Jeff Crispi Rocks

Sunday, August 31, 2008

Jeff Crispi Rocks

I managed to tweak my schedule so that I could attend the Avalon Micro Film Festival. I guess I'm making up for lost time for missing out on the whole "Doggie Style" experience last year. For those who are new to Blogged Arteries: The Unrendered Files, I am referring to It Donned On Me's 2007 San Jose Film Project submission. I know that last line probably sounded a bit perverse, so I had to make that clarification. In any case, I really do feel like I missed out last year due to family obligations, so when Jeff Crispi invited me to attend this event (where "Doggie Style" would be screened) I did what I could to get there.

The Avalon Micro Film Festival is the brain child of Jeff Crispi. What started out as "The East Bay Micro Film Festival," a screening that took place in Mr. Crispi's home, has turned into a film festival tour in New York, Oakland, the South Bay, and eventually San Francisco. This film festival is really making a name for itself, and I am proud that It Donned On Me is a part of it. Not only was "Doggie Style" screened, but so was "TwirlyBoy." I was very impressed by the selection of high caliber films that Jeff put together. I got to meet a few of the filmmakers as well as some of the actors, some of whom were hysterical. On the schedule for the evening (in no particular order):

"Renounced" - Angelo Bell
"Consumed" - Subject To Change
"Love Hurts" - Christian Simmons
"Doggie Style" - It Donned On Me
"El Invencion" Trailer - Andres Garcia Franco
"Sunshine Bob" - Christian Simmons
"All Nighter" - Ryota Mori
"Max" - Rick Kemp
"Crickets" - Kari Navil
"The Key Master" - Ryota Mori
"El Ride" - Veronica Rodriguez
"Tracker" - Steffan Shultz
"Pencil Face" - Christian Simmons
"TwirlyBoy" - It Donned On Me

After every film screened, Jeff had a question and answer session with the filmmakers. As TwirlyBoy, I got to be a part of the panel! Initially, it felt weird to be up there, but the other filmmakers were so supportive and fun that I completely chilled out and ran with it. The audience asked very insightful questions, but what was even better was hearing the filmmakers responses. When all questions were answered, Evan--who just happened to be the executive producer of this film festival--played some of the filmmaker's other works. It was well after 11pm, but I was still engrossed on the screen. However, as the clock ticked closer to midnight, I had to call it quits. I thanked everyone, especially Jeff, for the great evening.

The Avalon Micro Film Festival is an intimate engagement where the audience member really gets to know the filmmaker and his or her art. I like that. Jeff Crispi is doing something good for the film community. Jeff, if you're reading this, you rock!

1 comment:

Jeff Crispi said...: Thanks Tony, Evan Donn, and everyone who contributed their time, money, and films to the festival and the Summer edition charity, The Veterans' Families United Foundation. We hope to confirm the Fall edition venue soon. For information on the charities working the Avalon Micro Film Festivals and details on future shows link to avalonstudios.org; September 4, 2008 at 11:02 PM

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It Donned On Me?

For the past few years Evan Donn has been teaching classes in After Effects and Final Cut Pro in the Multimedia department at College Of San Mateo. Every semester there were a couple of students who just wouldn't go home when the class was over, staying after with a seemingly endless stream of questions about every imaginable aspect of video production. Many of them returned semester after semester for whichever class Evan was teaching at the time.

In the spring of 2006 Evan taught a new class called DV Workflow which consisted almost entirely of these "irregulars". DV Workflow became essentially an 'everything but the kitchen sink' type of class covering the entire process of video production with an emphasis on producing video for the web.

As part of DV Workflow every member of the class had to produce an episodic video series for the web. This led to various members teaming up to work on each others' videos as well as providing valuable input on the finished videos during class screenings. When the class ended everyone felt that the working dynamic of the group was worth continuing.

Led by Chief Instigator Tony Nguyen they dubbed themselves 'The Evan Donn School of Film' and began holding quarterly screenings of everyone's current work. In 2006 several members of the group attended one of the 48 Hour Film screenings, and they all walked out with the same thought - we can do that.

From that point on the quarterly screenings took on a new direction as 'challenges' were thrown out with criteria similar to the 48 Hour Film Project. This helped prepare the team members for the challenge of building a short film around a character, prop and line of dialogue.

As the 2007 competition drew closer Mr. Nguyen once again took the lead and signed up the team for the San Francisco 48 Hour Film Project. Put on the spot to come up with a team name he considered and rejected many possibilities before the ideal name 'donned' on him...

Despite their history the San Francisco competition was the first time all members of the team had worked together on a single project. Everyone jumped right in and the result was our first short film - 'Urgent Care'.

Despite incredible audience reaction to the film, 'Urgent Care' failed to win either the audience or juried competition for San Francisco. However, the team was selected by competition sponsor Visa as one of ten teams from San Francisco to compete in their national "Life Takes" Invitational against teams from New York and Los Angeles.

With only one film in the can, Evan decided the team needed a little more practice before the Visa competition. Unbeknownst to the team, he signed them up for the nearby San Jose 48 Hour Film Project and announced it at the cast & crew party for 'Urgent Care'. Fortunately everyone jumped at the chance to hone their skills and prove that the success of the first film wasn't just luck. The result of that effort is 'Doggie Style', the second official film from It Donned On Me.

In September the team came together once again to complete another 48 hour film for the Visa "Life Takes" Invitational. In collaboration with members of the a capella group "Flying Without Instruments" they completed the fantasy film "EXIT".

In October, 2007 the team completed their fourth 48 hour project, the National Film Challenge, producing "Retreat", an existential tale of a horse seeking enlightenment. After this they took a break from high-speed filmmaking for the holidays in order to prepare for the 2008 season.

In March 2008 IDOM kicked off the 2008 filmmaking season with the International Documentary Challenge, producing our first non-fiction film, "Stick & Pound". Selected as a finalist in the competition, 'Stick & Pound' screened in Toronto at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival where the team brought home Documentary Challenge awards for Best Cinematography and Best Directing!

After an amazing first year of competition IDOM came full circle, returning for the second time to the 2008 San Francisco 48 Hour Film Challenge and successfully completing our 6th film, "Tail". 'Tail' brought home the award for 'Best Sound Design' as well as being nominated for Best use of Dialoge and Best Cinematography

Just a few weeks later it was once again time for the San Jose 48 Hour Film project. Despite a rough start IDOM pulled together and created 'TwirlyBoy', possibly our strangest film so far.

With seven very different films completed in a years time some would say it's time to take a break, but not IDOM - this is just the beginning as IDOM tackles new projects and goes in new directions in the quest to become the greatest competitive filmmaking team of all time!

Stay Tuned!

Who Is Quang Khoi?

When Quang Khoi and his family immigrated to the United States from Vietnam back in the mid seventies, his mother decided to give all the kids American names. Nobody could pronounce Quang Khoi, so his mother renamed her youngest son Tony. Quang Khoi's mom is a huge movie buff, and her passion for cinema is evident in the fact that she named her children after movie stars. Though it has never been confirmed or denied, word on the street is that her all time favorite movie is Alfred Hitchcock's PSYCHO, and that she named her youngest son after that film's leading man, Anthony Perkins. "Tony" is not so bad, considering that Quang Khoi could have ended up being "Norman Bates Nguyen."

These days, Quang Khoi uses his real name when he is acting in film. When he's behind the camera, he goes by his American name, Tony. Quang Khoi/Tony Nguyen inherited his mother's passion for the movies. He enjoys every aspect of film, from playing character roles on the screen to editing time lines in Final Cut Pro behind the scenes. Mr. Nguyen is very proud to be a part of this year's 48 Hour Film Project. Working with the It Donned On Me team has been such a rewarding experience, and he hopes to continue to work this awesome group of people in future projects.

Blogged Arteries - The Unrendered Files

Sunday, August 31, 2008