Open Projector Night 6 Review

Another success for the Alaska Film Forum and Out North!  Open Projector Night 6 on Thursday June 28, 2012, was familiar and fresh at the same time.  The crowd is getting more and more involved in OPN (there was a bit of joking and heckling).  There was a problem with one of films, making it look like it had been done on a 10 year old cell phone camera.  Luckily you can see how it was supposed to look on youtube. 

Things were running a bit late to get into the main auditorium, but that gave most people a chance to get in a bit of networking, which seems to be nearly as important as the films themselves.  There was a great deal of hilarity at the beginning of the program, “Facebook whore” by Geoff Oliver and “She’s on Mushrooms” both had the audience laughing.  “Ascend” was an astonishing short film for introspection, done for one of the 24 hour film competitions.  “Skit Show 3” got a wild reaction from the crowd, especially for its spoof of "Could've been more" by Matt Jardin.  Our local film industry has now progressed to the point of spoofing itself, I congratulate you all!  “The menace of Alcohol,” done for Proper Binge (still in production) was a personal favorite, simply because of the old school and exaggerated hilarity.  A short designed to support the kickstarter for the Exit Glacier project was very poignant for me.   It is a project designed to gather funding for a smartphone application that would show you how the glacier used to look, compared to its smaller present day self.  I love that they are working for local support to show the melting of the glacier.  The new edit of “Eyes for Amber” by Kyle Murphy of Som Ep'Laceak was shown with great success.  I’m very much looking forward to his current project “Greenscreen.”  The wrap up film received wild applause and proved that Alaskans are an odd bunch, “Chinchilla the Killa.”  So much fun watching a large fuzzy outfitted "Killa" on a rampage! 

This is turning out to be an excessively busy summer movie season.  There are many short film projects rolling all the time, and Proper Binge (Anchorage/Mat-Su's first feature length film) is still filming out in the valley.  Check back here for casting calls and extra's opportunities.  I am looking forward to seeing what you create at the next OPN!  Hopefully it will be at a more conducive time, if not, I know quite a few people that will willingly drink an extra cup of coffee on Friday as penance.  

So much film coming up

Tickets are on sale for Open Projector Night 6, Thursday, 28 June 2012.  Get there soon!  Last time they sold out!  Submissions are due to the Bear Tooth on Wednesday night between 6 and 9pm.  Film slots are given out on a first come, first served basis, so get there early. 

The show starts at the late hour of 10pm.  For OPN 5, there was a flock of filmmakers networking during the hour before show time, it should be the same this time.  I’m most looking forward to “The Last Thing I Do,” by Matt Jardin, it sounds like fun.

Filmmakers: To help accelerate the submission process, AFF is recommending that you print and fill out their Release Form before arriving at Bear Tooth with your film.

 The Never Sets Film Festival program for 2012 won’t be announced until July 15^th.  Submissions are still being accepted until the end of June, so get your film in soon!

The Anchorage International Film Festival is accepting early submissions until June 30^th (there’s a link to the film submission site on the Upcoming Events tab).  After June, submission fees increase, but they will continue accepting films.  AIFF will be held from November 30 - December 9, 2012.

The Live. Work. Play. film competition submission deadline is July 13 and there will be a public screening of the submissions later in July.

John Norris needs your help!

Alaskan Filmmaker John Norris recently submitted his hilarious short "Grover Cleveland: All Star Gigolo" to the Badass Filmmaking Frenzy film completion, and he needs your vote to win!

It's easy to do, simply go to the Grover Cleveland: All Star Gigolo page and click on the "Vote with a Like" button. The film with the most likes wins, so every vote counts. As if helping a fellow Alaskan isn't incentive enough, John is offering one (1) free can of Fresca to a random voter! How can you resist such temptation?

Live. Work. Play. Film Competition

Want over 100,000 views on YouTube? Win a film competition!

The Anchorage Economic Development Corporation (AEDC) is hosting its second ‘Live. Work. Play.’ Film competition.  I interviewed Emily Bolling, Communications Director for AEDC to get a few more details than were available online. 

The first film competition, back in January 2012, had a respectable 4 entries.  The winner, “Stuff Anchorageites Never Say,” by Brian Dollerhide, has 109,000 views on YouTube.

The AEDC is hoping for quite a few more entries for the current competition.  Filmmakers have until July 13^th at 5pm to get their entries to AEDC. 

All short (3-5 minute) film styles are acceptable; the theme is “The Never Ending Day.” AEDC wanted to give filmmakers “a bit of structure with room for creativity.”

The winning film will be shown to over 1,000 business professionals at the AEDC Economic Outlook Luncheon in July and the creator will receive a prize package.  The package includes tickets to the luncheon and sponsored items such as gift cards to local businesses. 

There will be a public screening of the submitted films on July 20th, 6:30pm at Out North Theatre.  Please come out and show your support for your local filmmakers!

AIFF Poster Artist Search and Early-Bird Deadline

The Anchorage International Film Festival (AIFF) is seeking submissions from local artists for their annual AIFF poster.  If you know of any interested artists, please share this opportunity to get their work seen and admired by the local film going community.  Only a few more days to contribute!

Only 2 more days to get your designs to AIFF! Alaska friends, help out the 2012 AIFF by sharing this post with artistic folks around the state. Thanks!

Are you an artist with an idea for the 2012 Anchorage International Film Festival official design? Each year a design is chosen from submissions by local artists, and used on AIFF posters, passess and merchandise.

Check out designs from previous years on the AIFF website: http://www.anchoragefilmfestival.org/2012/about/history/past-festivals/

Designs should incorporate the AIFF film reel/snowflake logo, the year 2012, and the festival dates, November 30-December 9.

Email your design idea no later than June 15th to: teresa@anchoragefilmfestival.org or tony@anchoragefilmfestival.org

The deadline for "Early-Bird" submissions to the 2012 AIFF is coming up quick! 

Filmmakers! The early-bird deadline for entries to the 2012 AIFF is approaching fast. After June 30th submission fees increase. Visit http://www.anchoragefilmfestival.org/2012/ for information on how to submit your film and click on the link for the "Withoutabox submissions page." Final deadline for submissions is September 8th, but don't wait, submission fees will continue to increase throughout the summer.
 
Anchorage International Film Festival

http://www.anchoragefilmfestival.org/2012/

The Anchorage International Film Festival is a 501(c)3 organization founded in 2001 and committed to independent filmmaking. Hundreds of volunteers, filmmakers, artists, sponsors, partners, and supporters make it possible to put on a two-week event every December in Anchorage, Alaska.

Off to a fresh start and a review of OPN 5

Hello again!

This Film Journal has gotten off to a much slower start than I had originally anticipated.  My entrance into parenthood was a little more distracting than I thought it would be.  A few months later and I'm ready to give this another try; my daughter is in a bit more of a rhythm and I'm regularly getting around 4 hours of sleep all in a row!

I'll keep this re-introduction a bit short so I can finally post the brief review I had written of the last Open Projector Night before I got completely distracted by baby's arrival.  This way anyone who was unable to make it has some idea of what to look forward to during OPN 6 which is coming up soon! Check out our "Upcoming Events" section for more info.

Does anyone out there have a listing of the short films that were shown at OPN 5 and who made them? One of my goals for this Journal is to have a constantly updated list of the projects Alaskan Filmmakers have done so their fans can easily figure out who made what.

Thank you for stopping by and encouraging me to make this project happen!

OPN 5 Review

The Alaska Film Forum and Out North’s Open Projector Night 5 on Thursday, March 15, 2012 was quite the success. The crowd was excited and engaging, the movies were well received and most are already looking forward to the next OPN.

Open Projector Nights have outgrown all of their previous venues, so they expanded up to the Bear Tooth. The first night at a venue this large, you SOLD OUT the Bear Tooth! They had to turn away an unfortunate few. This is an amazing sign for the local film industry! It was also fantastic publicity for AFF and Out North.

The crowds arrived before 9pm, when networking was set to begin. The average Joe got to see and chat with Anchorage’s best known directors, producers, actors, and crew. There was even a special drink for the event – the AFF Martini (I was bummed at not being able to try one due to my pregnant status).

Judging by the crowd reactions “Pretty Little Victim” was the most anticipated and “Elect” was the funniest. I admit to being biased about my favorite of the films, “The Job,” starring my car and my partner Berick Cook. Astoundingly, this fast paced heist movie was begun a mere 6 days before premiering at OPN 5. I don’t know how they did it, but I’m impressed.

As if there weren’t enough evidence of the growing local film industry, the there were so many movies submitted that they couldn’t all be accommodated in a single evening. Six films had to be put off until the next Open Projector Night. I for one am looking forward to finding out what I missed.   

Open Projector Night 5

Open Projector Night is an opportunity for Alaskan film makers to show their recent projects to both the local film community and the average movie goer.

People can show their support for Alaskan films, film makers and actors in the comfort of the Bear Tooth Theatre.

We at AFJ are particularly looking forward to the first screening of Electric Igloo & Michael Bergstrom's new short "The Job", and 1964 Motion Pictures' "Elect".