Saturday, September 26, 2009
Vision Maker Film Festival
The 3rd Biennial Vision Maker Film Festival will take place October 30-November 5, 2009. Co-sponsored by the Native American Public Telecommunications, Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center, and the Sheldon Art Museum.
One of the features to be presented is “Video Letters from Prison,” and NAPT documentary sot at The Nebraska State Penitentiary. Filmmaker Milt Lee will talk about his film.
New this year is a short-form video competition for high school and young adults. These projects will be featured on the website:
NAPT has a long history of supporting Native-produced audio, film and video for Public Television and Radio. The Vision Maker Film Festival is designed to attract more attention to Native American filmmakers and culture.
For more info: Native American Public Telecommunications
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Iowa Suspends Tax Incentive Program for Filmmakers
Thomas Wheeler, Manager of the Iowa Film Office, has been fired by Governor Chet Culver (pictured with actor Michael J. Fox), who has called for an investigation by the state auditor and attorney general, as well as the Revenue Department, into alleged abuses in the program.
In a separate development, Sen. Tom Courtney, chairman of the Legislature’s Government Oversight Committee, has announced that he will also begin an investigation.
The program provides millions of dollars in tax credits for filmmakers who choose to shoot their films in the state. Up to 50 percent of what is spent by production companies in Iowa can be recovered. The program has been suspended until the outcome of the investigation is determined.
Criticism of the program includes inappropriate spending and poor accounting.
Michael Tramontina, the head of Iowa’s Economic Development Department, and Vince Lintz, Deputy Director of the Department, which oversees the tax incentive program, have both resigned from their positions.
Amy Johnson, who is a project manager in the Economic Development Department, will take over as interim manager of the Iowa Film Office.
At a press conference on Monday, supporters of the program urged the governor to allow the program to continue during the investigation. The Governor reaffirmed his decision to suspend the program. Governor Culver’s goal, according to a letter he wrote, is to improve the program in order to make it more accountable to Iowa taxpayers.
For more info: Iowa Film Office
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Lights! Camera! Me!
I spent a few heady minutes under the bright lights on Thursday as a featured extra on the set of “Lucky,” the dark comedy being shot in Council Bluffs and Omaha by Ten/Four Pictures.
As the driver brought me from the parking lot down to Base Camp, where all the stars’ trailers are, I joked, “Which trailer is mine?”
“That one,” he said, pointing to a very long trailer.
I laughed. I thought he was joking. But it was my trailer all right. Sort of. Actually, it was the honey wagon, the bathroom trailer, which has a number of small dressing room/bathroom compartments, each about the size of the starting gate at a horse track.
I began to wait, gazing out the door now and then until I saw Kathy Wozniak coming toward me.
“Are you my husband?” she called out as she approached.
“I am! I am your husband!” I answered. “But don’t let my wife know!”
Kathy and I were to play the grieving parents of a kidnap victim who appear on a television screen in the background of a scene.
Our call time was 11:30. Hours would pass before they were ready for our brief scene. As I waited, I remembered what Alex Zakrzewski, director of this summer’s production of “Vipers in the Grass,” told me about moviemaking: “You want to know how movies are made? Wait-wait-wait-wait—shoot. Wait-wait-wait-wait-wait-wait—shoot . . .”
And, boy, was he right. What do you do while you’re waiting five hours for your scene? You get nervous, you practice crying in the full-length mirror, you read a murder mystery, you snack, you nap, you stroll around the trailers hoping for a glimpse of Ann-Margret (one of the stars of the movie, pictured above), you rehearse a little with your co-star, you snack some more. Then Adam, the production assistant comes, and you think it's time. But no. It's only time to eat.
He takes you to Pauli's Bar, where the caterer has set up a lavish meal for cast and crew. And just as you're thinking you'll never see a star, there's Jeffrey Tambor of "Arrested Development," "The Larry Sanders Show," and the Hellboy movies, eating at a table by himself. Stay cool. Must be professional. After all, you're an actor, too. Kind of. You nod politely and sit at a different table with your movie wife and Adam. But as you eat, you glance around hoping to get a glimpse of the movie's other stars: Colin Hanks, Ari Graynor, and of course, the divine Ann-Margret.
Finally, after a full five hours, Adam knocked again. This time the director was ready for us, and the driver whisked us to the set, a barricaded city block in the UNMC neighborhood lined with semis overflowing with cables, c-stands, lighting equipment, and much more. The sidewalks were lined with more cables, racks of costumes, lights, and crew members, all of them busily doing their part to make the movie happen.
Adam led Kathy and me to the house that was being used as the home of the Colin Hanks character. Several crew members and a fireman were using a snow machine to cover the front yard with snow and covering the curbs with cotton batting. Part of the story takes place in winter, you see.
Then there was Gil Cates, Jr., the director, shaking our hands as if we were the most important people on the set. He took us past the snow-bound house and put us in front of the camera with a bank of lights in our faces. We huddled, clutching the photo of our kidnapped daughter. We were to imagine that a TV news reporter was filming us as we pleaded for her return. Our scene will play silently in the background during one of the movie’s scenes, but Kathy and I had both worked out lines of dialogue to make our moment feel more real, at least to us.
Before the director was ready for us, Kathy looked at me with tears in her eyes and said, “You’re a good father.” I looked down at the photo of our imaginary daughter and felt my own eyes fill with tears. “And you’re a good mother,” I said. “She’ll come home. She will.”
When the director called action, we turned our tear-streaked faces to the camera and pleaded with the kidnaper to let our girl go. Two minutes and two takes later, we were finished. A flurry of handshakes, thank-you’s, and congratulations, and we were suddenly whisked back to real life, still weepy and exhausted from our pretend grief.
A five-hour wait for two minutes on camera. Was it worth it? Oh yeah. It was a real kick to be part of a big-time Hollywood movie, even if that part was tiny.
As Adam took us back to Base Camp, we thanked him for taking such good care of us. “You made us feel like stars,” I said.
“You are stars,” he said.
I have to admit that made me feel pretty darn good. I guess now all I need is an entourage!
For more info: "Lights! Camera! Action! (Omaha World-Herald, "Council Bluffs Gets Lucky"
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
"Barstool Cowboy" Gets Distributor
Mark Thimijan, of Lincoln, has reached an agreement with Celebrity Video to distribute "Barstool Cowboy," the indie movie he wrote, produced, and directed.
The central character of the movie is Mick, a depressed cowboy played by Broken Bow native Tim Woodwar, who decides to drink his life away. That is, until he meets an artist-in-the-making named Arcy, played by Omahan Rachel Lien (who also played a major role in "April Showers"). By the end, both are changed by the relationship.
Shot in and around Lincoln, the cinematographer was Dough McMains. Most of the cast and crew are Nebraskans.
The movie is now on sale at Netflix, Blockbuster, Amazon.com, and elsewhere.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Now showing: For Love of Amy
Vincent Alston, of VLA Productions, wrote the screenplay and is a producer for the movie. Shooting took place in 2007 in and around Omaha.
Actor-director Ted Lange, who achieved fame as Isaac the bartender in TV’s Love Boat, directed the movie. He has directed many productions for theater and television and is himself a playwright.
Omaha’s Tyrone Beasley, artistic director of The John Beasley Theater & Workshop in Omaha, is the film’s assistant director.
The movie’s talented cast includes a number of Hollywood- and Omaha-based actors, including Vincent Alston as the dying man’s best friend, Joyce Sylvester (“Right to Remain Silent”), Lindsay Seim (“California Dreamin’”), and Tyrone Beasley. Omaha’s John Beasley (“The Apostle”) also appears in the movie. Grace Bydalek ("Strawberry Shortcake"), of Omaha, plays Amy.
For Love of Amy started its run at The Rave Theater at the Westroads Shopping Center in Omaha on August 28.
For more info: http://www.forloveofamy.com/
Monday, September 7, 2009
LEO Comes to Town
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Happy Birthday, Swoosie!
Council Bluffs Gets "Lucky"
Ten/Four Pictures is filming “Lucky,” a dark romantic comedy, in Council Bluffs this month. The movie, starring Colin Hanks, Ann-Margret, and Jeffrey Tambor, is about a serial killer who wins the lottery.
Hanks, son of Oscar-winner Tom Hanks, has many screen credits, including Peter Jackson’s “King Kong,” “The Great Buck Howard,” and “The House Bunny.” Screen legend Ann-Margret has been seen most recently in “The Break-Up” and “Santa Clause 3.” Award-wining comic actor Jeffrey Tambor has been seen in “The Hangover,” the Hellboy movies, and “The Larry Sanders Show.”
The film is being directed by Gil Cates Jr. and produced by Cates and the co-founder of Ten/Four Pictures, Caitlin Murney. Written by Emmy-nominated Saturday Night Live staff writer Kent Sublette, the movie is the second for the new production company. The company’s most recent film, just out, is “Order of Chaos.”
For more info: Ten/Four Pictures
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Iowa Welcomes Filmmakers
A similar tax incentive has been knocking on doors at the Nebraska state legislature for the last two years, but has been left out in the cold. Nebraska is one of a small handful of states that do not yet have a tax incentive program for filmmakers.
"Sandy Creek Girls" to Shoot in Nebraska
For more info: IMDB
Nick Nolte Comes Home to Omaha
Jay Karnes: From Shakespearean to Super Cop and Back Again
The Nebraska native made a name for himself as a Shakespearean actor for many years, especially with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, where he played major roles in Love’s Labours Lost , among other plays.
He has also made guest-star appearances on a number of television shows, including Frasier, Judging Amy, Chicago Hope, The Pretender, Start Trek: Voyager, House, and Burn Notice. His most recent work is as Brutus in the Marin Shakespeare Company’s production of Julius Caesar and in Donkey Punch, a short film that premiered at the HollyShorts Film Festival this month.
The film, produced by Emmy-winning director Anthony Russo and directed by Kenneth Hughes and written by John Hlavin, is getting a great deal of good buzz from audiences and critics alike. Though hard to describe without spoilers, if it were a reality TV series, Donkey Punch would be called "When Good Dates Go Wrong--Terribly, Terribly Wrong."
Karnes attended the University of Kansas and lives in California. He is married to actress Julia Campbell, with whom he has twin girls.
Nebraska Writers Have “The Goods”
Once they were a struggling law school student and a tennis coach. But all that changed when their first screenplay, “Ball’s Out: Gary the Tennis Coach,” won the BlueCat Screenwriting Competition. Barely had filming begun on the project when they were approached to write “The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard,” the off-the-wall car lot comedy starring Jeremy Piven now in theaters. Piven plays a used-car liquidator—a clunkers-for-cash kind of guy. According to Stock, “It's an hour and a half of hanging out on a car lot with a lot of crazy characters.”
Lifelong friends since they met at a tennis tournament in childhood, Stock and Stempson have said goodbye to law school and coaching (mostly) to write full-time in Lincoln. Their next project is a detective story set in Florida.
The Goods (R-rated) is directed by Neal Brennan, who has worked for Dave Chappelle, and is showing in 1800 theaters across the country, including several in Omaha but not, sadly, in the screenwriters’ home town of Lincoln.
But that’s all right. When funnyman Will Ferrell is a member of your movie’s cast, you get over such disappointments quickly. Asked what that was like, Stempson said, “Mind-blowing.”
For more information: The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard