Opening Night At The Roxie!

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Opening Night At The Roxie!

I am all about supporting the 48 Hour Film Project community, so I make every effort to come to all the screenings. It Donned On Me won't be premiering "Sur Mesure: Journeys In Transpersonal Haberdashery" until Wednesday night, but I did ventured out to The Roxie for the first screening. For those who are interested in attending these screenings, I highly recommend that you get your tickets online. Luckily, I ordered my ticket earlier in the afternoon, because had I not, I would have had to stand in the rush line. It did not look like the theater sold out on opening night, but at least I was able to get a decent seat.

As I stood in line, a familiar face approached me. It was Jeff Crispi, our leading man from "Doggie Style." Jeff is looking pretty good. He shaved off 25 pounds and he's gunning for another 75. Jeff worked with Atlantis Entertainment on the film de femme film "Held At Bay." Unfortunately, the film was not turned in on time, so it won't be eligible for the major awards. However, the producers did finish it, and it did get turned in, so it was screened first. I sat with the "Held At Bay" team.

A few films stood out for me. I really enjoyed Straight To DVD's superhero flick "Will Power." This action/comedy/musical/fantasy/call it what you want to call it film made me laugh out loud. I wonder if Straight To DVD really wanted to pull the musical genre but didn't, but made one any way. It wasn't a full on musical, but it definitely had elements of one. What made this film work was its quirkiness and comic book cheeziness. I definitely give "Will Power" two thumbs up.

"Getting Weird" by How Now Brown Scary Cow also gets my vote because I really felt like I was high watching it! If we could have 3-D films, why can't we have a smell-o-vision feature where Mary Jane puffs through the screen and her MJ funes just permeate through the theater for all to enjoy? How Now Brown Cow nailed this one. They didn't just make a stoner film, it looked like they were actually stoned making it!

"Midday Serenade" by The East/West Connection also impressed me. This romantic comedy didn't have anything extravagant like special effects or crazy costumes, but it was quirky enough to keep my interest. I often find myself going off on tangents when reading a good book, so I really related to the progatonist.

The film that really stood out for me was CurlyHairedPeople's "The Greatest Holiday Story Ever Made." I was excited to come to this screening to see this team because I absolutely loved their Barbie meets The Italian Job detective/cop flick from last year. I am a big fan of CurlyHairedPeople, and they certainly did not disappoint. Their making of a holiday film had enough gags to keep me laughing throughout the whole film. Kudos to CurlyHairedPeople!

Below are the three films I voted for. As for the audience award, I must choose CurlyHairedPeople's holiday film.

“Held At Bay” - Atlantis Entertainment

Genre: Film De Femme

“Heaven Is A Place on Earth” - Proper Thought Studios

Genre: Sci Fi

“Will Power” – Straight To DVD

Genre: Superhero

“Two” – The Compost Heap

Genre: Thriller/Suspense

“Midday Serenade” – The East/West Connection

Genre: Romance

“Mataha Bar” – Zero Hour SF

Genre: Horror

“The Telegram” – Tico

Genre: Mockumentary

“Custom Framing” – No My Day Job Productions

Genre: Detective/Cop

“Getting Weird” – How Now Brown Scary Cow

Genre: Stoner Film

“Movements” – 1 Blue Spore

Genre: Drama

“Changing Tempos” – Asian Mainstream Productions

Genre: Musical

“Thunderfingers” – The Pants Production

Genre: Buddy Film

“The Greatest Holiday Story Ever Made” – CurlyHairedPeople

Genre: Holiday Film

“Night Session” – Pillybooka

Genre: Fantasy

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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

Tuesday, June 9, 2009