NB FILM CO-OP

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FREE MEMBERSHIP
Support Canadian Cinema
The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television has a 6-month trial Academy "membership" and it's free. i.e. you get to see CND film for free at most major cinemas.
DEADLINE: March 31, 2007
Info: www.academy.ca/affiliates

MUSIC SEMINARS
I will be giving a series of Artist-Entrepreneur seminars in New Brunswick, during my involvement with the “Français pour l’avenir” national conferences. 

I am offering my services as educational speaker and artist-entrepreneur who gives seminars and talks to young people about what it is like to have a career as a professional musician and audio-visual producer – in English, et en français.

If your school or organization is interested in a booking I now have extended dates available:

April 11th , 12th or 14th
April 26th or 27th
Info is attached.

Tim Rideout, Sound Designer :: Composer :: FibiiSonic Studios

(514) 524-1454
www.TimRideout.com

Please email cat for further info at: info@nbfilmcoop.com

CASTING CALL
Looking for volunteer actors to participate in a 10 minute short film.

1 Male aged 16-20
1 Female aged 16-20

Auditions will be held on Thursday March 29th at the Charlotte Street Arts Centre, upstairs room,  732 Charlotte Street at 6:30 pm. Follow the signs.

Call-backs will be held on Thursday April 5.

For more information, please e-mail us at: dennis.poirier@aliant.ca

Arts in NB

Saint John filmmakers
Harper's taking notes from Sally take a shot at the reality 

By Jim Lavoie
Published Thursday March 29th, 2007

Steven Doiron and Blake Stillwell will put their indie short film Not On My Own up against worldwide competition as they vie for a placing on a new reality TV show called On The Lot. 

The new show is the brainchild of Steven Spielberg and Mark Burnett in which these two famous producers combine talents to offer filmmakers the chance of winning a producer's job (budget of a cool $1 million) to create a film under the Spielberg umbrella. 

The premise of the show, along the lines of American and Canadian Idol process, is to have filmmakers submit a short film to The Lot website.

These will be then vetted down to a workable number from which interviews will held and from this the 18 finalists will emerge. 

The filmmakers' task will to be to create a new short film each week with the viewing audience casting votes to determine who goes home and who stays. The interview process has started and both Doiron and Stillwell are hoping their call is next. 

As co-founders of Dark Night Pictures (website being developed) Doiron and Stillwell bring different strengths to the table. Doiron's forte is in the creativity, while Stillwell's' is the technical prowess but their talents are interchangeable which makes them very marketable. For now they can be reached at stevendoiron@hotmail

For their film entry to the lot they chose Not On My Own which is their interpretation of, in music video form, the music styling of Saint John musicians ThreeSeasonAnt. (In fact they have made several videos for ThreeSeasonAnt ) Their Lot entry can be viewed if you click here and they welcome any comments you may have. Not On My Own was shown at The Continental Drift Film Festival in Saint John and The Silver Wave Film Festival in Fredericton.

They have another film, Avarice, in post-production with completion set for May 2007. Greed and its eventual consumption of those who would dance with their temptations is the over-riding theme.  Avarice was shot entirely in Saint John with locations including O'Leary's Pub, Topps Diner, and The Scholars Den Bookstore.

"Saint John is a fantastic place to film, the backdrop, the beautiful structures, and the great support vendors supply in completing our project," said a thankful Doiron.  "Also none of this would be possible without the NB Film Co-op's assistance."

As they anxiously await "the call" these two indie filmmakers are already gaining a growing popularity within the film community. 

"Steve and Blake are the next generation of filmmakers in N.B., level headed and tenacious. They are both Saint John based active members of the NB Film Co-op, and I have no doubt they will succeed because they understand the importance of planning and organization in their filmmaking," said Cat Leblanc, Director of Membership Services, NB Film Co-op.

Jim also did the Cover story for HERE NB on Peter d'Entremont World Peace Film Award winner. Out on April 12

Moncton - N.B. student Video garners National Attention
Canadaeast News Service

A video shot and edited by four students at Moncton High School is getting national attention.

The students were among 10 award winners in Canadian Heritage's annual Racism. Stop It! National Video Competition. About 320 teams submitted entries from across the country, with five winners chosen in the age 12 to 15 category and five in the age 16 to 18 category.

The Moncton High video, entitled Our Differences Make Us Unique, was the only one in Atlantic Canada to be recognized.

"The video is about bringing all races and cultures in our school together," said team member Amanda Chickie.

Chickie, John Crawford, Justin Lirette, and Kyle Conner, are all Grade 12 students in NB Film Co-op Member and Teacher Shima Barrett's media productions class. The winning video, which was originally about 80 seconds long, has been edited down to a 30 second segment, which will be broadcast on national television. In it, students at Moncton High hold up simple pieces of brown cardboard with short phrases on them, things we all have in common, Chickie explains.

© 2007 Telegraph-Journal (New Brunswick)

Fredericton - Gallery Connexion Event
Gallery Connexion is pleased to present David Umholtz, the first in a series of three master printmakers to be exhibited at Gallery Connex over the course of three years.

David Umholtz was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in 1943 and studied art education in Pennsylvania before coming to Canada in 1973. He taught art at the University of Saskatchewan, the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, the University of Manitoba, and the Emily Carr College of Art and Design in Vancouver.

In 1977 Umholtz founded the Moosehead Press in Winnipeg and during the winters he managed the Press and printed lithographs, serigraphs and etchings for himself and for a distinguished list of other Canadian artists. As visiting artist or technical consultant he seems to have been associated with every printmaking institution in Canada, including the Holman Eskimo Co-op.

He has had solo exhibitions from Halifax to Vancouver and in the United States. His work is included in major Canadian collections, including the Canada Council Art Bank, the New Brunswick Art Bank, and the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, as well as the University of New Brunswick.

David Umholtz's studio and home is on Deer Island, NB.

Everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend the artist talk on Friday, April 13 from 6 to 7pm, and to stay afterwards for refreshments and drinks from 7 to 9pm. 

Gallery Connexion is located at 453 Queen Street-Justice Building Annex. Hours of operation: Tues to Fri 12 to 4pm. FREE ADMISSION ALWAYS. T (506) 454-1433 E connex@nbnet.nb.ca www.galleryconnexion.ca

Fredericton - New Brunswick College of Craft and Design
457 Queen Street, Fredericton, NB E3B 5H1 (506) 453-2305

Art on the Town! Join in the celebration as emerging photographers from the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design open their latest
exhibitions Getting to the Point, and Seeing Clearly Tuesday April 10, 2007 from high noon to 1pm at the Centennial Building on King Street in downtown Fredericton. End date: Friday, April 20, 2007.

Oliver Flecknell and Amanda Sullivan are graduating in May from an intensive three-year photography program at NBCCD and are taking their
work out on the town. Flecknell who is currently also exhibiting work at the NBCCD Gallery on Queen Street now presents an exploration of
techniques and mediums: a means to an end. Sullivan chases a similar pursuit: abstracting otherwise common household liquids and transforming them into graphic images.

These artists are the future of what promises to be a vibrant arts community in the province of New Brunswick. Come celebrate this important milestone event.

For more information contact Craig Schneider at 453-2305.

Karen Ruet
Director, The Gallery
New Brunswick College of Craft and Design
457 Queen Street, Fredericton
New Brunswick
E3B 5H1
(506) 457-6805

Fredericton - Directing Docudrama Year-End Screening

Docudrama - is it fact or fiction or something in between?

WHEN: Saturday, April 14, 7pm
WHERE: Tilley Hall, Room 102
Prizes, Refreshments, all Welcome!

The Fredericton Playhouse Presents:

OPEN MIC AND LIVE PERFORMANCE.

Leonard Cohen Open Mic! 

WHERE: James  Joyce Pub  Tuesday, May 15, 2007

WHEN: 6:30pm-7:30pm

With Book and instrument in hand, come and share your enthusiasm for writer, musician and artist Leonard Cohen.

Moderated by award-winning poet Kathy Mac, come and participate in this mad mix of artistic interpretation as you perform your favourite Cohen or Cohen-inspired music or reading.

Throughout the event, Kathy will provide snapshots of this enigmatic, overindulgent, misunderstood and sometimes contentious cultural icon whose popularity shows no signs of diminishing.

The Open Mic will take place in anticipation of the much celebrated Music performance: Blue Engine String Quartet: Songs of Leonard Cohen to take place immediately following the Open Mic at the Playhouse stage at 8PM. (Call 458-8344 for ticket information)

NO CHARGE FOR OPEN MIC

For information, call 459-6212 or amani@theplayhouse.ca

Training

Writing for Television Advanced Workshop a huge hit!

Guest Instructor Matt MacLennan kicked off the NB Film Co-op's NEW Certificate in Film and Television Programme on a high note.

Matt put the 20 workshop participants, most of them certificate students, through their paces with his extensive knowledge of the Television biz in Canada.

To see the workshop schedule for the programme, click here

Questions....email Cat at: info@nbfilmcoop.com

Orientation to the Film Industry with Maggie Thomas
The Orientation to the Film Industry workshop is required for Certificate students to take.

This workshop will introduce applicants to the hierarchy of a film crew environment as well as the principals of proper set etiquette.

The video shown in the workshop visits the set of Shattered City a TV movie of the week filmed in Halifax in 2003. It is about the Halifax Explosion, so it has a sizeable crew, with stunts and special effects, work on water and much more.

Crew members talk about their jobs, what they like about them and how they feel their own jobs contribute to the overall making of a film, the telling of a story. The pyramidal structure of a film crew, the various teams, and how these all interrelate are shown. Complicated organizational aspects of putting it all altogether and safety issues in the work place are covered as well

A hand book accompanies the workshop. ALthough the video concentrates on on-set crew, the handbook covers off set as well.

This is an accredited workshop through IATSE 849

Prerequisite:
None

This is a free workshop but you must register for it to attend. Email Cat at info@nbfilmcoop.com to register.

Background on the Instructor:
Maggie began developing workshops when she was a wardrobe set supervisor in Toronto. Her reasoning was that when new people joined her on the set she did not want to have to teach them the basics or worry about how they were conducting themselves on set or with the actors.

In 1988 she changed careers within the industry and took a course to become Script Supervisor. Then, in 1989 she moved to Nova Scotia where the film industry was beginning to take off. In the early days of the union local, it became obvious that there was a need to train new people in the industry because new people on set were an embarrassment to the union and even a safety hazard.

At the least the union wanted to instil a sense of professionalism amongst all its members. So, with the help of many, but principally Bob Petre from Newfoundland, who was doing the same thing over on the island, Maggie developed a Set Etiquette Workshop.

Four years ago the Executive of IATSE Local 849 agreed that it was important to make the workshop more approachable and entertaining. As a result a video was produced that visited a set and showed a crew at work.

Maggie continues to work in the industry as a Script Supervisor. Most recently she worked on Poor Boy's Game, a boxing story set in Halifax and Pushing Up Daisies a black comedy also set in Nova Soctia about an unusual funeral director and a love affair.

Biz News

Halifax -  Two Minutes to Hell

On a $150 budget, two Halifax upstarts blew away the SXSW competition with a minute and 58 seconds of blood-soaked gore


(By JAMES ADAMS - Globe and Mail Update)

When violence fills the street, there's only one law: his.

The competition was fierce. How could it be otherwise when some of the 300 mini movies you're up against have titles like Cannibal Hookers From Hollywood, Load Bearing Stud and Too Dead to Die?

But two Canadian cineastes blasted 'em all away to win the South By Southwest (SXSW) International Grindhouse Trailer Competition in Austin, Tex., with Hobo with a Shotgun, a one-minute, 58-second masterpiece of double-barrelled mayhem and goofball machismo. ("I want that hobo's head on my wall tonight.")

And the top prize was?

Well, "mostly bragging rights," according to Rob Cotterill, the 34-year-old Haligonian who is originally from New Brunswick, who produced and co-wrote Hobo with his buddy, director Jason Eisener, 24. The whole thing cost them maybe $150, with most of that going toward "videotape, pizza and smokes."

But what bragging rights! The competition was announced barely a month ago on the superhip website aintitcool.com as a sort of cheapo-cheapo promotional vehicle for the movie Grindhouse. Opening commercially next month, it's the much-anticipated collaboration of two of the world's foremost practitioners of the gore-action-comedy "genre," Quentin ( Pulp Fiction) Tarantino and Robert ( Desperado) Rodriguez.

The film's title refers to those seedy seventies-era cinemas that would screen a non-stop flow of Grade B sexploitation, blaxploitation, slasher and zombie films, interspersed with lurid trailers for more of the same.

Grindhouse (the movie) attempts a sort of homage to grindhouse (the experience) in that it features two films, Planet Terror, written and directed by Tarantino, and Death Proof by Rodriguez, bridged by a mess of trailers for non-existent films ( Werewolf Women of the SS and Machete among them).

Rodriguez, who lives in Texas and attended film school in Austin, concocted the trailer contest for this year's SXSW music-and-film festival as a way to let wannabe auteurs like Cotterill and Eisener in on the fun. "The only rule we were given was it had to be two minutes or less," said Cotterill.

The duo began shooting Hobo with a Shotgun the very day the competition was announced, and kept at it for the next five days, usually working from 7 in the morning until 11 at night. Luckily, Cotterill, who has been a first assistant director with Trailer Park Boys for the last two years, and Eisener, who works days in a Halifax comic-book shop, are big fans of the "xploitation" genre, and had already been batting around ideas for a feature called, yes, Hobo with a Shotgun.

"We shot, like, hours and hours of stuff" for the trailer, "and got maybe 15 minutes of awesome material," Eisener observed. "We could do at least two more trailers with what we got. It was heart-breaking to cut it out."

Eisener, in fact, has been making his own movies since he was 15, "all of them pretty much in the horror-action-comedy genre," and in 2005, one of his longer works, the 45-minute The Teeth Beneath, was screened at the Atlantic Film Festival.

Budget-wise, he's a proud do-it-yourselfer, usually relying on friends and acquaintances to function as cast and crew. "I've never gone out and looked for money," he confessed this week. "What I've been doing has been kind of like my own film school. It's the way I'd rather do it. I don't want to get a million dollars, y'know, and, like, screw up. This way, everything I do is for practice."

There's talk that the Eisener & Cotterill mini saga could end up on the DVD of Grindhouse. In the meantime, though, the pair are seriously thinking of making a full-fledged version of Hobo with a Shotgun.

NOTE: Rob Cotterill will be teaching an advanced AD Workshop through the NB Film Co-op's NEW Certificate Programme in Film and Television with another New Brunswick hometown boy - Jason Shipley. To find out more, click here

Alberta Film News

Though it may be migrating out of theatres and into computers, film is the most powerful medium of our time. If you -- you a person, you a people, you a nation -- want to be taken seriously, "you oughta be in pictures."

For a province, or a country, known for its status as hewers of wood, a good movie is the ultimate value-added product. If you have tickets to the Alberta Motion Picture Industry Association Awards show on April 28, you'll assume that former Premier Ralph Klein understands. You'll assume he has always understood. On that night, in the Agricom, Klein will receive the 2007 Friend of the Industry Award.

Your assumptions will be wrong.

In 1996, Klein decided to get out of the film and television business. His decision was selectively ideological. While the natural resource business still required massive public investment, film had to go. In no time, the $150 million industry shrank to $50 million.

It never made sense. Like Alberta itself, film is rich and vast, high-tech and a little bit phoney. A healthy film industry provides a cheap yet effective international marketing opportunity and a clean financial investment with guaranteed returns. Unlike other art forms, like experimental poetry, film is safe for middle-class, even socially conservative, consumption.

Once, not long ago, Alberta was a leader in film and television. The province had momentum, a formula for success. Under Peter Lougheed and Don Getty, Alberta had a well-funded, well-regarded and well-watched provincial television station in ACCESS. From 1981 to 1996, the Alberta Motion Picture Development Corporation (AMPDC) built a thriving film and television industry here. Crews, producers, writers, editors and directors lived in Edmonton and Calgary. They told Alberta stories for locals as well as for national and international audiences.

Then, in 1996, just as the Canadian film industry was expanding, Premier Ralph Klein shut down the AMPDC. The government sold ACCESS for $1 to some Ontarians, who re-launched it as one of the cheapest, most measly television stations in the developed world.

For the most part, the crews, producers, writers and directors left Alberta. Hewing of wood ensued. Of course, this was hardly an election issue. For Klein and the province, it was a financial and social error. But all in all, it was probably a good political move. A few thousand fewer Liberals, give or take, can only refine the Alberta advantage.

Good move or bad, Klein is remembered as the man who destroyed film in Alberta. Many of those who didn't leave are only now, post-Klein, rebuilding their careers here. Again, this is not controversial material. No one is crying for the movie producers. A lot of publicly funded institutions were smashed by the Klein government in the 1990s, so the public at large could enjoy the various pleasures of debt freedom today.

"At the time, when the AMPDC was cut, some people had no choice but to leave the province," says Alan Brooks, executive director of AMPIA. "But we understand it was necessary at the time, to get the province out of debt. And remember, Ralph Klein also brought in the Alberta Film Development Fund." Back in February 1998, then-Science and Research Minister Lorne Taylor stood up in the legislature to say Alberta would institute a tax credit system, rivaling other provinces and American states. He said the industry should receive the sort of boost the government was giving to other industries -- wood-hewing resource-extraction industries like agriculture, forestry and oil and gas.

There was a standing ovation under the dome! Liberals even stood up.

In the end, Taylor couldn't convince his colleagues, or the premier. Perhaps it was the unpleasant image of those standing Liberals. Instead, the Conservatives created a compromise -- the Alberta Film Development Fund.

It sounds good, but since its birth the fund has been a poor competitor with tax credit and development programs in B.C., Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and Manitoba. Until recently, the cap for each Alberta production was $750,000. The rebate program currently maxes out at $1.5 million per production, but the fund itself is limited. It's in a minor growth period now, from $14.85 million to $16.3 million per year, but there are no caps in B.C. and the other Prairie provinces.

Eleven years after Klein killed ACCESS and the AMPDC, and refused to instate a competitive tax credit system, the industry continues to suffer in Alberta. The notion of getting together on April 28, in the Agricom, to pretend it isn't true is, well, classically Albertan. It's a strategy we recognize from other sectors: if all else fails, honour senior members of the Conservative party and hope they'll be more generous in the future. "I'm telling you, in the next year, things will be quite positive," says Brooks.

Of all the cultural industries, film is the most likely to find friends in the Conservative party. Officials with AMPIA and an advisory council have a plan to expand the industry to the $400-million mark, and there are indications that the cabinet is receptive.

Since we're in the realm of the political here, it seems Ed Stelmach would be a slightly less surreal choice for 2007 Friend of the Industry Award. At least he hasn't tried to ruin it.

"No, no, not yet," says Brooks. "That wouldn't be right."

tbabiak@thejournal.canwest.com

Festivals

"COME TO THE 2007 NB SILVER WAVE FILM FESTIVAL, WE WILL BE THERE!" says Alumni Film Co-op member Kevin Matthews and Film Co-op Executive Director Tony Merzetti.

Whether you are a volunteer OR an attendee at the New Brunswick Filmmakers’ Co-operative’s 7th annual Silver Wave Film Festival in 2007, you will have the opportunity to experience and be a part of what has now come to be known as one of the most outstanding events for New Brunswick.

Whether you’re interested in meeting great people, learning about the film and television business, or watching a fantastic collection of films and videos, Get Involved!

DEADLINE FOR FILMS IS AUG 3RD. CONTACT CAT AT INFO@NBFILMCOOP.COM


Register Online to be a Festival Volunteer Today by Clicking Here!

2007 SILVER WAVE FILM FESTIVAL
November 8-11, Fredericton, New Brunswick

- Email Cat at: info@nbfilmcoop.com if you have any questions.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS – FILM AND VIDEO
imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival
TORONTO, CANADA
OCTOBER 17-21, 2007
www.imagineNATIVE.org

The imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival is an international festival that celebrates the latest works by Indigenous peoples on the forefront of innovation in film, video, radio, and new media.  

We are currently seeking features, shorts, documentaries, dramas, comedies, animation by international and Canadian Indigenous filmmakers and producers. We invite all genres and lengths and encourage submissions from first-time and emerging directors. Student films are welcome.

The film and video submissions form is available on our website at http://www.imagineNATIVE.org

Peoples Awards International Short Film Festival (PAIFF)
Greetings from Quito-Ecuador! We want to invite you to participate in The People's Awards International Short Film Festival. Our festival is organized by Fundación Octaedro (www.octaedro.org), a non-for-profit organization based in Quito-Ecuador, whose main objective is the enhancement of the arts and sciences in our country.

Every two years, since 2001, Octaedro organizes The People's Awards Short Film Festival. Our festival's main objective is to bring filmmakers from around the world together with audiences in a unique festival system.
Our festival works as follows:

1) We are the only international short film festival in Ecuador.
2) All short films submitted are shown.
3) Audiences select the best short film through popular election. Audiences give a score (from 1 to 10) to each short film. Whoever gets the highest score, wins.
4) We accept short films both in Spanish and English (subtitled or not)

The winner gets:
US$ 1,000 in cash and a trophy to the best short film. Special mentions to the best short in each category. All filmmakers get a catalog at the end of the festival.
Categories:

1) Documentary
2) Fiction
3) Experimental
4) 1 minute (exact length must be one minute)
5) Animation
6) SMS

Screening format:
To  keep your costs to the lowest, we accept short films in the following screening formats: DVD (NTSC/PAL), SVCD, VCD. DVD (NTSC/PAL) is preferred. The original format can be of any kind.
Maximum length:
15 minutes including credits, except in the '1 minute' category.
Registration fee:
US$ 30 for each film submitted. Each participant will receive by mail a festival catalogue with all the film entries.
Location:

The People's Awards International Short Film Festival will take place in July 2007 in Quito-Ecuador (a Spanish colonial architectural jewel). All screenings take place in our auditorium (60 people capacity).
Dateline:

You have until May 21st, 2007 (postmakerd) to send your short film to
Fundación Octaedro
PO Box 17-17-153
Quito-Ecuador

Submission Guidelines:
For more information, submission form and guidelines please visit: http://octaedro. org/festival/english.htm
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