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.

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Posted by admin on December 10th, 2009 :: Filed under Events
Tags :: Chuck Budreau, IFN, indiana filmmakers network, Kate Chaplin, Zack Parker

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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, 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.

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

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Posted by admin on July 10th, 2009 :: Filed under Film Shoots
Tags :: America On Wheels: Model T, Brian Pearce, Chad Richards, Chuck Budreau, Craig Mince, Dan Hall, Dorothy Henckel, First they Came For, Free Wall, IIFF, Illusions of Life, Indianapolis International Film Festival, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Jon Moisan, Kate Chaplin, Kelli Safford, Melody Inn, Michael Tressler

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This past Saturday I spent the day with filmmakers from across North America. The 1st Annual River Bend Film Festival in South Bend Indiana, is a continuation of the IU South Bend Independent Video & Filmmakers Festival. This year the festival starts it’s new life off campus and in the heart of South Bend. The venue was Century Center, South Bend’s premier convention and events facility. By separating from the University festival chairman Tim Richardson says they have received much greater support from the community at large.

This was the first time I have setup a table at this kind of event to promote IndyFilmNews.com. The reactions were great. The number of people that already knew of and frequent the site was very reassuring. At the time I confirmed my table I had let Tim know I was available for any panel discussions that he thought would be appropriate. As things turned out one of the main guests, Stephen Susco, had some travel problems and couldn’t make it to the festival. This made them pull together a panel of filmmakers to fill the time slot. I was very pleased with how the panel worked out.

The Panel covered many of the hurdles of Indie films. Financing, Copyrights, Distribution, Budgets, etc. The panel consisted of Myself, Kate Chaplin(Karmic Courage), John Klein, Cole Simon and Mike Molenda(all from Glass City Films), Scott Dokey( President of Mid America Filmmakers) and Moderated by Festival Charman Tim Richardson.

For an impromptu panel it went really well. The room was packed with filmmakers and would-be filmmakers. They had lots of questions. we swapped war stories and all seemed to agree on most of the points. Even though I had never met most of the panel we go along great. Kate’s Karmic Courage productions is based out of Indianapolis and I have worked closely with Kate on many projects.  Glass City Films is based in Toledo Ohio, though they spend a lot of time in Chicago and South Bend.  the Mid America Filmmakers is a group of filmmakers that help each other with their projects, they were the sponsors of the festival.

The evening session had a great turn out. it featured films from the Mid America Filmmakers and several foreign shorts. The Festival main event was the showing of Stephen Susco’s latest film “Red”. They managed to setup a video link via Skype and Stephen Susco was able to introduse thefilm as well as do a Q&A session afterwards. It worked out really well.

The Mid America Filmmakers are a great group and I look forward to working with some of them in the future. They put on a festival that was fun to attend and even better to be a part of. I’m sure I’ll go back to next year’s River Bend Film Festival.

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Posted by admin on May 3rd, 2009 :: Filed under Film Shoots
Tags :: Cole Simon, Glass City Films, indyfilmnews.com, John Klein, Karmic Courage productions, Kate Chaplin, Mid America Filmmakers, Mike Molenda, River Bend Film Festival, Scott Dokey, South Bend, Stephen Susco, Tim Richardson

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“Soldier’s Song” is a film based on  the real-life experience of an injured soldier returning from Vietnam. Greg Raubins (Tom Sparx) has been paralyzed from the waist down and is in incredible pain. He struggles with his injuries, his family, his roommate Rick (Scott Ganyo), and an uncaring VA Hospital Staff.

The film was shot over a four day period, March 20-23 2009, at the Magichouse studios in Logansport Indiana. The studio is owed by Mark Racop, who servered as Technical Director on the shoot. “Soldier’s Song” was written and co-directed by Michelle Gusow.

The cast and crew were a joy to work with.

There were many of the usual Magichouse crew: Mark Racop, Mike Williams, Eric Ridge, Megan Werle, and myself (Chuck Budreau).

There were some great additions this time including Director of Photography Nate Savidge and Tom Johnson from Inverted Staircase Productions. Kate Chaplin, Melinda Labita, Stacy Mayo, Neal Werle, Gina Caroway, Nate Caroway, and our latest generation “The Pirates!” Josh and Justin Robbins of “The Dread Family Robbins!”

The Cast was also top notch. Tom Sparx, Scott Ganyo, Micheal Harris, LaDonna Pettijohn, Michelle Gusow, Angela Plank and Doug Bolton.

Sorry for anyone I left out of this list, the long hours of this shoot is leaving me a little scrambled.

Everyone worked hard, did a great job and we all had a great time bringing this tragic story to life. I know many new connections have been made through this film. I had worked with just about everyone before, but getting these people together has been a long time goal for me. I knew that the talent and dedication of these individuals would really shine when they were teamed together. Kate Chaplin asked me this weekend if I’m ever tired of always being right… not this time Kate.  Thanks to everyone for proving me right, you guys are the tops and I look forward to our next shoot.

photos by Nate Caroway

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Posted by admin on March 23rd, 2009 :: Filed under Film Shoots
Tags :: Angela Plank, Doug Bolton, Eric Ridge, Kate Chaplin, Magichouse, Mark Racop, Megan Werle, Melinda Labita, Micheal Harris, Michelle Gussow, Mike Williams, Nate Savidge, Soldier's Song, Stacy Mayo, Tom Ford, Tom Johnson, Tom Sparx

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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 .

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.

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 books are available through Telltalepress.com and Amazon.com

–chuck

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Posted by admin on November 2nd, 2008 :: Filed under Film Shoots
Tags :: Brian Pearce, Chuck Budreau, Debra Kemp, Firebrand, Kate Chaplin, King Arthur, Recruit, Stacey Mayo, Tom Johnson

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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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A few weeks ago I spent the weekend helping out on a new music video for the country band “Shilo”.

We started Saturday morning in the small town of Topeka Indiana. Topeka is about 45 minutes northwest of Ft.Wayne, deep in the heart of Amish country. The location was the Topeka Pharmacy, which is pretty much a general store… doubling for a old style Five and Dime.

The main characters of the video where portrayed by
Alicia Hedlund, Travis Gow, and Chris Breidinger.

Alicia Hedlund

Travis Gow

Chris Breidinger

Which brings us to the title of the song…
“Dodg’n a Ford (in my Chevrolet)”
Here’s Travis’ Chevrolet…

and here’s the Ford he’s Dodg’n…(along with Nate Savidge catching some cool footage)

We had a blast shooting the chase footage. Stunt Supervisor Jim Dougherty organized the chase scene while Director Kate Chaplin oversaw the rest of the shoot.

Alicia, Kate and Jim

On Sunday we shot the band footage. These guys were great… they put up with all of the hurry-up and wait that comes with any shoot, without any complaints. As a film crew we’re used to this kind of thing taking way longer than anyone would ever guess. These guys were pros!

We were also joined by still photographer
Polina Osherov
. Who took some incredible shots of the band and crew. These are not her photos… but here’s a photo of her…which you won’t find in her shots!

Polina & Kate

It was a long hot weekend but lots of fun and hard work.
The video is now in the hands of the producers awaiting approval of the edit.
I’ll be sure to do an update when it’s available.

–chuck

Photos by Lynn Budreau

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Posted by admin on September 23rd, 2008 :: Filed under Film Shoots
Tags :: Film Shoots, Kate Chaplin, Music Video, Shilo

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