June Meeting of the Buffalo Movie - Video Makers

June 8, 2010 - PRLog -- Traditionally, June is our "year-end" meeting at the Screening Room before we return in September. We actually have some rough plans for the July and August meetings but they'll be held elsewhere. Stay tuned on www.bm-vm.com for details.

As everybody makes their preparations for the summer, we thought to wrap up the season with a big push to (hopefully) inspire our Members to either:

1. Take the plunge and make a brand new film.

2. Keep the energy going on a film you're already working on.

3. Find some inspiration and motivation to finally finish that unfinished film you shot some time ago (a month ago? Last year? Several years ago?).

Basically June's program tries to touch on a variety of disciplines in the filmmaking process which will hopefully get your creative cinematic juices going!

PREPARATIONS:
1. "Making Grimm Movies, Part 1" - Thanks to member JON SOYKA for lending us this awesome and informative DVD. "From the Brothers Grimm" is a series of live action film translations of folk and fairy tales produced by Davenport Films. These adaptations have been set in the American landscape, like Appalachia. In the three part series, Part One details the company's filmmaking process, starting with adapting the scripts, preparing for the shoot, casting actors and the use of make-up. "Recommended" by the National Education Association.
(approx. 20 min.)

SHOOTING THE FILM:
2. "Decayed" - BM-VM President EMIL NOVAK will be screening some footage he shot for the horror film that he's been working on. He figures he's about 60% done with the main filming. This particular bit of footage features a visual look that was a little bit unexpected but turned out to be quite striking.
(approx. 5 min.)

POST-PRODUCTION: FOCUS ON AUDIO:
3. We're also putting together some material regarding the creative use of sound in film. Includes some material on the making of "Star Wars," (Episode 4, specifically) particularly creating the sounds unique to various characters and objects (approx. 8-10 min.). Thanks to member TOM BAUM for his on-going assistance with this topic.

Also, examples of the subjective use of sound to depict the emotional or mental states of characters (for example, a scene from "All That Jazz"), or to suggest metaphorical associations (a scene from "The Right Stuff").

ALTERNATE LIFESTYLE VAMPIRE PUPPETS (for balance)
4. "Taste of Flesh, Taste of Fear" - This short film by Stacie "Final Girl" Ponder was first seen in the premiere episode of her web series "Ghostella's Haunted Tomb" on the site After Ellen. Described as "a B-grade lesbian vampire movie made with dollar store fashion dolls!," it is an affectionate homage to a compelling sub-genre of horror films... and really cheaply executed! Ms. Ponder (who also contributes a weekly column to the AMC website) chose to cast her film with only dolls when one of her "living" actresses dropped out of the project before filming. This seeming liability is positively embraced for its creative and comic
opportunities through the effective use of DUBBING, shot
selection/storyboarding, and SOUND EFFECTS. (9 min. 44 sec.)

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