It was a great turnout for the 9th Annual Show and Tell Film Festival this year. We welcomed some new faces as well as the many hardy perennials we see each year. And, in a film festival first, one guest had no face at all!!!??? … at least that we could see. Click on any photo for a full frame view. Thanks to Brian McGregor for the Photos.
The man with no face was Scott Sandsberry, writer and producer of the feature film, Runaway Hearts. Scott lives in Washington and phoned in his contribution to the Show and Tell Festival. So, we had to be content with viewing a low rez likeness of Scott as he told his story. Scott has an interesting bio that includes years of writing but, until recently, no film production experience, but Scott is a quick learner. He has now written and produced a movie, Runaway Hearts. Check out the trailer here. The popcorn is ready, roll the movie!
While we were changing over to the DVD player, Jennifer Jodziewiez gave a talk on video and social media. She spoke about how to make your marketing media personal, with the “Know, Like, Trust” school of thought. To learn more about social media marketing, check out her blog for many more tips.
Next up was a passion project by Mark Liberio. At this year’s show, Mark debuted his music video, Small Town. Shot with a simple Nikon Cool Pics, DSLR, Mark recorded his brother performing a live version of the John Mellencamp hit, Small Town. Mark then drove around the small town of Geneva, New York and recorded video B roll of the many touchstones of small town life. Enjoy the finished video here. If you grew up in a small town, this video will strike a chord with you.
Phillip Wolf was back with more polish, more pizzaz and a little of this and that. In addition to his latest Crash the Superbowl commercial and various video highlights from the past year, Phillip showed more from his passion project Silent Cries, the documentary. Philip talked about how this was a five year project for him with a couple of more years to go. In addition to the trailer, we also viewed B roll Phillip shot of an open heart surgery on one of the children he was profiling. You can be in the business of video production for decades and never get to shoot footage more hypnotic and powerful than a human heart. Keep up the good work Phillip.
What do you get when you cross a major pandemic with a now-a-go-go cult film? Swine Flu Zombies. From the fertile mind of Scott Ross, the man who gave us Pros and Cons: A Fantasy Football Movie Trailer, Clever Scott grabbed footage from a local Zombie Walk, placed some ringers in the crowd for some stolen footage and stirred in his own back story to create a 3 minute spoof on everyone’s favorite undead characters.
Dave Franzina brought something very unexpected to Show and Tell this year: a tutorial on squiggly lines that animate themselves. This was an exercise that Dave took on in Adobe After Effects dealing with shape layers. Dave explained that by using expression controls you could tell the shape what to do. In order for you to understand what’s going on, you’ll have to check with Dave, because I certainly don’t.
Always a crowd favorite, Dave and Kathryn Seay brought an engaging promotional piece for the creative team of Creative Cat Media. I’ve always wondered how these things are created. As they explained, in this case it was part scripted and part caught on the fly during a more casual conversation. As Jennifer spoke about earlier, it’s important to make yourself personal on your website, and the Seays did just that for Creative Cat Media in just 1 minute 14 seconds.
Tom Moore brought in a recruiting video for the Lewisville police department. In all there was over 40 hours of editing and miles of footage, but the effect was thrilling. Great shots from ride alongs, interviews and off-the-cuff remarks blended together to put on a professional face for the Lewisville police department’s recruiting video.
Newcomer to the Show and Tell Festival, but certainly not to the world of film production was Phillip Thomas, a cameraman, editor and producer. And, when I say film, I actually mean film, celluloid, 35 millimeter, 16 millimeter. Not many of us can say we’ve ever shot film. Phillip brought us a sample of beautiful time lapse, dolly shots and inventive angles in his video about the construction of Amon Carter museum in Fort Worth. You can see more of his work on his website.
You just never know what you’re going to get when Kelly Cleaver takes the stage. This night it was a bit of a performance piece; a cross between Milli Vanilli and Jessica Simpson. Holding a Microphone, Kelly performed a “live” narration to her video about the trials of shooting green screen footage and the need for video on a website. And, just like the aforementioned recording artists, Kelly was brought to her knees by a technical malfunction. It got the night’s biggest laugh.
Jim Rowely showed up with my most anticipated video. The 1-4-5 sizzle reel. Recorded live right where we were sitting just months ago, this 2 song demo showcased an accoustic music pilot produced by Dave and Kathryn Seay and Jim Rowely. Jim and Dave talked about the homegrown nature of the shoot and the trials of shooting with 5 unmatched cameras. They produced two videos. One for Toy Hearts, a bluegrass band from England and one for the Texas swing band, Shoot Low Sheriff.
Brian McGregor brought a collection of video montages he’s created over the last couple of years with his Canon 5d DSLR and a slider. Whether it’s nature, man made nature, men at work or small town nostagia, these artistic studies of locations combined with ambient audio are a passion for Brian. Like a painter, he builds up his canvas with scenes combining slider moves to create a whole. Enjoy.
You may remember that last year Dan Donahue created and edited a video on the day of the Show and Tell event. What is it about crunch time pressure that he thrives on? This year;s video was not so much about video, but about an event he participated in again, the Rover Dramawerks, One Day Only, 24 hours. Dan wrote a hilarious short piece titled, Ull-fay Oon-may. Stop what you’re doing and watch this. We’ll wait. As you may know, it takes a crew to put on the play, so tonight Dan brought the director of his play, Kevin Fuld, and they talked about the creative process as defined by the rules of this excercise in crunch time creativity. Now that you’re psyched out of your mind about what Rover Dramawerks has to offer, sign up for their newsletter.
The Show and Tell Film Festival is designed to be an outlet for anyone with a passion for creative content video production. We welcome all, from hobbiest, to people working in the industry. It’s a chance to unabashedly geek talk about the technical aspects of the industry and to bask in the inspiration of others. If you didn’t make it this time, rest assured we talked about you, so plan on attending next year to defend yourself.