I added together all the movies I watched last week and the total came to 46. Sure, they were mostly short movies, but still.. 46 movies. And most of those locally made. I am experiencing an exquisite mixture of movie-making inspiration and movie-watching fatigue. Hopefully just the inspiration lasts.

PDX Film Festival

I was blown away by the quality of Portland films at the PDX Film Festival. The Friends and Neighbors showing showcased a bunch of great pieces from local filmmakers.. my favs were the pieces from Jeffrey Richardson, Dustin Zemel, Matt McCormick, Chris Lael Larson and Jeff Guay. And the Peripheral Produce Invitational was totally crazy! There were girls dancing to video, rock musicians rocking out to video, hacked nintendos, abstract visual mayhem, psychadelic glasses, a creepy interstellar seductress and between-movie bingo to boot (I won a kickball!) And also, since the Clinton Street Theater played host, beer!

This is the best local film event I’ve been to in Portland. The quality of films was very good and it was great to see all of the filmmakers in attendance. I have heard that Portland has a great indie film scene but honestly in the past six years I’ve lived here I just haven’t seen much evidence to support that. But now I’m starting to think maybe there is something to that claim. I definitely can’t wait to try to get some of my work in there next year!

Gold Coyote

I didn’t win any awards, but did get honorable mentions for two of my films.. that is, they were mentioned by the guy doing the judging for the non-audience choice award. I was happy that the audience laughed at the appropriate parts in “The List” and was surprised to learn that “Storytime Adventures Episode 1″ was on the short list of 13 movies picked to fill the 12 movie bill from a field of about 50 entries.

The audience-choice winner was a movie by Erin Wilkinson featuring a cute dog and a humorously accented voice-over. Imagine a wittier version of a clip of the family pet in America’s Funniest Home Videos to get the impression… or go watch it yourself on YouTube. The judge’s choice was a well-executed painting-over-painting-over-painting style animation by first time moviemaker Shelley Jordon.

The best movie of the night was “No Escape!” by Arman Bohn. He put together some awesome 8-bit atari-style graphics with a compelling storyline in the form of a music video. I voted for him and he ended up being one of a few runners-up.

Other notables included:

• Hey Remember When We Went to the Zoo Before I Hated Your Guts by Stephanie Whitney
• Johnny Appleseed by Emily S. Chapman
• Kiss by Miles Spreitsman

I just found out about PDX Film Fest which is happening at the Clinton Street Theater May 6-10th. Here’s their short description of one movie I plan on seeing:

We are very excited to present Brett Gaylor’s documentary RiP: A Remix Manifesto, which tackles the tricky subject of copyright in the age of the internet through the work of mash-up artist Girl Talk and Creative Commons founder Lawrence Lessig.

Deliver also looks interesting.. it’s an all-woman remake of Deliverance. PDXFF also features a bunch of full-length and short movies by locals.

I’ll be screening “The List” and “Storytime Adventures Episode 1″ at NW Film Center’s open screening Thursday night 7pm April 30th at the Whitsell Auditorium. Another good option that night is the Joanna Priestly premiere going on at the Hollywood Theater.. check out some clips of her really cool animation here. And of course don’t forget to come see “The List” at the Gold Coyote showing next Sunday May 10th!

This just in from the folks at Gold Coyote Super Short Film and Video Competition:

Thank you for entering your work to the Gold Coyote Super Short Film and Video Competition.  We are happy to inform you that we will be including your title “The List” in our evening’s program of films to be judged by the audience. Unfortunately, we will not be including your film “Storytime Adventures Episode 1″ in our final selection.  We had a large number of well crafted films and, sadly, cannot include every one.

Yay! See you there May 10th (if you’re not already going to Labyrinth, that is..)

Long time, no news! I’ve been away in Vietnam since early March, but now I’m back and ready to make some more movies. I have a few things in the works: another short comedy, Storytime Adventures episodes two and three, a quirky piece about a guy with a memory problem and also a few music video ideas for Bombs Into You. Hopefully with the next couple months off from work I can get lots done.

I’m going to show some movies at a couple of upcoming screenings. The filmmaker’s night at Kelly’s Olympian no longer happens every month, but it does look like they’re having a showing Wednesday April 22nd. I plan on showing The List there. Also, I will show The List and Storytime Adventures Episode 1 at the Northwest Film Center’s open screening at the Whitsell Auditorium on Thursday April 30th.

Lots of other interesting movie stuff going on in the next few weeks:

• Best of the 2008 Ottawa International Animation Festival – April 17 7pm & 8:45pm, April 18th 6pm, April 25 6pm @ Whitsell Auditorium – A lineup of critically acclaimed short animated pieces. Presented by the NW Film Center.
• Filmed by Bike Festival – April 17-23 @ Clinton Street Theater – Short movies about bicycles.. if you’re into that kind of thing.
• 36th Annual Student Academy Awards Regional Finalists – April 28 6pm @ Whitsell Auditorium, FREE – My friend Pat was in town for a few days to help pare down the submissions to a group of finalists. These films come from colleges in Alaska, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming. There are bound to be some gems in there. Plus it’s free!
• Oregon Sesquicentennial Film Festival – May 1-10 @ Marylhurst University – A variety of new and old movies, plus the Golden Coyote Super Short Film and Video Competition on May 10th. (I submitted The List and Storytime Adventures Episode 1 but haven’t heard back yet on if they made the cut.)
• Salem Film Festival - April 17-26 @ Salem Cinema – If you’re up for leaving town, there are a bunch of movies showing in Salem. Some of the batches of short films look like they might be worth driving down for.

That’s it. Now go watch some movies!

UPDATE 4/21: I’m not going to be showing movies at Kelly’s Olympian tomorrow.. forgot I’m going to see Bloc Party and Menomena that night.

This is my second WOE movie and I think it turned out pretty well. Teresa and Drew did an awesome job of acting, especially when it came to keeping in the same positions between takes. I shot this with one camera, so all those different angles you see are different takes. I was surprised how seamlessly I was able to edit most of the footage together.

I got to use my new used Lowel lighting kit for the first time.. think lighting turned out pretty well, though if I were to do it again I think I would try to get less ambient light in the room and use light from the giant TV that was offscreen to help light from the front. Jacob also did great job on sound with the new boom pole.

You should check out Drew’s other work in the Free Box.. it’s a weekly sitcom-style comedy series that is really funny. And it looks like Teresa stars in the pilot for the series Campus Daze.

Credits

Kelly: Teresa Decher

Dan: Drew Hicks

Boom Operator: Jacob Campbell

Sound Effects:
www.soundsnap.com

Special Thanks:
Brian Mattis, Matt Cook and Jessica Hinman for use of the apartment.

Awards:
Gold Coyote Super Short Film and Video Competition selection