In case you missed today’s issue of the Courier Post, check out the awesome feature the lovely Lavinia Castrow wrote about our filmmakers after we sent out press released on the behalf of our Teams.
Just another way we’re Not Just a Film Festival!
Geoffrey Pettifer (left) of Galloway rehearses a scene with audio engineer Dave D'Alesandro (center) and cinematographer Tom Jacobi, both from Wenonah.
(original source)
Lives altered to produce short film
By LAVINIA DeCASTRO
Courier-Post Staff
Eyes closed and script in hand, Geoffrey Pettifer silently mouthed his lines.
Sue Reitz sat next to him, intently listening to the heated dialogue coming from behind the closed doors while Jon Craig stood motionless, trying not to disturb the filming.
“Cut!” yelled Stephen McNally from the next room. “That’s great. It’s everything we needed.”
The door opened and out came Jeffrey Craig, using his script as a fan.
The air conditioning in the small office inside the Haddonfield law firm was turned off because the sensitive microphones used during the shooting pick up the gentle hum of the machine and the room was at least five degrees hotter than the rest of the building.
It was Friday night, the second of four days of shooting for the short film “Alters” — a psychological thriller about a psychiatrist suffering from as many afflictions as the long line of colorful characters he treats.
The script, which boasts a twist ending worthy of M. Night Shyamalan’s early films, was the brainchild of Jon Craig.
Unlike most film productions, which normally last for months, “Alters” was produced in 21 days.
“Everyone’s got jobs that you have to schedule around,” said McNally, a Pennsylvania State University film student from Wenonah who is directing the movie. “It’s very difficult because after work, you have to come home and make up your shooting schedule and your shot list, but it’s also very rewarding.”
The speedy production schedule is a requirement of ProjectTwenty1 — the Philadelphia-based competition for which “Alters” is being produced.
“Twenty-one-day filmmakers are generally people who are trying to get a foot in the door,” said Stephanie Yuhas, who started the competition in 2006 with partner Matt Conant.
Members of Flaming Marshmallow Productions, the group that is producing “Alters,” are South Jersey residents from various backgrounds united by their love of film.
Pettifer, the Galloway resident who plays a senator in the film, is a graphic designer and director of marketing at a community college. Reitz is a stay-at-home mom from Woolwich. Jon Craig, of Wenonah, teaches third grade in Vineland. His brother Jeffrey, of East Greenwich, plays the main character and is a partner in the law firm of Wardell, Craig, Annin & Baxter, where the movie is being filmed.
They are among the 43 teams, many of them from South Jersey, competing in ProjectTwenty1 this year.
“We started this because all of our colleagues stopped producing films when they got out of school,” said Yuhas, who is also an animator.
Every film must contain the secret element, meant to ensure that films are completed within the deadline. This year’s secret element, announced during the festival’s launch party on Aug. 1, is “key.”
“We keep it very vague because it’s fascinating to see what people come up with,” Yuhas said. “They get very creative with it.”
Completed films, which must be 10 minutes or less, have to be turned in by 6 p.m. Saturday during a drop-off event at the North Bowl in the Northern Liberties section of Philadelphia.
“It’s such an adrenaline rush,” Yuhas said. “Someone flew up from Miami last year to drop off their film because catching a plane was faster than mailing it.”
About one-sixth of the teams don’t finish their project in time and another sixth simply abandon the project, Yuhas said.
All of the completed films will be screened during the ProjectTwenty1 Film Festival, scheduled for Oct. 1-4 at International House in Philadelphia.
The winning film will be announced at the festival and filmmakers get a trophy and hundreds of dollars worth of prizes, donated by various businesses in the Philadelphia area.
The winner is chosen by an ever-changing panel of volunteers that includes both filmmakers and general audience members.
“The problem with a lot of film festivals out there is that they only screen their friends’ films,” Yuhas said. “At our festival, each film gets watched and rated between eight and twelve times.”
The launching party, the drop-off event and the film festival are meant to encourage filmmakers to network, something ProjectTwenty1 aggressively promotes.
Every film submitted for the competition as well as ProjectTwenty1’s Film-A-Thon, a submission-based festival that happens at the same time as the 21-day competition, goes into an archive and is available to film educators in the Philadelphia area for free.
Entries also are submitted to ProjectTwenty1’s 12 festival partners, including Slamdance. These festivals waive the submission fees to ProjectTwenty1 films, potentially saving filmmakers up to $500.
“Not only are they saving money on submission fees, but they could also win prizes at these festivals,” Yuhas said.
This year, many of the teams are also documenting their progress through blogs, Twitter updates and podcasts.
“It’s reality TV without the remote,” Yuhas said.
Reach Lavinia DeCastro at (856) 486-2652 or ldecastro@courierpostonline.com
For more gallery images of the 21-Day Shoot,
Many of our local Teams decided to drop off their films in person at our Drop Event lat week, and were greeted by Nicole Hollenbeck, our local expert in skincare and pampering for men and women. She raffled off a ton of products, gift certificated, and free pampering sessions to some lucky participants that were in desperate need of pampering!
“The Dude Hates Cancer!” (TDHC) 