Tis the season to hang out with filmmakers from across the state and share some holiday cheer… and a few drinks. This year the Indiana Filmmakers Network took our holiday party to Moe’s Irish Pub at the Hamilton Town Center and the result was incredible. It was Tuesday December 8th. This was by far the largest gathering I’ve seen of indie film types. It seemed like everyone was there and ready to unwind. We had people from all over Indiana and a few that were home for the holidays from other parts of the country. The award for furthest travel to attend went easily to Logan Huffman. The Indianapolis native was back in town awaiting the resumption of shooting the new V series in Vancouver BC,  February 2010.

The Indiana Filmmakers Network (IFN) has been around for about 10 years. It’s mission is to Inform, Educate and Promote the film industry in Indiana. I joined the IFN a little over two years ago. At that time the group had all but dried up. There were only 8 people at the first meeting I attended. I was asked to become a volunteer board member early last year. We had already started rebuilding the group and the meetings in 2009 averaged about 40 attendees each month. Last year’s party was held at one of the board member’s home and was plagued by an ice storm. Attendance was a meager twelve people… though we all had a great time, it was disappointing. This year we had a very cold rain storm… and the attendance was fantastic. We had told the folks at Moe’s that we were expecting around forty people. Instead we ended up with somewhere around sixty. The crowd spilled out into the bar area of Moe’s. It was great.  The staff at Moe’s did a wonderful job keeping us supplied with food and drinks.

For those of you who were not able to make it… you missed a great night full of  food, contests, prizes, give aways, and networking. I know of many good connections that were made that night.  You might want to clear your schedule next year… I think it’s only going to get better.

TOW Cast & Crew

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.

Erin & Adam Newell with their Executive Producers (Parents)

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.

Kelly Lynch

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/

Louie Lawless and Mathew Allen

No, it can’t be?

Have I been doing this for 2 years already? I guess the calendar doesn’t lie. In the Fall of 2007 I started a little website called IndyFilmNews.com, little did I know how many people I was reaching out too.

Things have changed tremendously since then.  When the site first started it was predominately a forum and secondly a News Site. The Forum users were mainly a group of people I had worked with on different projects over the years. The Forum continued to grow and attract others who had similar interests. It reached it’s peak in January of last of 2009.

Then Facebook took over.

Don’t get me wrong I’m as addicted to Facebook as the next guy. But, it seems to have killed online forums. I have started a Facebook Group and Fan Page to help spread the word about IndyFilmNews.com. There’s still traffic on the IndyFilmNews Forum and I hope it continues… but I don’t think it will get back to the level it was.

The funny thing is that traffic on IndyFilmNews.com has not dropped with the Forum post count. The number of visitors is up and the page views have stayed  level. Over time the Actor and Crew Profiles and News have really grown.  There are now over 100 Actors and Crew Members listed on the Profile pages. The number keeps rising weekly.

The number of filmmakers in Indiana is vastly larger than I ever imagined. I keep stumbling onto more and more. The fact that there were 30 teams completing in the 48 Film Project this year speaks volumes.  The major film festivals in Indianapolis are also doing a great job of pushing Indiana films. The Indianapolis International Film Festival and the Heartland have both featured tracks of Indiana based films. In February of this year I joined the voluntary board of the Indiana Filmmakers Network. This group was holding meetings with 6-8 attendees two years ago. The average meeting now is over 40. There are filmmakers of all levels attending.   From guys making low budget horror film with a cheap camcorder, to guys producing $500,000 Features, and everything in between. They all share a common love for the industry and want to see it grow here in Indiana.

Actors have also been making to the meetings, and I’m glad to see it. A few weeks ago I attended a Indy Stage & Screen meeting. this group meets the last Monday of the month downtown Indy at the Elbow Room. They are a group of professional actors that also care about growing the film community. In the northern part of the state the Mid-America Filmmakers are doing a great job helping each other make and promote films.

Erin Newell at Film Indiana is also doing a wonderful job helping filmmakers in any way she can. From tax incentives to location securing. I glad to we have someone like Erin on our side in the government. She loves this stuff as much as we do.

I want to thank everyone who has supported and added to IndyFilmNews.com, your interest is what keeps this site alive and ever changing.  The site is not going away anytime soon…I’ve already paid for the next 3 years of web hosting! I’m looking forward to see what happens next!

–chuck budreau

IndyFilmNews.com

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

Quench Director Zack Parker

It takes a lot of effort for a film without any known actors to get noticed by distributors. Zack worked every lead tirelessly. Those months of thankless work paid off when last month the film was released through Vanguard Cinema, vanguardcinema.com. The DVD is now available through Hollywood Video, Movie Gallery, Family Video, and Hastings locations across the country, as well as Amazon.com, Netflix, Blockbuster.com, and basically everywhere online where DVDs are sold.

Quench now on DVD

Zack is doing his share of work promoting the film locally. I caught up with him during a recent signing event at the Landmark Theaters Keystones Arts. The local premiere of the film had been at this location during the Indianapolis International Film Festival. He’s very pleased with the national exposure Vanguard is providing his film. It was a featured new release in this month’s Family Video flyer. There’s a full review scheduled for next month’s edition of Fangoria magazine. This is a little unusual since ‘Quench’ is not a horror flick. Parker’s last film ‘Inexchange’ was a horror film and he developed some good contacts at the magazine. ‘Quench’ delves into parts of the Goth sub-culture and blood cults. For many viewers this film might be a little disturbing and dark. Zack had one distibutor who has been known to promote horror films, tell him it was too dark for their label. In the true spirit of Indie films ‘Quench’ defies being defined by the traditional genres. The film was shot entirely in Parker’s hometown of Richmond Indiana. Richmond is not the industiral urban setting you would typically expect for a film based on the Goth crowd. But it works really well in the film. It’s one of the things that makes the film unique.

IndyFilmNews' Chuck Budreau with Filmmaker Zack Parker

The Richmond Art Museum will be screening ‘Quench’  November 21st at 7:00 PM in Richmond Indiana.

You can find out more information on ‘Quench’ at www.alongthetracks.com

Photos by Lynn Budreau

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