

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The 2008 Indy Awards were held Saturday September 27th, at the Laikin Auditorium-Jewish Community Center, Indianapolis In.

There were twelve films competing two $400 awards. All of the filmmakers did a great job. I really enjoyed catching up with the all of them and meeting some new faces.

Let me go on the record here. I had a horse in this race. I was one of the people that encouraged and helped Kate Chaplin bring “First They Came For…” to the screen. So being there when that ‘horse’ won it’s first race was a thrill! There were quite a few of the crew members in attendance.  A couple of them brought their own film to the festival. Tom Johnson and Nate Savadge entered their film “The Last Bottle”. The epic tale of two friends who turn against each other when they are down to their last beer. As has been said before, this film changed my life. It was great fun to watch! Kelly Lynch brought two of his films to the festival “On Common Ground” and “The Passenger”. Kelly’s eye for cinematography and camera movement is amazing. And since “The Passenger” took first place at the ‘Really Big Short Film Festival’ last spring. We were all nervous about going up against him again.

I am thrilled that Kate got the Audience Award. She’s worked very hard on her filmmaking skills and it’s great to see her get this recognition. The entire cast and crew put in some amazingly hard work to produce this film. The other thing that seemed appropoe was this film winning it’s first award at a screening in the Jewish Community Center. Considering the message of the film, I think the venue really drove it home.  The ideas of never forget and never again. I want to personally thank everyone in attendance that voted for the film.

The Jury Award was presented to “In Memoriam” a short film by Fort Wayne native Andrea Listenberger. Andrea is currently attending collage in New York state and could not make it to the festival. Her family was present and received the award for her. I hope to see more work from Andrea in the future. Her story telling skills are impressive and the preformances of the cast were riviting.

Congratulations to both Kate and Andrea… It was definitely ladies’ night at the Indy Awards!

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Posted by admin on September 28th, 2008 :: Filed under Film Festivals, Film Screenings
Tags :: Film Festivals, Indy Awards, Kate Chaplin

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