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January 28, 2006

Screenwriting Resources

As a resource for those taking our filmmaking workshop, and for whoever else stumbles onto the CFB searching for filmmaking tips, I’ve compiled the following information as a resource for beginning screenwriters. I’d like to thank my former intern Ryan DiGiorgi of LazyBear Productions for gathering most of this research, and to a lesser extent my current intern, Kashad Moore (j/k Kashad).

The purpose of the workshops is to promote story-telling with film/digital video, to encourage local submissions for the Back Row Film Festival, and to generally encourage young filmmakers.

The first workshop covers preproduction, specifically, writing your script. Why is writing so important, isn’t film a visual medium? Well, yes, but, that is only the finished product. The first step is getting the idea out of your head and onto paper. Everything you see on the screen starts with the script. And the script starts with a single idea.

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January 26, 2006

The Ruthie's On Fire

Folks packed it in at the Hunter for the premiere of Ruthie.

According to the memories of many of those in the audience, last Thursday night’s Hunter Museum premiere of Brian Cagle’s Ruthie might have been the first-ever time a local filmmaker’s work has drawn a standing-room-only crowd. It was also the first time anybody remembered an overflow crowd forcing a second showing of a local film. This is great news for a fledgling local film scene that has made serious strides in the last two years.

In addition to its annual independent film series at The Bijou, The Arts and Education Council is continuing its summer series at the Hunter, this time with the aid of the UTC folks who organized the Firefly Film Fest at Club Fathom in the fall of 2004. The collaboration has since been dubbed Back Row, and will feature at least six events, including a filmmaking workshop for teens starting this week. Caffeine on MLK has started showing films on Sunday nights, local rockers the Sha-Pels are working on a trilogy of horror movie-tinged music videos, and Oak Street Films’ Jarrod Whaley is working on a documentary and showing this film Telesthesia at the Pilot Light in Knoxville on Friday night. The city’s Arts, Culture and Education Department is moving forward with a film commission with hopes of luring filmmakers to shoot (and spend money) here, there is now a Web site devoted to local film (www.ChattanoogaFilm.com) and several other local filmmakers are furiously completing projects they hope to show here and elsewhere later in the year.

Cagle directed, shot and edited the 25-minute Ruthie as his thesis film for Northwestern’s M.F.A. program, getting contributions from a wide array of local cast, crew and sponsors. The film, shot in a local subdivision, deals with love, longing and, well, arson, and features the unexpected yet gorgeous torching of a van by a pair of young pyros—a scene that drew laughs from the Hunter crowd and awe from other filmmakers in attendance. In the entertaining post-premiere Q&A session, Cagle explained that the van had been donated, but joked that he wasn’t sure if the donor knew it had been burned.

Asked if people could buy a copy of the movie, Cagle replied, “No,” as the festivals he’s sending it to for consideration frown upon accepting films that “could be seen anywhere.”

Responses from the cast, crew and director revealed a humble, committed team atmosphere. The crowd offered both much praise and many questions, genuinely enjoying the evening and encouraging more like it. The lack of pretension evident this night is sorely needed around here, if you ask us.

(This article was reprinted from The Pulse.)

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January 17, 2006

Filmmaking workshop at UTC

Several UTC students will host a filmmaking workshop for students between the ages of 14 and 19 at the Hunter Museum. During the workshops, students will learn to write scripts, shoot like a pro, and edit an award-winning short film. (Award not guaranteed!) All classes are taught by local filmmakers, are hands-on and fun. No previous filmmaking experience is required.

The three events are as follows:

January 28: Preproduction

February 18: Production

March 11: Postproduction

The workshop is limited to 30 people, so make your reservations today! Call Tim Brown at 752-2051.

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January 16, 2006

AEC's 2006 Spring Film Series Announced

The Arts & Education Council this week revealed its Spring 2006 Independent Film Series. The slate opens with Noah Baumbach’s The Squid and the Whale, the movie selected by Pulse film critic Aaron Mesh as the best film of 2005. “Baumbach’s comedic memoir of his Park Slope parents’ divorce is a gimlet-eyed satire of progressive mores and a heartbreaking record of adolescent memories,” Mesh wrote in his initial review. “It ruthlessly skewers intellectual pretension – including the sort of half-informed literary references often found on this page – but knows that, for Jeff Daniels’ thickly bearded college prof, self-importance is the only escape from overwhelming failure.”

Below is a list of all the films in the series, which begins at Carmike’s Bijou 7 on February 10.

The Squid and the Whale: (February 10-16)

Three Extremes: (February 17-23)

Paradise Now: (February 24-March 2)

The Kid and I: (March 3-9)

Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont: (March 10-16)

Cache: (March 17-23)

The Dying Gaul: (March 24-30)

Winter Passing: (March 31-April 6)

Why We Fight: (April 7-13)

The Intruder: (April 14-20)

Merry Christmas: (April 21-27)

Unknown White Male: (April 28-May 4)

This article appears in the January 18, 2006 issue of The Pulse.

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January 12, 2006

Oak Street Films News

Jarrod Whaley of Oak Street Films is currently working on an as-yet-untitled self-documentary, in which he interviews himself.

In other Oak Street news, Whaley's silent film, Telesthesia, will be shown at The Pilot Light in Knoxville on January 27, and will feature live accompaniement from the Shaking Ray Levis.

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Story: Brian Cagle's Ruthie premieres at The Hunter on January 18.

Trent Creswell (background) and Kim Coolidge in a scene from Ruthie.

Click here to read "Community By Film, Through Film, For Film" in The Pulse.

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January 10, 2006

Film Night at Caffeine

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