Digital Storytelling Center of Kansas City – The new KC digiSTORY Center non-profit organization aims to make our region “the Hollywood of short, digital narrative production.” The organization will host The Power of Digital Storytelling national conference in October.
UMKC Student Media Showcase – Short films made by students in UMKC’s Film and Media Arts program will be screened for free on May 14 from 6:30-8 p.m. in Tivoli Cinemas in Westport.
Discussion with KC Film Activist Justin Gardner – Justin Gardner talks about his work as Social Media Manager at AMC Theaters, his goals for the Kansas City Film Society and Kansas City Film Commission, and about Kansas City’s hidden film history.
This year’s Kansas City FilmFest brought together the local film community for over a week of screenings and events including animated, documentary and narrative features and shorts, as well as web series.
The 18th annual Kansas City FilmFest took place April 5-13, screening mainly animated films at the Alamo Drafthouse and live action narratives and documentaries at Cinemark Palace at the Plaza.
Drew Burbridge, KC FilmFest Digital Media Coordinator: “We really reach out to every single big commission, any filmmaking community in Kansas City, and not just Kansas City, Missouri, [but also] Kansas.
“That’s one of the best things about the Kansas City Film Festival, we do things from homegrown shorts to bringing in different organizations, people coming in, all the big filmmakers, the stars, then we film their question and answer panels afterwards, which also audiences get to participate in.”
Jeff Staab, actor in web series “Smoke Break”: “You made some history by bringing the top 10 filmmakers in town, together, to make your web series.”
Bryce Young, producer of web series “Withered World”: So with “Withered World” I’m super happy that the collaborative process behind it involved – my number one goal was to make it good, second goal was to get as many people involved as possible, and we got 200 people from the film community in Kansas City under one umbrella and that – I’m always gonna be proud of that fact.”
Barry Opper, producer of “Slingshot”: “The reception has been great. And I’ve said this before, but the audiences in this area are terrific audiences. They got things in our film that we’d only dream people would get.”
For Kansas City Film, this is Alex Lamb.
Local web series in the Kansas City FilmFest
This was the first year web series have played in the festival. Here are several featured ones made in Kansas City.
Three Highlights from Middle of the Map – This piece does a short profile on three of the films shown at Middle of the Map over the weekend, including the locally made “Manhattan,” about a writer returning to his hometown of Manhattan, Kan. as he works on a book and looks for love.
Interview with a Middle of the Map Founder – Nathan Reusch, CEO of The Record Machine and one of the founders and organizers of Middle of the Map, stops by the Scene Stealers podcast and discusses the festival.
Profile of Comedian Marlon Wayans – This feature provides insight into Marlon Wayans’s journey as a comedic actor and his style of humor. His new film “A Haunted House 2” opened over the weekend and he will be performing stand-up with his brother Shawn in Zona Rosa July 11-13.
The Alamo Drafthouse theater at 14th and Main St. hosted the Middle of the Map Film Festival April 16-20.
Ink’s 2014 Middle of the Map Festival ran it’s final leg over the weekend, ending with a successful second year for the film festival section. From April 16-20, 27 different films screened at the Alamo Drafthouse in downtown Kansas City, Mo.
Nearly half of the films tied into the musical interests of Middle of the Map. The documentary “Our Vinyl Weighs a Ton” profiled record label Stones Throw Records, while the Academy Award-nominated “The Broken Circle Breakdown” followed a heartbreaking love story between two bluegrass performers.
Four screenings featured live musical performances, including local band Spirit is the Spirit playing songs from the soundtrack of “Dazed and Confused” before its showing. Filmmaker Q&A sessions also followed three films, including the locally made “Manhattan.”
Ryan Davis, creative manager for the KC Drafthouse, acted as one of the festival’s moderators. He also helped bring SXSW Audience Award-winner “Before I Disappear” to the festival.
“It’s depressing, surreal and has a great soundtrack,” Davis said. “Basically everything I love in a movie.”
The gonzo Japanese yakuza spectacle “Why Don’t You Play in Hell?” proved to be an audience favorite, selling out at its second screening.
“It’s the biggest surprise I’ve seen in the last five years,” festival attendee Tim DePaepe said, who loved it so much he saw it twice.
Opening up the Middle of the Map Film Fest at the Alamo Drafthouse with Michel Gondry's imaginative new love story Mood Indigo!
Mickey Rooney and Hayley Atwell’s Kansas City Connections – Classic Hollywood star Mickey Rooney, who died last week, actually lived in the city’s East Side as a young child. Additionally, “Captain America” actress Hayley Atwell lived in Kansas City in the summers while growing up.
Interview with ‘Slingshot’ Director Paul Lazarus – I saw the terrific documentary “Slingshot,” about inventor Dean Kamen and his solution to providing clean water throughout the world, at the KC FilmFest this weekend. Here’s an interview with director Paul Lazarus that considers some big problems in society.
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom Dinner Party – Enjoy the darker Indiana Jones sequel on the big screen tonight at the Alamo Drafthouse with a four course meal, inspired by the film, to accompany it.
Filmmaker Allan Holzman, a feature and documentary director and editor, came to KU April 1 to show his film “Invisible Art/Visible Artists” and talk to the Introduction to Film class. Known for his masterful work as an editor, Holzman is a member of the Board of Directors for the American Cinema Editors and created and produced the Invisible Art/Visible Artists event every year in Hollywood since 2001, where the Oscar-nominated editors from each year give a panel discussion about their craft.
The documentary highlights editors from these panels from 2001-2010, such as Martin Scorsese’s editor Thelma Schoonmaker and Quentin Tarantino’s former editor Sally Menke. Each one selects a clip from their film that is shown as they talk about their process of putting the scene together, giving deep insight into the challenges of shaping a film in the editing room and showcasing just how important editors are in making a movie work.
“I created this event, and I wanted it to be about the art of editing, not the psychological ramifications of the movies that they were doing,” Holzman said. “What their process is and how they went about looking at the dailies, or how they could maintain a perspective over time, and what their relationship was with the directors.”
Some of the editors talk more about creating specific rhythms, taking certain viewpoints, showing the delicate skill involved. Alternatively, the editors of “Avatar” discuss the difficulties of trying to form a movie out of people in bodysuits on a soundstage and how they saw the film come together and evolve as the visual effects were completed.
“A comparison can be drawn between animators and editors, the same way animators bring things to life, editors bring a movie to life,” Holzman said.
The editors of “United 93” evidence how directors with different styles can totally change the editing process, as Paul Greengrass shot his film very improvised, verité style, creating inconsistencies and lack of continuity. With less formal structure for the footage, the art of the editor and his or her role in telling the story becomes more apparent.
Introduction to Film student Steve Schadeberg said he found learning about how editors achieve fluidity fascinating.
“They decide which [angles] should be used and how to cut it into the film and make it flow right and hit that emotion that is wanted by the director and to the audience,” Schadeberg said. “They help take those pieces and put the puzzle together.”
In his Film Aesthetics class, professor Robert Hurst teaches his students the impact of editing.
“Editing is really the thing, that’s what makes movies, movies, is not just the motion, but the juxtaposition of images,” Hurst said. “How powerful editing is in shaping a story, or whatever your message is, that’s actually a stroke of genius.
“The editing room is where you figure if you have a story or not, if it makes sense,” Hurst said. “And that’s the thing about an editor is, the editor has to know, they have to watch it with the audience’s eye, which is not easy.”
Having began his career working on cheap little B-movies, Holzman attested that “There’s a talent to making something outta nothing.” His advice to students in not only editing but also storytelling was to make it revolve around the key scene.
“Find the heart of the movie, find the scene that speaks most about the movie then structure everything else around that.”
The Kip & Brin project in Basic Video Production teaches students to film as a group, then edit on their own.
Juli Pitzer, graduate teaching assistant for Basic Video Production: “The idea of Kip & Brin is that it’s generic dialogue between two characters, so it could be any situation, any setting. Essentially it was a project that was designed so students could work with dialogue, work with in-class shooting, and then really have an editing experience.
“So they can work with specific software, and learn techniques of cutting, continuity editing, jump cuts, everything that would go into the editing process. The second purpose is that they would see how important it is to shoot coverage and footage, maintaining continuity during a set shoot.
“So you kind of learn the relationship between the production, and the editor, and shooting for the editor.”
“Steve Shadeberg, Basic Video Production student: “Not only was it my first production, but I’ve never edited anything before, so I had to teach myself.
“So at first I was like, ‘Wow,’ I was really intimidated, I was like ‘How am I gonna do this?’ But after doing it more and more and learning, it became fascinating to me and I had a lot of fun.
“So I learned how, in a way manipulate things even, like sounds and how you can put things in and take things out. How you can take even a bad shot, and edit it, and make it a good shot.”
I’m not big on the bar scene. And despite only living a block away from the popular Jayhawk Cafe, aka The Hawk, I’d never been until this week’s dollar night. It has a pretty trashy reputation and attracts an awful lot of fraternity and sorority members, neither of whom I go out of my way to associate with. So it was with a bit of trepidation that I finally took the plunge and explored this den of drunkenness.
I arrived around 11:30 p.m. Wednesday, greeted by the sight of a group of drunk girls dancing on a table in the main room, launching spiteful looks at anyone with the gall to stare at their attention-drawing behavior. About 40 or more people were crowded around the bar, evidencing that getting a drink required patience and a pushy attitude.
One very attractive girl brought only enough money to pay the entry cover, and when I asked if she expected any guys to buy her drinks as is common social routine in regular bars, she responded, “Why would anyone buy me a drink unless it was roofied?” I then heard several stories of girls getting drugged drinks at The Hawk, apparently not an uncommon occurrence. That girl wound up getting free shots downstairs for letting the bartender fondle her breasts.
As I ventured throughout the bar, the floors got stickier and the atmosphere grimier. This was particularly true in the notorious Boom Boom Room, a hotbed of sticky bodies grinding on each other, drunk girls not giving a care and guys with the look in their eyes of a lion stalking prey. I left when it closed down at 1:30 a.m., walking out to see a larger girl assaulting a guy who was doing nothing to her.
Kansas City film office reinstated – Funds from the city budget have been allocated to reopen the Kansas City film office, which closed in 2002. This means more opportunities and resources for productions to film in the Kansas City area, which can bring lots of business to the economy.
KC native’s horror film finds success – “House of Forbidden Secrets,” the 18th feature film from director and Kansas City native Todd Sheets, has been finding success in its festival run, winning six awards at the PollyGrind Film Festival in Las Vegas.
Interview with Bill Plympton –Virtuoso animator and director Bill Plympton talks about his new animated feature “Cheatin’,” which screens Friday and Saturday at the Alamo Drafthouse as part of the Kansas City FilmFest.
Kansas City’s annual comic convention Planet Comicon drew record numbers of pop culture enthusiasts to Bartle Hall this year, featuring costumed attendees, interesting panels, comic creators and artists.
Kansas City’s annual pop culture haven Planet Comicon took place March 14-16, attracting a larger crowd in its second outing at Bartle Hall.
“As a cultural event, it’s changed quite a bit over the years,” “Dream Thief” writer and KU professor Jai Nitz said. “They expanded the convention in a way that brought in outside people. It’s basically like San Diego Comic-Con-lite, and that’s what’s coming to Kansas City now, and people respond to it immediately, they love it.
“As a creator I get a chance to meet fans directly. Now, a lot of the times it’s just here at my table, where I meet somebody and I’m selling them a book, myself to them. At an event this large there’s panels and speeches, and I participate in those because then I’m reaching people who don’t normally read my comic books,” Nitz said.
“It’s freakin’ huge, I can’t believe it’s in Bartle Hall,” Cortana cosplayer Rose Watkins said. “Otherwise, it’s kinda just more of the same awesome stuff, just a bunch of really cool people getting together and doing really cool stuff.”
“A lot of nerds,” fellow cosplayer Steven McClain laughed.
Many attendees spend lots of time and effort building their own costumes for the event.
“This one probably took over 300 hours,” McClain said, describing his “Halo” Spartan outfit.
“Mine took all day today to do, so approximately six hours,” Watkins said of her Cortana body paint.
The event also introduces new readers to comic books.
“Well, it’s all become regular people now, it’s not just comic people,” Elite Comics owner William Bindera said. “It’s just a common everyday hobby, but for a lot of people it’s their, like all my people who come into the shop, it’s their weekly religion.”
“It’s an event now,” Bindera said. “Trying to give people an experience.”
Alex Lamb Movie Man 