Category: expecting goodness short film festival
the Scared is scared: Changing Messages
I think the phrase “wisdom from the mouth of babes” is rather fitting here.
I wanted to share this short film because, as it was shared with me, it has a message that somewhat changes… it evolves and becomes something much deeper.
This process is one that, I’m sure, was replicated among our filmmakers and writers as they were crafting their films and their stories. What started off as a simple journey of two animals having a great time at the pool turned into a stance on closure, fear and letting go.
As our artists started their stories, did their message change? Did it grow into something deeper?
Even looking at this film, it’s easy to tell that, for just seven minutes worth of film, it took a lot of people and work to make it come together. Each person involved in the film added their own touch of personality–whether it was in the music, costume design or in the set– and added to the filmmaker’s original design to make it… more. If say, for example, the music had a rockier, harder sound, we might think quite differently about the message of the film. But all of the film’s components came together, meshing with the theme of the story and producing something that we all can think about when times get rough: “the Scared is scared of things you like.”
What will our artists say with their works? And, likewise, what will their works say to us?
Thanks for watching! Don’t forget to get your tickets now before we are completely sold out!
Best,
Alf the Intern
A Great Journey
by Abe Duenas
A lot has taken place since launch night of this festival back in October. Pre-production online meetings, storyboarding, scouting, casting, online meetings with a CGI animator in Brazil and countless other related tasks. As I type this, I will have completed 95% of my principal photography. I know my other fellow filmmakers are just as hard at work crafting their stories. I have heard from the underground com lines that we are all in for a treat come “Premiere Night.” For me, this has been a truly satisfying experience not just because of completing a film, but mostly due to the experiences shared during this voyage. There is Peter, who is my lead, an extremely gifted actor about whom some may say is in the twilight of his career, but has shown me that he is still in his prime.
There is Fabiano and Renato out all the way in Brazil, who have worked tirelessly on creating a character who I thought would have to be played by a folkmani finger puppet. The amount of hours they spent on just one shot dwarfs any other task I had to complete. Working with them has really impressed me how hard artists will work on a labor of love if they believe in the story. There is also Earl from Earl’s Tire here in Gaffney, who willingly allowed me to shoot at his location. Sometimes as artists we feel that the community will not support our work because they don’t always support us with their checkbook. But I appreciate his contribution more than if he would have given this film money. I still cannot believe how perfect the location was for this film. I cannot forget people like Billy, who lent me his Gramophone, or the wonderful ladies of downtown Cowpens antique shops who opened their arms to this film by lending us tons of props, and other passerby people who would give me a good lead on a hard-to-find prop.
Ian, an extremely talented photographer, also helped light my scenes with the always willing Joe and Beau. I can’t forget Jeanette helping out as AC and April– she is like the person in jail who gets you stuff you need. I had the support of Emily and Katherine for the film with their acting. All of these experiences occurred because we simply wanted to tell a story.
Donde Come Uno, Comen Dos, at it’s core, is a film about friendships. I am glad to have been able to come away with many of these because of this project. This will mark my most creatively ambitious film to date. I hope the audience is entertained and I look forward to making new friends come Premiere Night.
The Festival: Eight Weeks and Change Away
Greetings EG Fans!
With the holidays behind us and our festival fast approaching, it’s time to kick our outreach into high gear and share the hard work and vision of our diverse and talented group of filmmakers.
Each week, we want to post a wealth of content from the upcoming films and filmmakers. Clips, pictures from the set, stills and abstracts, and posts from the filmmakers themselves will see their way to the EG Blog, so keep checking in with us each week for updates. We’re also keeping the doors open for guests to write blog posts for us on a wealth of topics related to film and writing, so be sure to contact Alf at Alicia@hubcity.org if you want to be featured on our EG Website Blog.
Tickets for the festival will be going on sale SOON. You can purchase them January 19th (this Saturday!) starting at 6 a.m. for $15. We were completely sold out last year—so expect another sold-out show and get your tickets early!
We hope to see all of our fans on March 23rd! Mark your calendars and Expect Legacies!
Best wishes,
Alf.
THE EPIC SPARTANBURG
For those of you who aren’t familiar with Spartanburg, you should know that it’s quite epic.
Yes, 2011-12 HUB-BUB Artist-in-Residence Steve Snell created the adventure art project THE EPIC SPARTANBURG at the beginning of the year. Steve invited the Spartanburg community to tell him about adventures they’d like to have–adventures that he could capture on film and turn into videos that truly made them look epic.
I (Kari) went out into the woods south of Spartanburg with the mission to build my own shelter for the night. I had never been camping before, so a large part of the challenge for me was the idea of sleeping exposed outside. I was afraid of snakes, of bears, of rain. I won’t tell you what happened, but I will say that it was instantly epic for me, an experience that I will always remember as something that changed me.
Thus was my adventure, and you’re going to have to come to The Showroom on Saturday, Nov. 17 at 7pm to see how epic I and my fellow Spartanburgers became.
So, watch this video and get excited. (And ignore the call for adventures.)
How it’s done
We’re a nonprofit, as you know, which means we often have (and get) to be creative. Well, we did just that Monday night when we held our first-ever livestreamed event to select the filmmakers and stories/writers that would be a part of the 2013 project.
Only the registered filmmakers and writers could watch Stephen, Alf, and I as we drew names to determine the 7 emerging and 7 experienced filmmakers and their selected stories that would make up our project (MEET THEM HERE). We can also now reveal that our surprise 15th filmmaker is Abe Duenas, whom we have invited back as our 2012 Best Film winner for The Widower’s Pearls. (And whoever wins 2013 Best Film will be invited back in 2014.)
We’re thrilled to introduce the 15 filmmakers and 15 writers to you at Launch Night on Saturday, when you can meet them and sign up to help on the films. In the meantime, here’s a look at them by the numbers:
- 6 of the 15 stories are South Carolina Fiction Project winners
- 11 women are in as writers or filmmakers
- 8 of the 30 participants are from Spartanburg
Let’s look at it in map-form, shall we? I think we can safely say 2013 is a statewide film festival. So exciting!
What it’s all about
It’s been an exciting few weeks watching registrations come in for filmmakers from Columbia to Landrum. I’m not lying when I say there’s an audible celebration with each new registration because we love the Expecting Goodness project and want others to love it too.
Register to be a filmmaker and, if selected via lottery, you become part of a community of writers, filmmakers, actors, musicians, artists, and technicians across the state that is invested locally and creatively. Our filmmakers accept the opportunity and challenge of using a story as inspiration for a short film, and then they get to work with the writer through the process. Collaboration. One art form into another. Words into images. It’s a beautiful thing.
There is art for art’s sake, which is valid and wonderful, but that’s not what we’re doing here. We have this project that allows a number of people to take part in a creative process, to make something together, to celebrate our talents and possibilities, to have amazing experiences and make memories and show off our state. It’s art for our sake. Yours, mine, South Carolina’s.
So, register if you’re an emerging or experienced filmmaker. Get involved if you want to be a part of the films, or if you want to volunteer to help. Take part in the art.
Natalia Newcastle tells you how it is
Year two, and we want you
We started talking about the second Expecting Goodness Short Film Festival on its inaugural night, as we celebrated with wine and conversation in the Zarza bar. What had been an experiment had become a success–beyond our thoughts but not beyond our dreams. We immediately started thinking about how we could grow it while maintaining the grassroots feel, the closeness to the films, the showcase of talented writers and filmmakers.
After several months of meetings we settled on making our little one-of-a-kind festival a SOUTH CAROLINA festival: our state’s writers connected with our state’s filmmakers. If the mission was to showcase talent, why not showcase our state’s talent?
So phase one was to find writers and their stories. We reached out to state organizations, schools, and publications for their recent contest winners, and then we reached out to writers across the state to send us their recently-published stories. What we got was 35 stories from writers all across the state: Greenville, Spartanburg, Columbia, Mt. Pleasant, Beaufort, and all over in between. What we got was a treasure of stories for filmmakers to choose from to use as inspiration for a short film this year. What we got was really excited about the whole 2013 project!
And here we go! Filmmaker registration starts one week from tomorrow, September 19, right here. If you’re a South Carolina emerging or experienced filmmaker, we want you in the project. Yes, WE WANT YOU!
The Goodness
Warning: This post will be filled with thanks.
“Who knew?”
That was one of the last things Stephen said to me last night after midnight, after the after-party, after the film festival, after months of preparation, as we locked up The Showroom. Seriously, the Expecting Goodness Short Film Festival was one of the most rewarding nights I’ve had and, hopefully, it was just as rewarding for all of the filmmakers, writers, volunteers, actors, crews, donors, and everyone involved in putting that night and project together.
But, first, you probably want to know the award winners, huh? Here you go!
Best Cinematography (Juried): Jessica Hollingsworth, DOBRA OJCA
Best Editing (Juried): Adam T. Gordon, The Nipper
Best Actor/Actress (Juried): Madison Nulty, The Widower’s Pearls
Best Film (Juried): The Widower’s Pearls (Abe Duenas, director)
Audience Favorite: DOBRA OJCA (Chris White, director)
But thank you and congratulations to all seven filmmakers, their casts and crews: Porter Blackman, Andrew Doughman, Abe Duenas, Adam T. Gordon, Jason Kruczynski, Wade Sellers, and Chris White.
Thank you to all of the writers in Expecting Goodness who trusted their stories in the hands of filmmakers, and especially to the seven writers whose stories were selected: Kathryn Brackett, Susan Tekulve, Thomas McConnell, Norman Powers, Jeremy L.C. Jones, Michel Stone, and Lou Dischler.
Thank you to our amazing host Julie Sexeny, who kept the whole night running smoothly, and whom we love having in Spartanburg. Thank you to our talented, wise judges, Peter Caster, Ray Merlock, and Jeff Sumerel, for taking the time to be a part of this start-up project and supporting these filmmakers in more ways than showed last night.
Thank you AiR Steve Snell for sharing “The Epic Spartanburg” and several of the 18 Heroic (re)Production videos–you were the perfect visual end to the night!
Thank you to AiR Mark Rice for providing the theme song for the night: “11″ by THIT. It was perfect, no? (Come celebrate all of this year’s AiRs during their Exit Show reception on Friday, March 30 from 7-9pm at The Showroom!)
Thank you to our incredible volunteers who make everything we do at HUB-BUB and Hub City Writers Project possible, and especially to our EGSFF Sub-Committee Luke Meagher, Carlee Ormond, and Darryl Harmon–you three made us the best team with your ideas and work along the way. Thank you to Sara Hamilton, Cheryl Mirer, Lyn Radke, Christine Cox, and Maddox for your help last night and all other days and nights (yep, we like you a lot).
Thank you to our executive directors Betsy Teter and Celia Cooksey for your help and support in all ways every day and last night. A special thanks to Betsy, without whom there would have been no Expecting Goodness stories to use as inspiration for these films (and no HUB-BUB, no HCWP, etc.). And to our HubCulture Board Chairwoman Rebecca Ramos for her tireless support of our organization and all we do; no task is too small, no task is too large, and we are all the better to have you as our biggest champion.
Thank you to Aaron Pate, our new best friend, at USC-Upstate Digital Media Services. You’re a magic-maker, and we couldn’t have done it without you. We hope this is the start of a lasting partnership with you and USC-Upstate!
Thank you to Brian and Terry of Ridge Runner Media for filming the whole night after a last-minute request (which y’all will see at the re-screening on April 18), and for all of your past and future enthusiasm for supporting HUB-BUB. Heroes!
Thank you to our donors BB&T, Carolina Auction Team, Don Finkell, Security Finance & Susan Bridges, whose generous support made the festival possible because, though we like to forget this fact, big ideas and projects like this actually cost money.
Thank you to our local businesses Zarza, Venus Pie Pizzeria, The Urban Planter, Blue Moon Sauces, Little River Coffee Bar, and Fairytale Treats for supporting this local event–we have so much to be proud of here in Spartanburg!
Thank you to everyone who came last night, who filled every seat in The Showroom, who told your friends about the festival, who said I believe in the arts in Spartanburg and South Carolina by taking a chance on this brand new project. You make us SO PROUD, Spartanburg!
And, though I’m writing this on behalf of all of us organizers, three cheers for Stephen Long and his vision for The Showroom, for his patience along the way with my obsessiveness, for his technical prowess with lighting, sound, and design, and for his endless passion for what HUB-BUB and this town can do.
Oh, and to Honorary Golden BUB recipient Josh Foster! You weren’t expecting that were you, Josh? We like surprises. And especially surprise honors to a man who had this little idea for a film festival, shared his idea, and helped make it happen in so many ways. Josh is proof that if you have a vision, and you share it, it can come true. You are golden, Josh, and we’re so lucky to have you in Spartanburg.
I told you there would be a lot of thanks. Needless to say, it was a pretty darn good night. The start of a new tradition. The making of new relationships. The celebration of our talented and enthusiastic community.
And if you missed out, come by HUB-BUB and get your $5 ticket to the April 18 re-screening. You will want to see these seven films, which I’m sure will have lives beyond this festival.
Last night was all goodness. And I’m expecting more in the years to come with this project.
Yours,
Kari
PS We know many of you were taking photos last night–please share with us! Email to kari@hubcity.org or post to our Facebook page. Thanks!
And here’s the video that kicked off the festival, just in case you were still wondering how it all came together and what it all means.
