Wow, it's been a crazy year and a lot has happened. 2016 was the year of transition as I had to pull RMM out from a bit of a decline and back into the swing of things. We also spent the year talking with Rochester Audio Visual Association (RAVA) about merging the two entities since there was a great deal of overlap in our missions. Together we hope to better service the Greater Rochester Area as a go to resource for independent film and media production.
We've been slaving away on a new brand, new logo, new social media presence and new website. Whew it was alot, but we are nearly there. With the new site launching Jan 1st (despite a few hiccups) Things are off to a great start. Check it out here:
Rochester Association for Film Arts & Sciences (RAFAS)
We hope to really flesh out our service offerings in 2017, including better support options for local filmmakers and producers, including free project page highlights, bio pages, business pages, educational media, and even fiscal sponsorship opportunities under our 501(c)3. Not to mention some cool logo gear once we get that squared away. (Secretly excited to see filmmakers around town wearing our logo proudly).
We'll be talking more about it at our Launch Party Jan 26th, 6pm at Three Heads Brewing, those guys were awesome about lettings us use their venue, and Wegmans even threw in some catering. The wheels are turning! I hope to see you there. You can view event details on our new Meetup.com page here:
Launch Party details on Meetup.com
With all this going on, I haven't had much time to work on film projects of my own, but rest assured I have a few pans on the back burner that are soon to come forward.
Friday, January 13, 2017
Thursday, December 24, 2015
It's been a few weeks and sorry for that, but many exciting things happening in the background!
First off, Christmas is two days away, so for those of you who celebrate, Merry Xmas. For those of you who don't, Happy Festivus. The rest of us, are enjoying holiday cheer and what not. I'll be traveling and in California for several weeks and not returning until mid January, so this may be the only post until after then.
So what's new? Well, there is a lot going on in the background that I've been eluding to, and will continue to be vague about until they are done deals. But, RMM will be enjoying a new Name in 2016 and that's only a matter of time. We are also in full discussion now about the exact nature of how RAVA and RMM will be working a lot more closely, which at this point is happily not an "if" but a "when". This was also firmly solidified in the wonderful combined Holiday Gala that RAVA so graciously invited RMM to join along with RocDoc, who we will also be hoping to form a more active partnership with in the new year.
Meetings have been going really well, and the new intensive focus on educational content is very well received. I'm hoping to have the cuts of the recordings fully converted to video and posted to our website very early in the new year (Shooting for by the end of January). Potentially in conjunction with our name change if that all works out by then.
In other exciting news two of my good friends S.Micheal Smith and M.Micheal Curasi of Buddies in Space who host a syndicated pod cast through a 3rd party distributor currently and we've decided to work together on a new pilot variety/improv show to be aired across the local cable access network. This is an exciting project as it will be the prototype for the Bicycle Model Carvin of RCTV and I have discussed working on in 2016. Essentially it will start at RCTV and be passed around the local network of community stations until it cycles back to RCTV. The exciting idea here is that any one of the community stations will be the origin point of a production, but the sequence will follow. This is exciting because it gives our local content creators more ways to get their work in front of the local communities. Good stuff.
I will be spending the first two weeks of January in California for a training conference, and while I'm out there I'm hoping to reconnect with some old RIT classmates and former RMM members alike. The goal will be to network and drum up some potential interest for more established professionals to do Skype or similar presentation sessions to help RMM members up their game. Who knows, we may even be able to convince a few to come out our way in person.
One final note that is exciting for me, is I'll be working on a new film project in 2016. It's been a while since I've really poured myself into production and I'm very excited to get back into it. I've had a few very good and very productive meetings with Avery Munger and we are really in sync with how we'd like to handle a project and future goals. I think it's safe to say that when I return in January will also mark day 1 of development of a sizable and hopefully notable production in Rochester. Definitely more to come on that!
First off, Christmas is two days away, so for those of you who celebrate, Merry Xmas. For those of you who don't, Happy Festivus. The rest of us, are enjoying holiday cheer and what not. I'll be traveling and in California for several weeks and not returning until mid January, so this may be the only post until after then.
So what's new? Well, there is a lot going on in the background that I've been eluding to, and will continue to be vague about until they are done deals. But, RMM will be enjoying a new Name in 2016 and that's only a matter of time. We are also in full discussion now about the exact nature of how RAVA and RMM will be working a lot more closely, which at this point is happily not an "if" but a "when". This was also firmly solidified in the wonderful combined Holiday Gala that RAVA so graciously invited RMM to join along with RocDoc, who we will also be hoping to form a more active partnership with in the new year.
Meetings have been going really well, and the new intensive focus on educational content is very well received. I'm hoping to have the cuts of the recordings fully converted to video and posted to our website very early in the new year (Shooting for by the end of January). Potentially in conjunction with our name change if that all works out by then.
In other exciting news two of my good friends S.Micheal Smith and M.Micheal Curasi of Buddies in Space who host a syndicated pod cast through a 3rd party distributor currently and we've decided to work together on a new pilot variety/improv show to be aired across the local cable access network. This is an exciting project as it will be the prototype for the Bicycle Model Carvin of RCTV and I have discussed working on in 2016. Essentially it will start at RCTV and be passed around the local network of community stations until it cycles back to RCTV. The exciting idea here is that any one of the community stations will be the origin point of a production, but the sequence will follow. This is exciting because it gives our local content creators more ways to get their work in front of the local communities. Good stuff.
I will be spending the first two weeks of January in California for a training conference, and while I'm out there I'm hoping to reconnect with some old RIT classmates and former RMM members alike. The goal will be to network and drum up some potential interest for more established professionals to do Skype or similar presentation sessions to help RMM members up their game. Who knows, we may even be able to convince a few to come out our way in person.
One final note that is exciting for me, is I'll be working on a new film project in 2016. It's been a while since I've really poured myself into production and I'm very excited to get back into it. I've had a few very good and very productive meetings with Avery Munger and we are really in sync with how we'd like to handle a project and future goals. I think it's safe to say that when I return in January will also mark day 1 of development of a sizable and hopefully notable production in Rochester. Definitely more to come on that!
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Another Big Step (or Two)!
Last week was quite a crazy week so I didn't get a chance to post. Two great things happened in terms of moving forward: RMM kicked off our new Quarterly Topic Series with our first presentation focusing on what we are calling Phase 2 Pre-Production. And I had a great meeting with Nora Brown the Film Commissioner for the Finger Lakes Region and head of the Finger Lakes Film and Video Office (FLFVO).
First, the new meeting format was a huge success! There was close to 30 people in attendance and the presentation was well received. Lots of details on the middle section of pre-production tasks. We dived in on topics like recruiting Cast/Crew, doing call sheets, Story-boarding, and creating shooting scripts and shot lists. The less sexy parts of production, but for those experienced enough to know, the most important if you want to produce a quality final product. The presentation lasted about an hour and we recorded about 90% of it (barring some first time technical difficulties), which I will be editing into a visual presentation and make available on the RMM website.
It's the first step towards creating better value to RMM members, but also pushing our goal of cultivating production in Rochester at large. If we can educate and create resources for local filmmakers than we are making it easier for production in Rochester to start happening more often. One step at a time.
Second, my meeting with Nora Brown was as interesting as it was positive. Nora is a no-nonsense kind of lady so she cut right to the chase. For those who don't know who Nora Brown is, she was a veteran production professional and assistant to Robert DuVaul for years. She is very well connected and has opened a lot of doors for Rochester in the production industry. She is also a certified Film Commissioner, which is a seriously hard title to obtain.
Nora's concerns were that historically some outside professional production representatives might have been contacting RMM members directly instead of going through the Finger Lakes Film and Video Office and thus creating a sticky situation. One because they might have received inaccurate information, two because whomever they spoke with may not have given the full amount of information, and three they might be misrepresenting Rochester in general. I understood her concerns and want to take a moment to explain them in other words so the importance can be re-iterated.
RMM does not represent unionized production workers. We have no affiliation with the Local 52 or any other professional production entity. We are for all definitions of the words a collection of amateur filmmakers who some of which also work professionally in production disciplines. There is a distinct difference between that, and say a full time SAG actor who has an agent, a full time Director who is registered with the DGA, or a union official gaffer. If a studio or major production representative called, they will need to talk to Nora/FLFVO at some point anyway so it makes more sense to direct them there first and foremost.
In addition to this, it is technically illegal for a Non-For-Profit 501(c)3 organization (as we are) to "recommend" a particular person or entity for a job request. So if Joe Hollywood Producer calls RMM and says "I need a Lighting and Sound guy for this weekend" we should not and CANNOT say "ok so and so can do it". However, if we direct them to FLFVO first, the group there can then say "here are a list of professionals who are available" and all of the RMM members can be on that list. No laws are broken.
Now there are some folks out there who will say (and not be 100% in the wrong) that there is a likelihood of favoritism if everything gets funneled through that office. I would say that I don't know of specific examples of that, but I know production personalities and they do stick to their favorites. But unfortunately in the production world, you're a 'nobody' until you've worked with a 'somebody.' So I brought that up to Nora and we agreed on a compromising pathway that should help that situation in the long term.
RMM's goal is to further cultivate production in the Rochester area, and FLFVO is responsible for bringing high quality production work into the area - a natural and aligned goal. RMM's other goals are also to foster and educate the community at large instilling the knowledge and wisdom of experience in professional production environments to our members. If we can raise the bar of knowledge to our general membership, than we can lean on Nora to create more opportunities to include local amateurs or fledgling professionals into the larger productions in a partnership style approach that we will build and structure over time. Eventually as those people become more and more knowegable and experienced, they will naturally float up to the "preferred" list (if you will). This is the long play, but it's also the right play.
If we can work together with existing professionals and gain a larger vote of confidence because our members are being well educated and trained, than we can create synergy where there are real actual internships, assistants and actual full paid positions made available within otherwise closed productions. However if we try to bully our way in or push volunteering too fast too soon, we may shut the door on our long term chances and make the goals a lot harder to attain. These are not happy facts, but they are hard and fast facts.
I however am not deterred. I have made it my goal to further educate myself as much as possible so that I can be sure RMM (or whatever we are called in the future) will continue to stream high quality and accurate educational information to the community and in essence give everyone their fair chance.
These were physically small steps, but they were logically important ones that needed to be made. I for one feel like things are going well! Next on the list is to meet with Malcolm Spaull, Head of RIT's school of Film. RIT turns out some exemplary talent and if we can integrate them into this model not only are we exposing them to more professional experience opportunity, but we are also encouraging our best and brightest to stay local. It's WIN for local productions, WIN for RIT students and WIN for the Rochester Production Community as a whole. For those counting, that's WIN/WIN/WIN!
Until next time, keep shooting!
First, the new meeting format was a huge success! There was close to 30 people in attendance and the presentation was well received. Lots of details on the middle section of pre-production tasks. We dived in on topics like recruiting Cast/Crew, doing call sheets, Story-boarding, and creating shooting scripts and shot lists. The less sexy parts of production, but for those experienced enough to know, the most important if you want to produce a quality final product. The presentation lasted about an hour and we recorded about 90% of it (barring some first time technical difficulties), which I will be editing into a visual presentation and make available on the RMM website.
It's the first step towards creating better value to RMM members, but also pushing our goal of cultivating production in Rochester at large. If we can educate and create resources for local filmmakers than we are making it easier for production in Rochester to start happening more often. One step at a time.
Second, my meeting with Nora Brown was as interesting as it was positive. Nora is a no-nonsense kind of lady so she cut right to the chase. For those who don't know who Nora Brown is, she was a veteran production professional and assistant to Robert DuVaul for years. She is very well connected and has opened a lot of doors for Rochester in the production industry. She is also a certified Film Commissioner, which is a seriously hard title to obtain.
Nora's concerns were that historically some outside professional production representatives might have been contacting RMM members directly instead of going through the Finger Lakes Film and Video Office and thus creating a sticky situation. One because they might have received inaccurate information, two because whomever they spoke with may not have given the full amount of information, and three they might be misrepresenting Rochester in general. I understood her concerns and want to take a moment to explain them in other words so the importance can be re-iterated.
RMM does not represent unionized production workers. We have no affiliation with the Local 52 or any other professional production entity. We are for all definitions of the words a collection of amateur filmmakers who some of which also work professionally in production disciplines. There is a distinct difference between that, and say a full time SAG actor who has an agent, a full time Director who is registered with the DGA, or a union official gaffer. If a studio or major production representative called, they will need to talk to Nora/FLFVO at some point anyway so it makes more sense to direct them there first and foremost.
In addition to this, it is technically illegal for a Non-For-Profit 501(c)3 organization (as we are) to "recommend" a particular person or entity for a job request. So if Joe Hollywood Producer calls RMM and says "I need a Lighting and Sound guy for this weekend" we should not and CANNOT say "ok so and so can do it". However, if we direct them to FLFVO first, the group there can then say "here are a list of professionals who are available" and all of the RMM members can be on that list. No laws are broken.
Now there are some folks out there who will say (and not be 100% in the wrong) that there is a likelihood of favoritism if everything gets funneled through that office. I would say that I don't know of specific examples of that, but I know production personalities and they do stick to their favorites. But unfortunately in the production world, you're a 'nobody' until you've worked with a 'somebody.' So I brought that up to Nora and we agreed on a compromising pathway that should help that situation in the long term.
RMM's goal is to further cultivate production in the Rochester area, and FLFVO is responsible for bringing high quality production work into the area - a natural and aligned goal. RMM's other goals are also to foster and educate the community at large instilling the knowledge and wisdom of experience in professional production environments to our members. If we can raise the bar of knowledge to our general membership, than we can lean on Nora to create more opportunities to include local amateurs or fledgling professionals into the larger productions in a partnership style approach that we will build and structure over time. Eventually as those people become more and more knowegable and experienced, they will naturally float up to the "preferred" list (if you will). This is the long play, but it's also the right play.
If we can work together with existing professionals and gain a larger vote of confidence because our members are being well educated and trained, than we can create synergy where there are real actual internships, assistants and actual full paid positions made available within otherwise closed productions. However if we try to bully our way in or push volunteering too fast too soon, we may shut the door on our long term chances and make the goals a lot harder to attain. These are not happy facts, but they are hard and fast facts.
I however am not deterred. I have made it my goal to further educate myself as much as possible so that I can be sure RMM (or whatever we are called in the future) will continue to stream high quality and accurate educational information to the community and in essence give everyone their fair chance.
These were physically small steps, but they were logically important ones that needed to be made. I for one feel like things are going well! Next on the list is to meet with Malcolm Spaull, Head of RIT's school of Film. RIT turns out some exemplary talent and if we can integrate them into this model not only are we exposing them to more professional experience opportunity, but we are also encouraging our best and brightest to stay local. It's WIN for local productions, WIN for RIT students and WIN for the Rochester Production Community as a whole. For those counting, that's WIN/WIN/WIN!
Until next time, keep shooting!
Thursday, October 22, 2015
The Ball is ROLLING!
Things are moving fast and picking up speed. I had a wonderful meeting today with Dave Sluberski, RIT Senior Tenured Professor at RIT and current President of Rochester Audio Visual Association (www.myrava.com). We discussed how our two organizations can work together and found immediate common goals. I will be meeting with the rest of RAVA at their next board meeting to discuss future endeavors as RMM and RAVA will likely have a closely bound future together.
In other good news, Dave was giving me some details abour RIT's new Magic Center (Forgive me if I didn't get that title quite right) - a new building planned on RIT's campus dedicated to mixed use Film and Visual Arts projects. That includes direct connection with RIT's Game Development program in a synergistic relationship revolving around media content. It's exciting because there are talks about making the 30 million dollar facility publicly available in a rental or residency model for industry projects. The details and terms are far from being worked out, but one thing is for sure - it's definitely coming soon (preliminary estimates are completion around Q2-2017).
Also, I met with Nan Whitman and Becca Delany of the Fast Forward Film Festival (www.fastforwardroc.org) which is currently well into its planning stages for 2016. I've been asked to step into Stan Main's previous role as a seat on the Advisory Board and I will be working closely with Nan and Becca to create synergy between FFFF and RMM. On that note, start planning for your submissions as FFFF's deadline is February 2nd. More to come as things unfold on this topic.
So things are looking good for the future of production in Rochester already. RMM is looking to re-title and complete our reorganization by the end of the year, which means a new era in Rochester for Production support. Since the chips haven't quite hit the table I can't give much more information on that topic, but having already had so many great conversations with people in the local production community things are beginning to align.
Sorry to keep things short and sweet, but back to work, so much to do!
In other good news, Dave was giving me some details abour RIT's new Magic Center (Forgive me if I didn't get that title quite right) - a new building planned on RIT's campus dedicated to mixed use Film and Visual Arts projects. That includes direct connection with RIT's Game Development program in a synergistic relationship revolving around media content. It's exciting because there are talks about making the 30 million dollar facility publicly available in a rental or residency model for industry projects. The details and terms are far from being worked out, but one thing is for sure - it's definitely coming soon (preliminary estimates are completion around Q2-2017).
Also, I met with Nan Whitman and Becca Delany of the Fast Forward Film Festival (www.fastforwardroc.org) which is currently well into its planning stages for 2016. I've been asked to step into Stan Main's previous role as a seat on the Advisory Board and I will be working closely with Nan and Becca to create synergy between FFFF and RMM. On that note, start planning for your submissions as FFFF's deadline is February 2nd. More to come as things unfold on this topic.
So things are looking good for the future of production in Rochester already. RMM is looking to re-title and complete our reorganization by the end of the year, which means a new era in Rochester for Production support. Since the chips haven't quite hit the table I can't give much more information on that topic, but having already had so many great conversations with people in the local production community things are beginning to align.
Sorry to keep things short and sweet, but back to work, so much to do!
Friday, October 16, 2015
Kicking off Quarterly Topic Series #1 at RMM / Fast Forward Film Fest
Hello fellow Rochester filmmakers. I thought I would give some updates on the progress of RMM in my first few weeks as Chair. So far we've vetted out our potentially new direction with RMM. I don't want to reveal too many specific details as there are still legal and political hurdles to overcome, but things are moving in a very positive direction.
I'm meeting with the President of RCTV this evening to discuss our continued strategic partnership there and I'm very excited about new ventures we are discussing for 2016. Also, I'm meeting with an old friend, the President of Rochester Audio Visual Association (myrava.com) to discuss how we can work together as well.
I think the more the many great film enthusiasts and professionals of Rochester that can come together the stronger our force of momentum will be in really bolstering production locally.
On a side note, the organizers of Fast Forward Film Festival have reached out to start the planning process for the festival in spring of 2016. RMM was an avid supporter earlier this year and I have made the commitment to do so again next. More to come on that front as the planning stages unfold.
In regards to RMM and it's forward strategy the Board and I have unanimously agreed we need more focused educational materials to offer our members. To that end, we've decided to launch a quarterly topic series campaigns where we focus on a deep dive into a specific stage of or discipline related to creating films, starting with arguably the most important part: Pre-Production.
We're going to spend the next 3 months building and designing educational content regarding Pre-production and use our general meetings to present the materials and talk to their use. Along with this we have confirmed that Nick DiBella - Rochester based Producer and Filmmaker, will be our November speaker and is excited to discuss his wisdom on the topic as well. These materials will be immediately available as we complete them and put into a new specially categorized content area we are developing. Look for them soon (www.rochestermoviemakers.org)
This up coming meeting we will start with a 101 overview of what a standard pre-production process looks like and then dive deeper during the next two months meetings. The idea being that each 3 month period will be a book-ended series of content that should help new and amateur filmmakers get a better understanding of all the required steps in developing and planning a project prior to the first scheduled shoots. We will even touch on subjects of funding, planning for distribution and some other business related pieces of producing films.
I'm excited for this series as proper development and pre-production are so commonly overlooked for smaller projects and frankly mean the difference between a high quality end product and just another film to show your friends. after all, aren't we all trying to get better? Until next post - hope you see you at our next meetings!
I'm meeting with the President of RCTV this evening to discuss our continued strategic partnership there and I'm very excited about new ventures we are discussing for 2016. Also, I'm meeting with an old friend, the President of Rochester Audio Visual Association (myrava.com) to discuss how we can work together as well.
I think the more the many great film enthusiasts and professionals of Rochester that can come together the stronger our force of momentum will be in really bolstering production locally.
On a side note, the organizers of Fast Forward Film Festival have reached out to start the planning process for the festival in spring of 2016. RMM was an avid supporter earlier this year and I have made the commitment to do so again next. More to come on that front as the planning stages unfold.
In regards to RMM and it's forward strategy the Board and I have unanimously agreed we need more focused educational materials to offer our members. To that end, we've decided to launch a quarterly topic series campaigns where we focus on a deep dive into a specific stage of or discipline related to creating films, starting with arguably the most important part: Pre-Production.
We're going to spend the next 3 months building and designing educational content regarding Pre-production and use our general meetings to present the materials and talk to their use. Along with this we have confirmed that Nick DiBella - Rochester based Producer and Filmmaker, will be our November speaker and is excited to discuss his wisdom on the topic as well. These materials will be immediately available as we complete them and put into a new specially categorized content area we are developing. Look for them soon (www.rochestermoviemakers.org)
This up coming meeting we will start with a 101 overview of what a standard pre-production process looks like and then dive deeper during the next two months meetings. The idea being that each 3 month period will be a book-ended series of content that should help new and amateur filmmakers get a better understanding of all the required steps in developing and planning a project prior to the first scheduled shoots. We will even touch on subjects of funding, planning for distribution and some other business related pieces of producing films.
I'm excited for this series as proper development and pre-production are so commonly overlooked for smaller projects and frankly mean the difference between a high quality end product and just another film to show your friends. after all, aren't we all trying to get better? Until next post - hope you see you at our next meetings!
Wednesday, October 7, 2015
My Future of Film In Rochester NY
I'm very excited to announce that I was recently voted the new Chair of Rochester Movie Makers (www.rochestermoviemakers.org) aka RMM. RMM has been a non-profit educational collective focusing on amateur film production in the local Rochester area for over 8 years. However, it has grown, shifted and adapted to the community needs since its original inception. The Boards first task with me in the Chair is to restructure the Organizations operational structure to answer what we have discovered to be the "actual" needs of the Rochester production community. To be specific, expanded educational resources, information in the way of what's being shot, when and by who, and who is available to work on projects and when, and to further cultivate the Production Community at large by recruiting some industry professionals in advisory roles to both assist with funding and liaise with key community individuals. I believe this is a potentially strong working model and to be frank about it, just what Rochester needs.
For the last 3-4 years I've been really impressed with my return to Film as a hobby and just how many like minded and talented individuals are here in Rochester, actively pursuing their hobby and thirsty for completing quality projects. What's been missing? The resources, and the details. As a Film student at RIT, I longed to break away from the structured curriculum and shoot the type of projects I wanted to do. Not to down play the standard of RIT's program, quite the contrary - its an incredible program and very well regarded. But even though each of the assignments given were of great value in building ones craft, they are also within someone else's guidelines. For those that graduate on and pursue the Hollywood career path, they will find that trajectory more of the same. So it is a very poignant lesson to learn. Know the walls and produce a quality result within those walls. But this is where Rochester offers sanctuary to real artists of Film.
The term "Film" is an interesting one, as it is generically used to define just about anything that is projected onto a screen these days. But to me, FILM = ART = EXPRESSION. I tend to be a follower of "good" Indie and Art House films and find my resulting experience just as satisfying as solid Hollywood blockbusters. It's all about the viewers experience, as designed by the creator - in this case the "filmmaker". Some people himm and haww about that term since just about everything is shot digitally these days and all the various cast, crew and administrative details of creating a film are not technically referred to as "filmmaking". But none-the-less Rochester offers filmmakers in the broad sense that truly open canvas. The complete freedom to dream, write, shoot, create, display and enjoy that areas like Hollywood do not so easily encourage. In Rochester Film is about love of the craft and its people about the enjoyment and pride of something created. I mean Rochester IS the birthplace of Film, that legacy has not been forgotten or abandoned. Especially with the resent multi-billion dollar deal Kodak signed with major production companies to continue producing large format traditional film for IMAX, 3D and other modern UHD compatible formats.
So what is the future of film in Rochester? I think it's a wide open actively increasing landscape. I think working together with all the local enthusiasts and professionals and bringing them together as a team to build the scaffolding necessary to support a growing production community is both realistic and exciting. We have all the necessary pieces: creatives, talent, resources, capital, and audience. We just need to all step up and help make it happen. Who knows, if we're successful than driving around town we can periodically see various productions in action. If we can start producing high quality content, than we can attract the attention of other Film mecca's around the country possibly the world. If we work together I think the future of film in Rochester is a definite tidal wave waiting to take the production community by storm, if even one good short film at a time.
If you would like to get involved please do contact me at zachary@rochestermoviemakers.org, I will need a lot of help and I cannot do it alone. Happy Filmmaking!
For the last 3-4 years I've been really impressed with my return to Film as a hobby and just how many like minded and talented individuals are here in Rochester, actively pursuing their hobby and thirsty for completing quality projects. What's been missing? The resources, and the details. As a Film student at RIT, I longed to break away from the structured curriculum and shoot the type of projects I wanted to do. Not to down play the standard of RIT's program, quite the contrary - its an incredible program and very well regarded. But even though each of the assignments given were of great value in building ones craft, they are also within someone else's guidelines. For those that graduate on and pursue the Hollywood career path, they will find that trajectory more of the same. So it is a very poignant lesson to learn. Know the walls and produce a quality result within those walls. But this is where Rochester offers sanctuary to real artists of Film.
The term "Film" is an interesting one, as it is generically used to define just about anything that is projected onto a screen these days. But to me, FILM = ART = EXPRESSION. I tend to be a follower of "good" Indie and Art House films and find my resulting experience just as satisfying as solid Hollywood blockbusters. It's all about the viewers experience, as designed by the creator - in this case the "filmmaker". Some people himm and haww about that term since just about everything is shot digitally these days and all the various cast, crew and administrative details of creating a film are not technically referred to as "filmmaking". But none-the-less Rochester offers filmmakers in the broad sense that truly open canvas. The complete freedom to dream, write, shoot, create, display and enjoy that areas like Hollywood do not so easily encourage. In Rochester Film is about love of the craft and its people about the enjoyment and pride of something created. I mean Rochester IS the birthplace of Film, that legacy has not been forgotten or abandoned. Especially with the resent multi-billion dollar deal Kodak signed with major production companies to continue producing large format traditional film for IMAX, 3D and other modern UHD compatible formats.
So what is the future of film in Rochester? I think it's a wide open actively increasing landscape. I think working together with all the local enthusiasts and professionals and bringing them together as a team to build the scaffolding necessary to support a growing production community is both realistic and exciting. We have all the necessary pieces: creatives, talent, resources, capital, and audience. We just need to all step up and help make it happen. Who knows, if we're successful than driving around town we can periodically see various productions in action. If we can start producing high quality content, than we can attract the attention of other Film mecca's around the country possibly the world. If we work together I think the future of film in Rochester is a definite tidal wave waiting to take the production community by storm, if even one good short film at a time.
If you would like to get involved please do contact me at zachary@rochestermoviemakers.org, I will need a lot of help and I cannot do it alone. Happy Filmmaking!
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
First Post!
I'm pretty new to blogging, but I want to start putting down some thoughts about the things I'm passionate about. Film is definitely very high on that list for me, so this is really a the start of something I hope to contribute a lot to going forward.
I graduated from RIT in 2002 with a BFA in Film and have years of experience in video/television production but unfortunately didn't pursue it as a long term career (took a side bar into IT and currently work professionally in IT), but now years later I've finally reconnected with the local production community and rekindled my fire for film, both in front and behind the camera.
So far last year I've only been in or on a few small productions but currently I'm working on a local independent feature titled "The Dead Deads" - a drama/suspense(and a touch of horror) film produced by a couple of talented local guys under the name Werewolf House. So far it's been an amazing project and I'm really excited to be part of it. I think the ultimate plan for the project is to run the festival scene. (Werewolf House's Facebook Page).
On this project I started as a sound assistant and potentially a small on screen role, but as the project developed I've been lucky enough to help out with most areas of the production, most shooting days doing sound either assisting or primary, but I've also done camera and lighting several times. I keep trying to strong arm the guys into letting me take a shot at editing but we'll see how that goes.
I'm also currently working on several scripts to get my own project going, but I can't seem to solidify my various ideas into one exciting lead script that I can run with. Hopefully my scatter brain will get that figured out soon so I can take advantage of the great summer months for shooting.
I also love movies and plan to post my ramblings on the various movies I watch. I love doing reviews as I like to get discussions going from both a filmmaker and viewer perspective. Since most reviews I find on the web are one or the other I'm hoping that will make these a little more unique.
Well that's all for now, stay tuned as I update on all fronts!
I graduated from RIT in 2002 with a BFA in Film and have years of experience in video/television production but unfortunately didn't pursue it as a long term career (took a side bar into IT and currently work professionally in IT), but now years later I've finally reconnected with the local production community and rekindled my fire for film, both in front and behind the camera.
So far last year I've only been in or on a few small productions but currently I'm working on a local independent feature titled "The Dead Deads" - a drama/suspense(and a touch of horror) film produced by a couple of talented local guys under the name Werewolf House. So far it's been an amazing project and I'm really excited to be part of it. I think the ultimate plan for the project is to run the festival scene. (Werewolf House's Facebook Page).
On this project I started as a sound assistant and potentially a small on screen role, but as the project developed I've been lucky enough to help out with most areas of the production, most shooting days doing sound either assisting or primary, but I've also done camera and lighting several times. I keep trying to strong arm the guys into letting me take a shot at editing but we'll see how that goes.
I'm also currently working on several scripts to get my own project going, but I can't seem to solidify my various ideas into one exciting lead script that I can run with. Hopefully my scatter brain will get that figured out soon so I can take advantage of the great summer months for shooting.
I also love movies and plan to post my ramblings on the various movies I watch. I love doing reviews as I like to get discussions going from both a filmmaker and viewer perspective. Since most reviews I find on the web are one or the other I'm hoping that will make these a little more unique.
Well that's all for now, stay tuned as I update on all fronts!
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