Hudson Valley Filmmaker Family Debuts Short Film

KINGSTON, N.Y. - Aug. 13, 2014 - PRLog -- In the spirit of The Road, local Hudson Valley family Tim, Carmela, and toddler Olivia Mattson have worked together to create a short film.  Marrow is a post-apocalyptic coming of age story about a teenage girl named Lindsay whose survival is pitted against a dying world.

Tim led a team of local Hudson Valley filmmakers, and his family, to create a 16 minute film that resonates with Cormac McCarthy's post-apocalyptic tale, The Road.  "I kept myself from reading the book till after we finished our film".  The story is built with foreboding memories that lead to an unexpected ending.

The Kingston Film Festival chose the film from hundreds of submissions, and will be screening the film as part of it's Shorts Program IV this Saturday, August 16, 2014.

Tim was thrilled. "This is Olivia's first movie outside of her YouTube channel and we were hoping to see it land on the big screen.  This selection by the Kingston Film Festival recognizes our team's hard work to tell a gut wrenching post-apocalyptic story and premiere it right here in the Hudson Valley where it was conceived and shot."  Carmela has been working with Tim on various film and video productions since 2002 and is looking forward to working on feature films as a husband and wife team.

Marrow's story came together when Tim formed the Hudson Valley Filmmakers Meetup Group at the beginning of 2013.  "My goal was to create a short film from concept to screen with local filmmakers."  One veteran filmmaker member was Dave Dunlap, an amazing DP that worked on one of Tim's favorite zombie films Shaun of the Dead.  He also joined to make short films with people in his community, and six Meetups later they had a complete script for Marrow.

In the story Lindsay is forced to become the caretaker of her siblings and sets out for the first time on her own into a bleak world to get food for all of them.  On her journey she is faced with a dilemma which reveals the direction of her moral compass.

The story is one of the many what would happen if society colapses scenarios that we see all the time, except it is focused mainly on the kids.  "Because in the end that's really who will be left to pick up the pieces of what ever is left."  A future Tim and his team hope never to see.

Through crowdsourcing they managed to raise some of the money they needed for production to tell their short story.  Every dollar went into production which included donations and support from local community businesses like Rino's Pizza and Moxie Cup in New Paltz, NY.  With the crews and actors support, pro bono work donations, and long production days the team managed to shoot Marrow on a limited budget in 3-weekends.

When Marrow went into post-production Tim and Carmela had to dig deep into their own pockets to fund the computer generated special effects and the additional audio post and miscellaneous post costs.  "For the love of filmmaking we invested funds out of pocket despite our limited resources. Our short film was a labor of love, and the learning experience made it well worth it."

Carmela, Olivia's mom, said "She really enjoyed putting on makeup and getting ready for her scene, but it took a while for her to warm up to the camera."  As to whether or not Olivia will act again, "It's all up to her!  Hopefully she won't be upset over anything when she's older."

Marrow screens at 4:30 p.m. at the at the BSP in Uptown Kingston on August 16.  Tickets are around $7 online and can be purchased at KingstonFilmFestival.org. Keep up on Marrow through Facebook (facebook.com/MarrowFilm).