A lliance
Serving the West Michigan film community Since 2005!
Volume I Issue I
Fall 2015
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Celebrating 10 Years!
You only have $50 in your pocket, but you want to make that film... It’s time to join the WKTV Cinema Guild. Workshops and Training
Taught by two of West Michigan’s pre-eminent filmmakers and veteran communicators, Girbe Eefsting and Barbara Roos. The WKTV Cinema Guild not only gives you the tools, but also the training and the camaraderie so important to your storytelling needs.
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WKTV. Just look inside, because it is a true story.
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CONTENTS Deb’s Desk
Thoughts from the WMFVA President.
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Paul Schrader
The Visiting Film Artists Series inaugural guest dishes on the business of filmmaking.
West Michigan Film Video Alliance Celebrates 10 Years!
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Bright Lights
We shine the spotlight on West Michigan’s most interesting creatives, up close and personal; with a tribute to Chuck Peterson.
Eclipse Award Changes
New Governor’s Board members act quickly to change judging process for Eclipse Awards.
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Welcome to the WMFVA magazine, Alliance, created to promote filmmakers and filmmaking in West Michigan. To some of you out there who don’t know us, this may seem like a strange time to launch a publication with a filmmaking focus. After all, on July 10, Governor Snyder officially declared the Michigan film incentive program a dead duck while at the same time proclaiming that “we support creativity and innovation in our state.” The film incentives came into being in 2008 with the support of every legislator, save one, as an alternative to a sagging auto industry that had all but destroyed Michigan’s economy. There was much concern, and rightly so, about depending on one major industry for jobs, as assembly lines continue to shrink and the digital tech alternatives of the Information Age continue to expand – appealing especially to young creatives who will lead in the 21st century. Nothing is different except the political leadership and the makeup of our termlimited legislature; that changed our world, underscoring the irony of short-term strategies for long-term transformation. In contrast, 10 years ago, members of the film and production community united to form the West Michigan Film Video Alliance as the declaration that our industry exists and we are committed to growing it here. We are now presented with the new opportunity to create the future we want to see here. In 2015, the WMFVA celebrates its tenth year with new initiatives that renew our declaration of intent – the film industry will take hold here. Our industry isn’t based on mega-giant studios. We are Indie land, and we have the great filmmakers to prove it. We also have lots of needs we can’t depend on the legislature to fulfill. That’s where Alliance leadership steps in. We promised you initiatives to support our indie filmmakers, and here they are: a new seed grant; a new promotional thrust that now includes this magazine, a new podcast, and a film hub in the works; and new partnerships with Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts (UICA), the Grand Rapids Community Media Center (GRCMC), WKTV Community Media, and the West Michigan Film Office. These partnerships yield new membership benefits, a new grant to create a Visiting Film Artist Series that features Paul Schrader as our first guest, and a new Board of Governors for the ever-growing Eclipse Awards. You can be part of these initiatives that will eventually force our politicians to acknowledge the economics we represent…or not. You choose. We have, and we’re moving on. The one sad note has been the loss of one of our key founding members, Chuck Peterson. Read the tribute to him in this magazine to get how instrumental he was in all we have achieved so far. At the same time, it’s clear this organization has grown well beyond the dreams of its founders. We truly have become community based. My thanks to our current Board of Directors, who boldly stepped up to the challenges of the future represented by all our initiatives and especially this magazine. And special thanks to our members who have never given up the dream the WMFVA represents. We’re all here for the long game–let’s play!
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In memory of Chuck Peterson 1960 - 2015
Best,
Deb Havens
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From Deb’s Desk
WMFVA Mission
To promote a thriving film and video production community in West Michigan.
Board of Directors Deb Havens Monica Sparks Stephen M. Paulsen Eddie Tadlock Krystn Madrine Victoria Mullen Alex Chodakowski
Publisher
Deb Havens Board Chair, WMFVA
Contributors
Deb Havens Writer Victoria Mullen Writer and Copy Editor
Photo Credits
Monica Sparks Chelsea Sokolowski Jessica D. Cowles Jeffry Wilson Krystn Madrine G.B. McNiel Alliance has been created by Norwood Evans Productions: Creative Director/Editor Krystn Madrine Graphic Design Brynne Cohen-Dodge
Visiting Film Artist Series
UPCOMING
WMFVA and UICA Welcome Oscar-Winning Filmmaker Paul Schrader See page 6 for more information.
25-27 22
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SEPTEMBER
WKTV Digital Cinema classes begin ArtPrize on Screen
OCTOBER
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Waterfront Film Festival joins ArtPrize
Eclipse Award 2016 Entries Accepted
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Online at www.TheEclipseAward.org
NOVEMBER
ArtPrize in Grand Rapids September 23 thru October 11
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Mosaic Film Experience
WM New Directors Panel: Future Filmmakers
WMFVA Presents‌ with the WMFO
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Cellphone Cinema Workshop with Peter Johnston at the Mosaic Film Festival
Open Projector Night
WMFVA/UICA Screening at UICA Theater
WMFVA Board Nominations
9
DECEMBER
WMFVA Town Hall
Awards, Elections, 2016 Plans Announced
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Visiting Film
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IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hitting the Mother Lode of Cinematic Wisdom—a Conversation with Paul Schrader “I saw a bright-yellow taxi floating through the sewers. There was a young man inside. People were all around him, but he was alone, in the depths of misery. My life was so messed up at that time, and I realized that if I didn’t write down this dream, I would become that man.”
The speeding bullet The year was 1968, and Paul Schrader was in a “bullet-leaving-the-gun” frame of mind. He was 21 years old, a fresh graduate of Calvin College, and he couldn’t wait to blow out of conservative Grand Rapids where, back in the ’60s, mowing one’s lawn on a Sunday was certain to draw puckering glares of disapproval from the neighbors. Schrader’s family belonged to the Calvinist Christian Reformed Church, which, in 1928, had made its first official declaration on the topic of “worldly amusements.” The CRC warned its devotees against the amusements of dancing, theater attendance—which included watching films—and card playing. It wasn’t until the late 1970s that the church lightened up, and Calvin College allowed social dancing by students on its campus. By then, Schrader was long gone. During his time in Grand Rapids, Schrader challenged oppression at every turn. “I got interested in film because it was forbidden by the CRC,” he says. “I became coeditor of Calvin’s student newspaper, Chimes, and started a program screening European art films under the radar. Friendly professors led Q&As afterwards, and I reviewed the films in Chimes.”
The unregulated venture brought in some money. Schrader and his friends weren’t authorized to show films, but the money had to go somewhere, so Schrader pocketed the proceeds. By his junior year, the program was so successful, it became a weekly event, filling Calvin’s 300-seat auditorium. “By the end of my junior year, the administration was forced to deal with it, so they approved the creation of a film council with the stipulation that I couldn’t be on it,” says Schrader. Editorials in Chimes blasted the Board of Trustees for barring a black comedian from campus, and the paper printed the addresses of the Trustees. The staff of Chimes refused to apologize, and the Publications Committee called the paper “un-Christian in tone.” “We had an audacious goal,” says Schrader. “If we didn’t get this student newspaper shut down by 1968, we weren’t doing our job.” When the school demanded the resignation of editor Jeannine Oppewall, Schrader’s girlfriend, he resigned in protest. The paper was shut down. Undaunted, Schrader and other students fired up another, left-wing newspaper, Spectacle. Short on funds, the venture suffered an early demise. “The beauty of Calvin College is that it didn’t take much to go rogue,” Schrader says. “It was an exciting year.” There were repercussions. Schrader graduated “under a cloud.” His time at Calvin—or, more specifically, what he had done with his time there—had so angered the administration that he was not allowed to attend his own graduation. His parents were disappointed. He was not.
A chance encounter Between his junior and senior years, Schrader lived in New York City and
By Victoria Mullen
A rt i s t s S e r i e s
took film courses at Columbia University. He watched films all day, every day. He also read film reviews, especially those by The New Yorker film critic, Pauline Kael, whom he admired. Schrader brought a book by Kael with him to a bar one evening, and a random encounter changed his course in life. “A guy sitting close by engaged me in conversation about the book and mentioned that his father knew Pauline. He asked would I like to meet her. So, I met Pauline, we talked and talked, she took me under her wing, and I became one of her ‘Paulettes,’ which is what her protégés were called. She got me a job at the LA Times as a film critic. Pauline was my ticket to UCLA grad school. It was pure serendipity.” While studying film at UCLA, Schrader also worked for the left-wing LA Free Press as a film critic. Perhaps panning the 1969 film, Easy Rider, wasn’t the best idea; the editor fired him. Schrader next wrote for a film magazine and began writing a book for the University of California Press, which combined his interest in film with his theological background. He also became a member of the first-year class at the American Film Institute (AFI).
Things fall apart LA fueled Schrader’s rebellious spirit, and he was ordered to leave AFI after demanding that the president resign. “I also broke up with my wife, and Pauline dropped me around this time, too. She wanted me to move to Seattle to critique films there, but I didn’t want to leave LA. So, I lost my marriage, my job, lost both film schools, I was broke, and I had no place to live. I drifted around a bit and picked up a gun by that time. I was in a very dark place.” He was 26. Schrader found shelter in porn theatres, where he was allowed to spend the
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V isiting F ilm A rtist S eries : P aul S chrader
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night. He had a horrible pain in his stomach, and doctors diagnosed a bleeding ulcer. In the hospital, Schrader realized that he hadn’t spoken to another human being in over a month. Then he dreamed about the bright yellow taxi. “I had a key to an old girlfriend’s house, crashed there, and wrote the script for Taxi Driver as self-therapy. The writing went very quickly.” Schrader drifted around the country to restore his mental health. His brother, Leonard, who lived in Japan, wrote Schrader a very long letter about the Japanese gangsters called the Yakuza. “At the time, Bruce Lee had just died, so we thought we could use a new martial arts guy and that maybe he could be Japanese.”
Those were the days
The traditional Hollywood film studio system was imploding. In its place, a New Hollywood generation of film directors emerged, making films that expressed their personal vision and creative insights. Schrader was in the thick of it.
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His first agent, “just a guy I knew who represented Captain Kangaroo,” underwrote the Schrader brothers’ living situation while they wrote the script for the 1975 neo-noir gangster film, Yakuza. A bidding war drove the price up, and the script sold for $325,000 (a record for the time). It was Schrader’s very first script, and suddenly, he was on the map. “I made the trade papers, I was the guy of the month. From there, I worked like crazy writing scripts. I met and played chess with Brian De Palma and mentioned my
script for Taxi Driver. He read it. I was part of the film brat generation—Coppola, Spielberg, De Palma, Kaufman—that was the generation I was in, and we were hustling our careers.” Schrader came back to Grand Rapids briefly to shoot the opening scenes of his 1979 film, Hardcore, about a young girl who runs away from her conservative home to become a porn star in California. In his March 12, 1978, interview, Paul Schrader: Hard Core, Roger Ebert wrote, “Schrader returned to his hometown to shoot scenes in churches, a school and a small, white frame house. He used the temporary title Pilgrim because he doubted that Grand Rapids would much take to the title Hard Core [sic]. After the week in Grand Rapids, though, the film moved to California and underwent the quickest title change—to Hard Core— you’ve ever seen.” “I was fortunate in that my generation was socially, artistically, and commercially active,” Schrader says. “Many interesting films were made between the 1950s and 1980s. We had an audience, films were being made every week, and they were huge successes.” “Those days are gone,” says Schrader. “Films are not in a transition period anymore; they are in continual transition. We’ll never see a box that isn’t outdated.” But Schrader believes there are some upsides to new technology. For example, Tangerine is getting a lot of good buzz as the first project filmed completely on an iPhone and shown on the big screen. “I haven’t seen it yet, but I plan to,” says Schrader. Yet those technological changes have wreaked havoc on the business of movie making. “Film has become unyoked from the capitalistic paradigm. Film is like poetry, music, art. Now you can make films and make no money; now you can make films nobody sees. What percentage of paintings or songs makes a profit for their creators? That’s the downside of being unyoked from the old paradigm.
“Movies are edging their way toward that economic paradigm. The big studios are trying to loot the bank before the Titanic sinks. They know what’s going to happen. A new system is being born—Netflix, Amazon, etc.—and nobody knows yet how that’s going to work.” From Schrader’s vantage point, studio films have become unimportant for message or cultural impact. “I was born in the sweet spot of history and have lived a very exciting, comfortable life. But that world is over. At that time, films were at center of the cultural debate, and that means everything. Films were discussed and made. The reason film is no longer important is that the audience does not want to see them.”
A tough biz to crack Against the odds, some emerging filmmakers do capture the attention of the film world— take, for example, Joel Potrykus’s film,
Visiting Film Artist Series Premiere Event - Paul Schrader Thursday 9.3.15 @ UICA
4pm
Press panel, film screening with Q & A by Mr. Schrader
Reception with local craft beer/wine/appetizers
7pm
$15 for screening and reception $10 for UICA and WMFVA members WMFVA Premier members enter free
Friday 9.4.15 @ UICA
9am
Workshop for student and professional filmmakers
for workshop participants
12pm Luncheon with Mr. Schrader Tickets for the workshop and lunch are $85 and are available online at the UICA Guest Services.
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It takes a high degree of excellence to distinguish oneself, and networking can be daunting. Schrader says that connecting with a favorite director on Facebook is not so easy, although that is precisely how Potrykus first made contact with Schrader. “I ignored his first message,” says Schrader. “He sent me another message. I ignored it, too. Then I read about Buzzard in a trade paper and saw that he was from Grand Rapids. I thought maybe I should watch it. It’s a smart, serious film.” With very few exceptions, Schrader ignores emails sent from his website. “Occasionally I’ll answer somebody if they pique my curiosity with their intelligence or say something smart.” Schrader is not optimistic about the future of filmmaking. He says that his past achievements don’t make his current life as a filmmaker any easier. “I’ve become part of the emeritus generation,” he says. “There’s nobody left between my generation and the edge of the cliff. Some of us are very industrious. I’m in touch with Scorsese; I’m still able to
Schrader recently scouted locations for a crime film he’s making in Cleveland with Nicholas Cage. After that, plans are in the works for a more personal film starring Ethan Hawke. “I’m merely on the speculation side of things—I write and try to sell. I’ve worked that way all my life. An agent gets your name out there, he tries to sell and help package the scripts. Most often one needs to attach something to a script, like a big-name actor and equity money. “A film like Taxi Driver doesn’t get filmed until it is totally packaged. Taxi Driver hit the perfect storm—great script, great package, great timing.”
No hard feelings Schrader says he doesn’t hold a grudge against Grand Rapids. “My life has moved
on. I have relatives in Muskegon, but my parents are dead, so I don’t get back there much.”
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“There are hundreds of film festivals all over the world, but competition gets tougher each year as festivals receive an increasing number of entries,” says Schrader. “Some receive thousands of entries and show perhaps 100 films.”
work, albeit with setbacks. I must make allowances for the economics.”
In 1988, Schrader’s father participated in the effort to block Last Temptation of Christ— for which Schrader wrote the screenplay—from being shown in Grand Rapids. The effort succeeded.
“After he died, I discovered that he had collected videotapes of all my films,” Schrader says. “The packages were still unwrapped. My father was proud of me, but he wouldn’t watch my films. “The fact that you can’t go home is tied to the fact that you can’t really leave.” Victoria Mullen is an actor, artist, attorney, photographer, and writer based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
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Buzzard, which has won numerous film festival awards and has favorable write-ups in The New Yorker, Indiewire, New York Times, and other publications.
Schrader’s Advice for West Michigan Filmmakers
“Sooner or later, you have to get yourselves closer to the bank—and the banks are in LA and NYC,” Schrader says. “That’s where the capital is, it’s where the competition is. It is possible to break out from smaller cities because of the technology—Grand Rapids is no longer a backwater; it’s the cultural capital of the state now, and there’s a lot of energy—but eventually, you’ll have to elbow your way into the room with a very tough crowd, most of whom have sharper teeth and sharper elbows than you do. That’s what gets you in the room. Talent is what keeps you there. “Filmmakers must strive to be excellent and different. There are far too many people who are similar.”
C e l e b r at i n g By Deb Havens and Krystn Madrine
ive F g n i d n u o F e Th Celebrate 10!
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10 Y e a r s !
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n January 23, 2015, the WMFVA officially kicked off celebration of its tenth anniversary year.
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he SpeakEZ Lounge in Grand Rapids was shut down to all but WMFVA that night – and the place was packed! SpeakEZ staff had concocted special Film Industry Signature beverages to be distributed free to attendees. Along with the neverempty platters of food the staff kept coming all night, the atmosphere was warm, friendly, and fun.
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ounding board members Ed DeJong, Deb Havens, Paul LaVigne, Chuck Peterson, and Harper Philbin were reunited for the evening, flashing the 10-finger sign that symbolized 10 amazing years had gone by (at left).
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ittle did anyone know this would be the last official occasion that they would all be together. Chuck succumbed to cancer a few months later. But that night, all was good. The WMFVA had survived tough times and the feeling was there – the legacy would continue.
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ertain rituals remain intact, whatever the changes over the years. New board members who had been elected at the first WMFVA Town Hall meeting in December 2014, Krystn Madrine, Monica Sparks, and Ken Miguel-Cipriano, bid farewell to departing board members Kim Crozier, Liz Merriman, Gabriel Del Castillo and Dawn Butler, party impresario. Each time board members come and go, the Alliance gets a stronger foundation, new ideas, a kick in the proverbial pants when necessary.
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o it’s always good news, bad news when we say farewell to the people whose blood and brains kept life in the organization in order to welcome the new transfusion.
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he Alliance legacy is not merely the trust of the 50 board members of the West Michigan community who have served to date; the many sponsors and supporters who have stepped up over the years to fund various events, seminars, and publications have helped keep the unique voice of the film and production industry alive and well.
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ell done, West Michigan. On to the next 10 years and a flourishing indie film and production industry – they said it couldn’t or wouldn’t be done. But our experience proves otherwise. The right people are always there at the right time to lead with what we need.
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s it too much to say the Universe nods approvingly?
West Michigan Film Video Alliance is 10!
The Reviews Are In!
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n behalf of the Michigan Film Office, congratulations on 10 years of service to the film and video industry in West Michigan.
Margaret O’Riley, then-director, Michigan Film Office
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ow as we recognize your tenth anniversary, we compliment the WMFVA for helping to support the growth of our crew base and the constant training and networking your association provides. We continue to view the Alliance as a partner as we go forward with growing the film and production industry for the west side of our state
Rick Hert, Film Commissioner, West Michigan Film Office
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our willingness to dedicate yourselves to broadening appreciation for film as an art form and a powerful tool for economic diversity here in West Michigan is inspiring to us all.
George Heartwell Grand Rapids Mayor
Bright Lights West Michigan’s film industry is full of interesting and engaging people, using their vision and creativity to bring their projects to fruition. This series will shine a bright light onto the people we see as key movers and shakers in our industry, and bring into focus the determination and perseverance it takes to be an accomplished artist in the film world today. This time, we are featuring Eclipse award winners such as Michael McCallum (Best Narrative Feature), Thom Bell (Best Documentary) and Marie Ullrich (Best Director) because of the wonderful work they are doing in West Michigan.
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e is an award-winning director/writer/ actor/editor born in Lansing, where he currently resides. He started acting in 1997 and began his film company, Rebel Pictures, in 1999. The filmmaker boasts some pretty impressive stats.
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ltogether, the 11 films Rebel Pictures has made have won 49 major awards, been nominated for 83 awards and were accepted into 92 film festivals state-wide, nationally, and internationally.
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cCallum’s first feature film as a writer and director, Fairview St., premiered in January 2009 at Celebration Cinema, in Lansing, to sell-out crowds. The film was accepted into 28 film festivals nationally, played in 12 different states, and won 15
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Filmography
Fairview St. (2009, feature) Handlebar (2010, feature) Lucky (2011, feature) Buffalo (2014, feature) major awards. It also played and won awards at festivals in India and Australia. Fairview St. is the most awarded and nominated true independent feature film made in Michigan.
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n addition to filmmaking and film acting, he is also an accomplished theater performer. He stepped back onto the stage in 2009 and played “Nickles” in J.B. and was the assistant director for Dying City, both shows with Capitol Theatre Works in Lansing.
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e most recently took on the iconic role of Stanley Kowalski in Lansing Community College’s 2015 production of A Streetcar Named Desire.
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is second feature as a writer/director, Handlebar, premiered at Celebration Cinema in February 2010 and was accepted into its first 13 film festivals and won five awards. Lucky, his third feature, premiered in March of 2011 to sell-out crowds, again at Celebration Cinema in Lansing. Accepted into its first eight film festivals, Lucky won a major award at each one.
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cCallum and his Rebel Pictures team just released their fourth feature film, Buffalo. He was excited to work, again, with his talented father, William C. McCallum, who plays the lead role. They also wrote the film together. Buffalo won Best Narrative at the 2015 Eclipse Awards. ut wait. There’s more. McCallum starred as Jay Calder in the web series, Lucky Jay, produced by Grand Valley State University for its 20th Anniversary summer film.
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: It always comes down to concept versus schedule versus budget. It doesn’t matter where I am or what I am shooting, it comes down to those three things for me. Shooting in an area that is open to something being created is a positive and makes it easier. I had more of a struggle when I first started because I had nothing to show what I was capable of. I’ve been making films since ’99 and now have a body of work that can help do the talking for me when discussing casting, use of music in a film, or a location’s use. It’s always a battle, and I make mistakes, just new ones thankfully.
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ecently, McCallum released a string of award-winning short films, Shadowpuppet, Slow Burn, Small Town Fireworks and Sure Thing. He was also awarded Michigan Independent Filmmaker Of the Year 2012 and was asked to direct the Production Workshop for the last two years at the Grand Rapids Film Festival.
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Q&A
: What draws you to filmmaking in West Michigan?
: I love the opportunity to get out of my comfort zone. I primarily shoot in the Lansing area and love it, but it’s a nice change of scenery to shoot in West Michigan. I feel a lot of love and support here. It is refreshing, rejuvenating, and tells me I’m on the right track with what I’m creating and who I’m collaborating with. : When it comes to creating films here, what are your biggest challenges? Your solutions?
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: Future goals?
: I want to continue to make the work that I want to make, and collaborate with like-minded and talented people that truly love celebrating the talent, businesses, music and flavor that only the Mitten provides. I’ve been blessed to have worked with some of Michigan’s best and brightest, and I hope to continue to reach a wider audience and still keep my integrity, patience and joy in that work. It’s a struggle, but a beautiful thing comes from that struggle. That work and those friends are honed through fire, and the real ones last the tests of time.
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atch and purchase McCallum’s works at www.rebelpictures.net.
Deanna Morse
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Potrykus
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riter and director Joel Potrykus, resident of Grand Rapids, formed the film band Sob Noisse in 2005. His film Buzzard (SXSW, 2014) is the final installment in his Animal Trilogy, following the 2010 Super 8 short Coyote, and the 2012 feature film Ape (winner of Best Emerging Director, Locarno Film Festival). He just wrapped on his most recent feature, slated for a 2016 release. Along with production, Potrykus is a film critic for VideoHound.
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: What draws you to filmmaking in West Michigan?
: Filmmaking in West Michigan allows for freedom. It’s easy to get away with things, and shoot off any industry radars. People are willing to help, and they understand that you’re trying something different. Filmmaking doesn’t need to exist solely in LA or New York. My management company is based in LA, and they’re totally cool with me staying here.
Filmography
Gordon (2007, short) Coyote (2010, short) Ape (2012, feature) Buzzard (2014, feature)
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: When it comes to creating films here, what are your biggest challenges? Your solutions?
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: My original challenge was just to get support from the film office and a certain tourism board. I thought they could help us reach a new audience. I got over that. Once we started to take Ape around to festivals, I realized that our biggest supporters may not necessarily be in Michigan. I fight the term “local film.”
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: Future goals?
: I’m going to just keep making features, stepping up the scale a little bit at a time. I plan on directing Transformers 16 when I’m 80.
eanna Morse is an inter-media artist, primarily working with thousands of images frame-by-frame to create experimental animation. Her diverse works have screened internationally and are represented in permanent collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. She has also created animations for Sesame Street.
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orse was recently an Artist in Residence at Everglades National Park and The Studios of Key West, both in Florida. An Emerita Professor of Film and Video Production in the School of Communications at Grand Valley State University, Morse serves on the board of ASIFA International, the largest and oldest international animation organization. She teaches animation workshops to children through ASIFA and the Community Media Center.
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: What draws you to filmmaking in West Michigan?
: For me, one of the best things about being here is that we are a community. So many folks in our media family are eager to celebrate the spirit of collaboration and honor the tenacity, perseverance and talent that surrounds us. We congratulate our peers on their
Eclipse Award 2015
Hyperion Award, 1st winner for Community Leadership in Film Production.
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successes. That’s not the case in many regions. We’re lucky to be here.
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: When it comes to creating films here, what are your biggest challenges? Your solutions?
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: My biggest challenge is seeing the types of films that I make: independent and experimental animation short art films. I am able to do that by attending international festivals, and through my participation in the Ann Arbor Film Festival, held every March on the other side of the state.
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: Future goals?
: I continue to work as an animation artist. I have been invited to be an artist in residence at an arts center on the National Register of Historic Places for the fantasy architecture, also called Mayan Revival. It should be a great environment for research and creating new work!
n Wednesday, July 10, Governor Rick Snyder signed legislation that officially ended Michigan’s film incentive program. Snyder said in a news release, apparently with no sense of irony, “It’s important that we support creativity and innovation in our state, and we’ll continue to have a Michigan Film Office (MFO) to assist moviemakers and production staff.” Fighting an uphill battle against the legislation and the rhetoric that fueled the political stampede was the new appointee to the post of MFO leadership, 28-year-old Jenell Leonard, whose own husband, Republican Tom Leonard, in his second term as a State Representative and Speaker Pro Tempore in the Michigan House, voted in favor of killing the film incentives.
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efore Leonard’s appointment, three different directors have seen the MFO wracked by continuing political controversy over the last five years. Leonard assumed her office in February 2015 with no background in film, but plenty of experience in the political world. She was previously the director of external and strategic affairs for Lt. Gov. Brian Calley, where she worked on administrative initiatives like the New International Trade Crossing and served as legislative staff in the Michigan House of Representatives. Leonard has a bachelor’s degree in communications and a master’s degree in public administration, and experience dealing with Michigan legislators.
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ince Leonard’s appointment, the MFO has released the 2015 Strategic Plan as she puts it, “a framework to help sustain the MFO and foster economic growth of Michigan’s indigenous creative industries.” She has her work cut out for her. Do we support her and efforts to build the film industry here? Or do we rake her over the coals for being young, a political
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appointee, and a newcomer to the film world she has the budget to fight for? Leonard made the following comments before the governor killed the program, so don’t read for solutions. Read for energy and commitment. She has that. We’re on her side, which we perceive to be our side as well.
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Q&A
: What are your biggest challenges? Your solutions?
: From listening to various film and creative industry members from West Michigan and across the state, the most common challenge I hear surrounds the issue of sustainability, especially as it relates to the end of the incentive program. That is why, upon taking this position, I wanted to learn from as many of the industry members as possible to know what the MFO does well, what areas we can improve upon and what we can do to help stabilize the industry, separate from the incentive discussions. The result has been the creation of the MFO’s 2015 Strategic Plan. We have a limited timeframe by which to implement the recommendations laid forth. I hope to partner with as many film and creative industry members as possible to ensure the recommendations become a reality.
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: Future goals?
:My overall goal in this position is to ensure that Michigan’s indigenous industry is supported and that the MFO serves in a way that helps foster the economic growth of the film and creative economy.
Leonard
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Member Spotlight:
Thom Bell
Eclipse Award Winner & Film Premier Member The WMFVA congratulates Thom Bell (pictured, in hat) for joining us as our very first Film Premier member. Bell is founder and owner of BPSVideo, an independent production company located in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He is also a skilled producer, editor and project consultant working primarily as a DP for producers, ad agencies, production companies, and corporate marketing/communications departments creating content as diverse as TV show segments, commercials and documentaries, product and lifestyle pieces with clients who are just as diverse: Priority Health, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Herman Miller, GE Aviation, Amway, PBS’s Religion and Ethics Weekly, The Colbert Report, and Lifetime channel’s Designing Spaces. Thanks for your support!
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Q&A
: What draws you to filmmaking in West Michigan?
: I’m drawn because I live here and there is a great opportunity to be a part of a growing film community. After getting the opportunity to be in the business in other places, it became obvious that once you get the training needed to do high quality work, you can do this craft anywhere. The technology is now ubiquitous; what you need is a creative community. For my purposes, raising a family and having the opportunity to make contributions to a professional community, living and working in West Michigan fits well. The creative community here is vibrant, talented, welcoming and getting better all the time. As a producer and a documentarian, I’m drawn to content more than drama, and working here provides me with most of the resources necessary.
Marie Ullrich
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: When it comes to creating films here, what are your biggest challenges? Your solutions?
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: As someone who is attempting to create content, my biggest challenge is access to distribution. This includes access to distribution professionals and outlets but also access to the education that is necessary to take advantage of the changes in content distribution. My solution to that challenge is incomplete. I’ve spent time in LA doing education events and in networking with regional producers that have similar aspirations. It seems to me that this is a growth opportunity for every filmmaking community – the development of distribution strategies that leverage the uniqueness of regional content developers to a higher profile status.
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: Future goals?
long with the commonly shared industry challenge of moving into the next camera technology, my current goals involve finishing a current documentary project about the discovery of a stone in Minnesota with a medieval runic inscription, getting the Michigan Relics piece into distribution and growing the content available through the EyeWonder Media website. (www. eyewondermedia.com) I’m motivated to get those projects wrapped up and delivered because there are a few other projects waiting in the wings!
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arie Ullrich is an award-winning writer and director of narrative films. Her first feature film, The Alley Cat, won the Chicago Award at the 50th edition of the Chicago International Film Festival in October, 2014, and continues to win awards and play at juried festivals internationally. Upcoming screenings are posted to www.thealleycatfilm.com and information about streaming or purchase will be available there when deals are finalized.
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llrich’s short film Faster! burst onto the scene making its world premiere and international premiere in the same week, at the Chicago International Film Festival and the British Film Institute’s London Film Festival. The film is distributed by Shorts International and is available on both iTunes and Amazon Instant Video for download or streaming.
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llrich was a freelance Art Director and Associate Producer on nationally distributed films, nationally broadcast television series, webisodes, commercials, animation, and live events before returning to school for an MFA in Film Writing and Directing at Columbia College Chicago. She teaches Film and Video at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan.
Filmography
The Alley Cat (2014) The White Bag (2014, Short) Disappearing France (2011, Docu short) Faster! (2010, Short) Cache (2008, Short) Counting Control (2007, Short)
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Peterson
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huck 19602015
A Tribute to a Bright Light That Went Out Too Soon
at a long, U-shaped table arrangement. Out of that meeting, Chuck signed on to create what became the Film Alliance. He was the director of GRTV at the time and made sure there was always meeting space for us at the GRCMC offices.
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huck was a passionate defender of the citizen’s voice. He had worked for two decades to build the Grand Rapids Community Media Center. His production company, Chuck Films, gave generous breaks to other nonprofits struggling to balance budgets and gain exposure. He insisted that the Film Alliance offer a list serve that was free to everyone in the community rather than just WMFVA members. He pushed for student membership rates and lived the example of mentoring production rookies into veterans.
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huck Peterson, one of the founders of the WMFVA, died Wednesday, June 11, 2015. I know I’m not the only one who felt a huge sense of loss at his passing, for he was a huge contributor to many lives personally as well as professionally – in fact, it’s highly likely that anyone who knew him professionally came to have a great relationship with him personally.
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don’t remember exactly when I met Chuck, but it must have been April 15, 2004, when we had the first meeting to organize a film and production industry in West Michigan. Dirk Koning, founder of the Grand Rapids Community Media Center, had graciously granted rent-free use of the conference room at the Wealthy Theater. Every seat was filled
t the same time, he brought to the board knowledge and experience with nonprofit organizational structure and leadership. He readily supported the need for bylaws, fiscal responsibility, and board member integrity. Before you could buy websites online, he worked with vendors to create the WMFVA website and membership system that was a remarkable innovation – no one else in the state had anything like it. He
served as WMFVA treasurer for many years, and a term as chair when I asked him to give me a break – he didn’t seek it otherwise.
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huck left the board in 2011 after seven years of direct leadership. He continued to serve as webmaster for several years afterward. He was passionately devoted to his family, proud of his children, and crazy about his wife. When he found he had stage four esophageal cancer, he began a blog detailing his treatment and his response to the challenges he faced. He wrote gracefully, honestly, and with a sense of humor that is so much the best of being human. That never changed, even when he learned the cancer had returned and would eventually kill him.
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f you knew Chuck, you are filled with great memories of the times with him and deeply saddened by a world without him. Whether you knew him or not, the world is a better place because he was here. We are forever grateful for his contributions, his leadership and his friendship. Chuck, we miss you and love you. - Deb Havens
FILM TALK: New WMFVA Podcast Packs an Earful
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Here’s a new way to learn more about what is happening right here in our region.
heck out WMFVA’s new baby, The Film Talk Radio Show. It’s been months in the making, and we hope you’ll find it interesting, informative, and inspiring.
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eaturing interviews with our area’s most creative film writers, producers, directors and more, The Film Talk Radio Show is a resource that showcases and promotes our thriving creative community in West Michigan. Guests so far include:
Joel Potrykus Marie Ullrich (pictured) Jenell Leonard Rick Hert Ryan Lieske (pictured) Jeff Varga
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isten to up-to-date information on the film and video industry in West Michigan and experts from around the country as we interview the people that add value to the art and business of filmmaking, commercial, and corporate production. A new podcast is uploaded every Friday!
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Catch the podcast at www.soundcloud.com/wmfva now!
Eclipse Awards Introduce New Board of Governors
n honor of the fifth year of the Eclipse Awards, WKTV Community Television and co-sponsors WMFVA and Compass College of Cinematic Arts, announce the creation of a new Board of Governors to oversee the Eclipse Awards program. WKTV General Manager, Tom Norton, says the Eclipse Awards program, which has been expanding every year, is modeled on the organizing structure of the Academy Awards hosted annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
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The response from the West Michigan production community to the Eclipse Awards underscores that content creators here are thriving,” says Norton. “The resources for education, equipment and, most importantly, a receptive audience are all contributing to its success. WKTV will continue to encourage content creators of all stripes to take advantage of everything offered here in West Michigan.”
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embers of the Board of Governors are: Norton; Deb Havens, Chair, WMFVA; Keri Lowe, President, Compass College of Cinematic Arts (CCCA); Derk Baartman, Partner/ Director of Production at Hanon McKendry; Girbe Eefsting, Founder, Film Farm; and Kerri VanderHoff, Director, Grand Rapids Art Museum GoSite.
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he new Board of Governors met recently and wasted no time making recommendations for new policies and procedures to keep the Eclipse Awards pool of entries and judges growing.
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Last year we had over 70 entries and 30 judges locally as well as from London, Los Angeles, Toronto and New York,” Norton says. “We’re aiming for 100 entries and at least 40 judges this year.”
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o build entry interest, a new Eclipse Award Winner Film Festival will be held in a local venue featuring winners in many of the 17 categories that currently receive recognition.
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he WMFVA, responsible for acquiring and expanding the pool of judges to accommodate the ever-growing number of entries, will introduce a new invitation based once again on the Academy Awards system. “We realized that our Eclipse Award finalists are a tremendous resource for viewing the initial entries from their colleagues and determining who deserves to make the finalist list,” says Havens. “This year we are initiating a new system that gives all past nominees and winners of the Eclipse Awards voting privileges along with the national and international judges.”
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he fifth Annual Eclipse Awards will announce its Call for Entries this October with a new website and with an announcement about the Eclipse Lounge in the middle of November. The Eclipse Lounge will offer the opportunity for the area production community to interact socially and professionally with past winners via seminars to inspire the creative community.
The Pitch, Shoot, Post & Promote Film Contest Is On! Register Your Project Today!
All Contest Info and Rules at: fundme.wmfva.org HOW IT WORKS Sign up for the first-ever West Michigan film contest for filmmakers. One winner and one great short! Here’s how you play: SIGN UP Register your project by paying a $25 entry fee, $15 if you’re a WMFVA member. WMFVA Premiere Members enter fee-free. Remember, you can’t win if you don’t play. PITCH Pitch your original short film concept (no longer than SEVEN minutes) to an audience of film creatives. The audience members select semi-finalists based on how well they like your pitches. SHOOT Finalists go forth and make movie magic. You have 30 days to shoot sufficient footage to create your trailer or two minutes of the most compelling footage. PROMOTE Semi-finalists will post trailers online. The public votes for favorite projects (showing their love with cash). POST ROUGH CUT Edit and post your rough cut. The voting gets tough as the public chooses up to four finalists based on cash and vote totals. POLISH AND PREMIERE WMFVA provides a special screening opportunity for all four finalists at the Wealthy Theater Koning Micro-Cinema to a room full of film lovers and filmmakers. The winner is announced at that time at a special award ceremony. RECEIVE YOUR $1,000 CHECK! Other prizes are awarded. You must be present to win. Top winner is determined based on highest totals of cash and votes combined.
The Visiting Film Artists Series WMFVA & UICA Win Visiting Film Artist Grant The WMFVA’s new partnership with the UICA resulted in the winning of a Visiting Film Artist Series Grant of $5,625 from Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs (MCACA), and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Thanks to the grant, twice this year we will bring a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, or another film artist of similar caliber, to the UICA in Grand Rapids for a two-day presentation and workshop. This artist will share with our West Michigan film community the talent, knowledge, and artistic vision that produced an acknowledged contribution to the world of film. WMFVA Film Premier members get free access to the Friday Opening Night Screening with Film Artist remarks, Q&A, and reception.
On Welcoming Our First Guest: “In early September, Grand Rapids’ native son, Paul Schrader, comes home for a two-day event (see details on page 6). He is the inaugural guest for the new Visiting Film Artists Series (VFAS)—a collaborative effort between WMFVA and the UICA. Love him or hate him—there seems no in-between—Schrader has made his mark on the film industry landscape. His unflinching screenplays for such classics as Taxi Driver (1976, four Oscar nominations), Raging Bull (1980, two Oscars), and The Last Temptation of Christ (1988, one Oscar nomination), have inspired spirited discussion and controversy. He has directed a myriad of films, crowd-funded on Kickstarter, and cast online via Let It Cast. Now, Schrader scoops out a huge dose of reality for West Michigan filmmakers—about the good, old “film Empire” days, and what may lie ahead in the film industry.”