Brush with Fiery Greatness

Yeah, yeah, still gotta write and organize pics and all, but this is too damn cool. Headline on this week's Artvoice cover, accompanying this pic:



Four small films were produced in Buffalo this summer. More are on the way. Is this a growth industry?

Hey now. I knew that a recently acquired LJ friend, glamberson, had been working on a pic here. Could his be one of the four?

Hellz yeah- He wrote the piece:)

Buffalo has always had its share of token Hollywood productions: James Caan’s Hide in Plain Sight; the Weinsteins’ slasher film The Burning, which helped build Miramax; Robert Redford’s The Natural; and the recent Keanu Reeves vehicle Henry’s Crime all filmed in the Nickel City.

But these productions—which import cash to our city and region—are few and far between. More often than not, we get the Bruce Almighty treatment, in which a film crew comes to shoot innocuous establishing shots for several days, while “Buffalo” is recreated in another city or on a Hollywood sound stage. Or we get Poultrygeist, the low-budget comic gross-out horror film directed by Troma Entertainment icon Lloyd Kaufman.

There are few chances for local aspiring filmmakers to work on a production with established professionals. That’s where guys like me come in: the DIY (do it yourself) filmmakers hoping to make it big by making it small.

Greg goes on to review his locally-made filmography, before settling in on this summer's production of Model Hunger, which he line-produced and AD'd:

Debbie Rochon, an actress who has appeared in more than 200 films, including Slime City Massacre, just made her directorial debut here last month with the horror feature Model Hunger ...

“Projects like Debbie Rochon’s help to keep our local crew base strong and sharp,” says Buffalo-Niagara film commissioner Tim Clark. “Making movies involves intricate skills whether it’s a small budget indie or a big studio project. Having experienced crew and other support services makes a huge difference in attracting more projects to the region. The film industry is also a close-knit business. If the crew on a small film feels they had a good experience, they’re apt to tell others, and the word spreads quickly that our region is film-friendly and a good place to place a project.”

Even a small visiting film generates income for the local economy by providing jobs for artist residents, warm bodies that require food and housing, set construction, costumes, and vehicles. When a small production comes to town, its makers are likely to stick around for the duration of production, not leave for greener pastures after grabbing shots of our architecture or the falls. On Model Hunger, six local actors and two crew members were paid for their services, in addition to caterers and a set carpenter; numerous volunteer positions were filled by area residents as well.

“You don’t realize how much support there is in Buffalo until you start to add up all the little things. Every location we went to basically let us have the run of the place. The employees chipped in and helped us, we were able to freely use power, and both times we shot in bars they turned on their sound systems and concert lighting without us even asking. The guys at Mohawk Place stayed extremely late and never once pressured us to hurry. DBGB’s even supplied us with free food. You can’t ask for better support than that.”

I'd asked Emily if she wanted to put her in touch with Greg about the project, to see how a real film set worked. Dad,... she shot me down, I go to film school. I've BEEN on film sets.  Someday, young Jedi, you will understand....

And thanks to Greg for supporting our local artists and vendors with this work. Maybe next summer you'll get an AD of your own from this house;)

The End of the Road As We Know it

Day Four Album a la Face

When we left off, I'd finished a 5K and was posting from mah niece's, having begun the big turn and started heading west again.

( Afternoons and cereal spoons )

----

That was all late Sunday.  Nicole was starting training for a new adjunct faculty position at a local college, so we had just a little time the next morning to catch up and get a few shots around the grounds.  Their house came with a fish pond- they didn't even see it when they first looked, and it was incredibly meaningful, since Nicole's dad had turned the base of their longtime backyard Long Island pool into a pond with killer-size koi in his final years. 

( Eat them up! Yum! )

We ended with the babysitter getting this three-generation shot of us-



-and at last it was off to the final stop on the journey....

( A Night at the Race to the Bottom of the Barrel! )

Still, it was great to see everyone, and eighteen hours and two new tires later, I was back in my own home with more adventures (in moving, among others) lying ahead.

Suppose I should watch the bottom of the ninth to see if those popsicles have gotten any warmer:P


ETA Game's not on. But Yahoo Full Count came back to it just as I sat down, and I saw Hurricane Isaac's second home run of the game to walk it off and put it in the books:)

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