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.

The Indianapolis International Film Festival (IIFF) kicked off this year’s festivities with a bang! The Melody Inn hosted the IIFF Preview Party, Including two live bands and Bob & Tom’s Donnie Baker doing his stand up show. There were prizes, free drinks, and lots of film enthusiasts…who liked free drinks!

I was there to support two films I worked on. Both are up for the same award at this year’s festival, the Hoosier Lens Award. The award is devoted exclusively to Indiana Filmmakers. Kate Chaplin’s “First they Came For…”, Brian Pearce’s “Illusions of Life”, Dan T Hall’s “America On Wheels: Model T”, and Jon Moisan’s “Free Wall” will compete for this year’s award. I was the sound recorder on both “Illusions of Life” and “First They Came for.’ This gives me a 50% chance of being on the winning ticket! or a 50% chance of loosing twice in the same race… depending on that whole glass is half full or half empty thing.

Kate Chaplin and Chuck Budreau

Kelli Safford, Dan Hall, and Dorothy Henckel

Kate Chaplin, Brian Pearce and Dan Hall were all at the party enjoying the the fact that anyone of them could win and they would all be happy about it.

Michael Tressler and Craig Mince

The staff of the IIFF put on a great meet up. The Melody Inn is a wonderful mixture of a true rock bar and a quiet beer garden… in case you actually want to talk while the band is rock’n out. The festival starts next Wednesday (July 15th) and runs through July 25th. The Indianapolis Museum of Art is hosting the festival this year.  More info on the festival can be found here…

http://www.indyfilmfest.org

photos by Chad Richards

Checkout  Chad’s blog of this event…

http://www.onlinemediajunkie.com/indy-film-fest-preview-party-at-the-melody-in

Illusions of Life

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.

The Cast and Crew of "Illusions of Life"

Debra goes over her notes, preparing for the interview.

Lin, The daughter of King Arthur is the principal character of Debra Kemp’s series “The House of Pendragon”. The first book “The Firebrand” was released in 2003. The second book, “The Recruit” was recently published and Debra is out promoting it’s release. She is currently working on the third book of the series.

As part of the promotion of the book series Debra commissioned Kate Chaplin to shoot an interview explaining the concept behind the series and introduce the author to the world .

Director Kate Chaplin, Makeup Artist Stacey Mayo, and Grip Tom Johnson

We had the great pleasure of shooting at the home of Dr. Chris Jones. His personal library could be a blog post in itself. Filled with Movie props, Medieval weapons, Tiny rocket ships, shrunken heads… and a great selection of books too! It was the perfect backdrop for an author interview…and with the castle feel of the place King Arthur would have felt right at home.

Debra Kemp and Camera Op Brian Pearce

Kate Chaplin pulled together a small but capable crew, for what turned out to be a very straight forward shoot. Kate directed and prompted Debra with questions. Tom Johnson acted as grip. Brian Pearce was running the camera. Stacey Mayo did Debra’s hair and makeup. And I (chuck budreau) captured the audio.

It was great to hear Debra’s story of how the Arthurian bug had taken a hold of her life and thoughts. She’s been in love with the classic tale since the first time she saw the film “Camelot”. Though she confesses that it is not her favorite rendition of the Arthurian Romances… that would be “Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail”.

She traced down every version of the stories going back to Sir Thomas Malory’s “Le Morte d’Arthur” from the 15th century. She decided to take a different approach, based on the view of a young princess raised as a slave.  She really has a passion for this story and enjoys sharing it with others. Her own story is also fascinating as she describes living in England  and how that brought the story to life.

The Recruit

The books are available through Telltalepress.com and Amazon.com

–chuck