Jesse Roesler from The Starfish Throwers visits Clemson University.

From Filmmaker Jesse Roesler of The Starfish Throwers:

The very first stop on the Southern Circuit Tour for The Starfish Throwers was at Clemson University in South Carolina. Our wonderful host Amy Monaghan showed me the campus and introduced me to several film students before and after our screening.

We had a great screening with a highly engaged, mostly student audience - including a friend of Katie Stagliano's who was actually featured in the film! A wonderful conversation followed the screening about how the film was made, and ultimately turned to the state of independent film-making and how students could get started making indie motion pictures.

It was especially rewarding to connect with young people who were considering making a film of their own. Thanks to the Southern Circuit for introducing us to our new friends in Clemson (several pictured below with their #ThrowStarfish messages!

On the Road with Michael Glover and Robyn Rosenkrantz from Go with Le Flo

From Michael Glover (writer, director, musician) and Robyn Rosenkrantz (producer, musician) from Go with Le Flo:

We’re so grateful to have shared our new film Go with Le Flo and our Bright Blue Gorilla music on the Southern Circuit tour. Our film was shot in Berlin and is a German & French romantic comedy with English subtitles.  Right before we landed in Atlanta, we had a great 3 month tour doing concerts and screenings all around Europe. We were curious to see how the film would play in the South.  Some of the audiences had never seen a Foreign film. The audiences were enthusiastic and many left very inspired. Here’s what happened…

 - Robyn and Michael

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November 5, 2014
Clemson University
Clemson, SC

Before we drove from Atlanta, GA to our first show at Clemson University in South Carolina, we thought it was the perfect opportunity to try some Southern food! We stopped off at the Flying Biscuit and got our fill of the creamiest grits we’d ever had. We had a great vegetarian breakfast of fried green tomatoes, veggie sausage, eggs, whole wheat biscuits with apple-cranberry butter and super tender collard greens. We don’t get this type of food in Los Angeles!

Great restaurant in Atlanta, GA

Michael and Robyn enjoying the Southern Food!

Eggs, Veggie Sausage, Fried Green Tomatoes, and the creamiest grits ever!

We stopped off at the South Carolina Welcome center and were inspired by the beautiful fall leaves.

Beautiful Fall leaves in South Carolina

Before the show, Amy Monaghan, a professor from Clemson University met us for a Mexican Dinner to welcome us. Then we headed over to the nice auditorium.  It was an interesting mix of film studies, language, and geography students. They all stayed for the Q&A and asked some great questions. One of the students wrote an amazing Go with Le Flo review on IMDB! We spoke with one young student after the show who had dreams to become a producer. She was very inspired and had tons of questions. We really enjoy sharing the wealth of knowledge we’ve picked up along the way. Our motto is to just dive in and create, learn by doing. No matter how many mistakes you make, if you just keep going and don’t give up, your movies are going to get better and better.

Clemson University has some history!

Outside of Clemson University Auditorium

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November 9, 2014
Winder Cultural Arts Center
Winder, GA

Our second show was at Winder Cultural Arts center. We drove some lovely back roads to get there and really enjoyed seeing the farms, Baptist churches with their inspiring quotes (Get Rich Quick…Count Your Blessings!) and wooden houses with their big front porches. Don Wildsmith and Christopher Childs gave us a super warm welcome with real Southern hospitality. The local press ran a half page story with photos, which is always nice. The auditorium was lovely and had a vintage feel to it. They also do lots of theater there, so the stage was perfect for our Bright Blue Gorilla concert before the film. Christopher, being a filmmaker himself, asked intelligent questions as he led the Q&A, he had done his homework, which made it really inspiring for us. The audience had a great sense of humor and were laughing freely during our music set and super loud during the Go with Le Flo screening. We always watch our films with the audiences and the Winder audience had us laughing out loud, even though we've see our film 100 times! Afterwards they had some great brownies and punch, which made for a cozy atmosphere to mingle with the audience. We had our CDs and DVDs with us and also some French Lavender from the real Le Flo store in Berlin, and many kind audience members took some home.

Winder made a nice Go with Le Flo poster

Go with Le Flo pre-show test

Go with Le Flo pre-show test looking good!

We found it!

Bright Blue Gorilla movies and music storefront at Winder Cultural Center

Bright Blue Gorilla on the wonderful Winder stage

Q & A with Christoper Childs

The wonderful Winder staff

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November 11, 2014
Morris Museum of Art
Augusta, GA

There was a beautiful entry hall at the Morris Museum of Art right next to the screening room, made us feel like we were in a movie, which was the perfect atmosphere for our concert and screening. We set up a table in the screening room with our Bright Blue Gorilla CDs, DVDs and French Lavender from the real Le Flo store in Berlin. Before we even started our show, a super friendly film professor from the local college came up to our table and bought some French Lavender. Nice way to start off the night! He brought a few of his film students. The rest of the audience were locals. The audience sang along during our concert, which made us feel very welcome. One of our songs, “Napoleon’s Coat” is about a guy who works in a museum, so we had fun singing that one! There were around 27 people, all laughing and enjoying Go with Le Flo. They asked great questions and our Le Flo lavender was just about sold out!

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November 13, 2014
Wallace State Community College
Hanceville, AL

Our last concert and screening was at the beautiful brand new auditorium on the campus of Wallace State Community College. It reminded us of the lovely concert halls in Europe. When we walked in we noticed two big Go with Le Flo posters and some really nice fliers. It’s always great when a venue does promo. Kristen Holmes was a great host and made sure we had everything we needed. They had some yummy snacks for the audience and very refreshing lemon water, which hit the spot after our 3 1/2 hour drive. The acoustics were perfect for our unplugged concert. The audience was made up of students and the local community. It was a joy to hear them laughing loudly. One of the students noticed we watched Go with Le Flo with them and she really liked that and found it inspiring. The audience asked great questions as usual and hung out after, made us feel very welcome. They liked that we made family friendly comedies and many hugged us goodbye!

On the Road with 'Mona Lisa is Missing'

From Joe Medeiros (Writer/Director) & Justine Mestichelli Medeiros (Producer) 
of Mona Lisa is Missing.
________________________________________________________________________

As filmmakers, being selected for a festival as prestigious as South Arts' Southern Circuit was an honor. We are truly grateful that the selection committee appreciated our film's appeal to its audience. We have traveled with our film to numerous festivals, and we are so impressed with the professionalism, organization and respectful treatment of filmmaker needs that Teresa Hollingsworth and her team at South Arts provided for us.     

We started our travels in Augusta, Georgia at the Morris Museum of Art. Michelle Schulte, Curator of Education and Kevin Grogan, Executive Director and Chief Curator were most accommodating and gracious hosts. And we found the Morris Museum itself to be quite a treat with an impressive collection of local Southern art.  We also learned something new -- that telegraph inventor Samuel B. Morse was a portrait painter of some admirable talent.  Our screening was very well attended. The applause was plentiful and the Q&A lively.  

Onto Clemson University where Professor Amy Monaghan treated us to dinner and introduced us to faculty and local  filmmakers. We had a very respectable turnout of students (on a school night). They really appreciated the humor and animation that infuse our film and gives lives life to our extensive research and Peruggia's life story. Their questions were thoughtful.

Over 200 students and local residents turned out for the morning presentation of Mona Lisa is Missing at Wallace State Community College's Evelyn Burrows Center for the Fine and Performing Arts in Hanceville, Alabama. Our evening screening drew another 50 enthusiastic viewers. Kristen Holmes, Communications and Marketing Director, and her team were full of Southern Hospitality.  The audience was appreciative of the Peruggia family's genuine acceptance of the truth about Vincenzo's motivation for taking the Mona  Lisa.


Our final destination was the Winder Cultural Arts Center in Winder, Georgia. Don Wildsmith,  Director of  Cultural Events and Christopher Childs, Station Manager of  Winder Television, created an audience-friendly environment where the Q&A prompted the comment,  "I came to this documentary screening with some trepidation because docs can be dense with information but yours was so entertaining while being thoroughly informative."

All in all, the Southern Circuit was one of the greatest experiences we've had showing our film. It was fitting that our tour took place during Major League baseball playoffs because with our screenings at the Morris Museum, Clemson University, Wallace State, and in Winder, we not only batted 4-for-4, but each hit was a home run.

Thank you all and best of luck in the future. Your festival, your audiences, and your people behind the scenes are truly the best.

Noah Harald & Speak Now - Clemson, SC, Micro-budget Filmmaking Part II

The latest update from Noah Harald, screening his film Speak Now on the Southern Circuit:

As I screen our film 'Speak Now' at the next four venues in the Southern Circuit I'm going to try something interesting and share my thoughts and advice about making a micro-budget improv film as well as my travels here in the South. Next up- Clemson, SC.

'Speak Now' screened last night at Clemson State University. First I drove from Augusta to Clemson, through thick forests and small lakes. I stopped to take pictures at some abandoned buildings, it was lovely. Clemson is a town that is completely in love with it's football team, everything is emblazoned with the orange paws for their Tigers, it's really cool, feels like Friday Night Lights. My host Amy was great and I got to wander the beautiful campus. The screening was almost entirely students, which was in sharp contrast to the older audience in Augusta. I feel like the jokes landed a little better tonight, but the audiences at both venues have been equally appreciative and awesome. So far, two for two. In the morning I make the trek to Hanceville, AL to screen at Wallace Community College.

Making a micro-budget film, Part II: The Execution

This is the hardest and easiest part of the process. It's hard to pull resources together, to have everything go as planned (it never will) and to shoot a film on a micro budget. At the same time, it's never been easier to access equipment to make a film. We shot 'Speak Now' on two RED Epic cameras with Zeiss super speed prime lenses. However you can shoot a film entirely on a DSLR with available light and it can still look great these days. Our cinematographer David McGrory and myself have a great repoire and we've worked together for about a decade- he and I were able to dip into the favor bank and pull not only equipment but crew. If you don't yet have those relationships, build them by making a film. Just remember, as good as it looks to have a feature under your belt as director, that also applies to your department heads as well; cinematographers, production designers, producers etc and they will join you if they believe in the story you're telling. One of the most vital components to making one of these films is a great producer- we had two in Benjamin Friedberg and Eric Goldrich. A great producer will help organize everything, lock down crew and locations, but most importantly they will lift the burden of you having to deal with those things on set where your crew and your cast need total creative attention from you. Once you have your idea, your crew, your equipment and location- shoot the movie. Jump in and do it. Don't find the reasons not to, because there are a million (not enough money, wrong location, actors, crew, money again.) Find the one reason to do it- you want to make a movie.

Schedule efficiently, leave time to block and rehearse the scenes with your actors and make sure that everyone on set feels respected and taken care of and they will reciprocate that energy into the film. We all got into this because making movies is fun, and nearly 100% of the time the vibe on set will translate into the final product. We shot 'Speak Now' in three days with all of the dialogue improvised by the actors. We didn't have time to stress the small things and in the end I think that helped the final product. Be easy and let the movie happen, if you've put the pieces into place it will.

Jeremy Seifert - Clemson University

The latest update from Jeremy Seifert, currently touring his film GMO OMG:

The small theater at Clemson University, which seats 150, was nearly full last night! Albeit, many of the students in attendance had been bribed by their teachers with extra credit or were lured by the free Chipotle meal card. But still, it was a great crowd, and I could tell from the questions that many of them had never heard of GMOs and didn't quite know what to make of this "new" world that had just been revealed. For many of them I got the feeling that, before the film, food was just food, something you judged on flavor or cost or how it made you feel, certainly not representative of a system that exists behind our food and how it effects the planet.

And for many, the thrust of culture surrounding them, the exclusive relationship the university has with ARAMARK Corporation, the general lack of other options and the inability to fully connect eating with ethics and justice and future sustainability, means that no practical change will happen in their lives....at least not immediately. But as I said to them, now you know and you can't unlearn or it, or even fully forget it. And I know for at least some of them, a seed has been planted and will grow into real change.

I think it's fitting here to give an example of how big the challenge is to get out messages that matter.
As I mentioned the small theater on campus was quite full, over 100 people. What I didn't mention is that Clemson University has a student population of 20,000, which means that less than .05% of them came. Statistically, those are probably really good numbers. But the point of this digression is a comparison to another number and event, the Clemson Tigers vs. the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.

Today, November 14th, is game day. Morning classes are supposed to be in session, but most have been canceled anyway. From noon on, all classes on campus are officially canceled. The town turns into a bustling madhouse of football fans. The stadium, called Death Valley, will be packed with 92,000 people, who will sit and eat and cheer through nearly three hours of game time. They will pay exorbitant prices for junk food served up by ARAMARK. Students waving and cheering for a touchdown or explosive tackle are captive consumers on campus, with no choice but to lap up the biotech industry's GMOs and chemicals. That sounds dramatic or overblown, but it's a simple reality, and most of us eat it everyday unawares. It's time to pack out stadiums for our right to know and choose what we eat, for our farmers and land and water and seed. The stakes are high, much higher than a Tigers game, but can we recognize it and act?

The organic farm on Clemson's campus is 1/100th the size of the practice fields devoted to the Tigers. Perhaps this gross imbalance is precisely why we have lost control of our food and given it, without a fight, to giant chemical companies. But still, there is an organic farm on campus....so there is hope.

Jeremy
www.gmofilm.com

'Birth of the Living Dead' wraps Circuit tour

From Rob Kuhns

October 24 - Presbyterian College, Clinton, SC

The drive from Clemson to Clinton was only 90 minutes so I got to spend a little time in downtown Clinton, a ridiculously charming and friendly little town (see photo below). 

I kept expecting to run into Rod Serling emerging from an alley (“Picture if you will, anytown USA.  On this bright Autumn day a visitor will soon arrive. He'll bring with him an unspeakable evil.”) Molly McGehee (Professor, Southern American Literature) greeted me in front of the Neville Building on the small but beautiful campus. She and some of her colleagues -- Terry Barr, American Literature and Film, Creative Writing, Southern Jewish Literature; Lynne Simpson, Shakespeare and British Literature, Composition Course on Ghosts; Robert Stutts, Creative Writing; Jerry Alexander, Romanticism, Victorian Literature – graciously took me out to an early dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Professor Simpson is from Pittsburgh and I enjoyed reminiscing with her about the vibrant culture there and about seeing Star Wars for the first time at a downtown theater. Professor Barr teaches film courses, frequently relating films with their historical context. Everyone seemed to love their job – they were great company. The Serlingesque experience continued when a group of clowns came into the restaurant to celebrate one their birthdays. Fortunately they came towards the end of our meal – I won't mention names, but some of us are afraid of clowns.

    

Rob & Dr. McGehee

The Clinton screening was held in a kind of lecture hall and was packed with maybe 70 students and 10 or so faculty members. This was an amazingly engaged and responsive audience! There was a lot of boisterous laughter and they seemed to hang on every moment.  A great way to wrap things up! It was great fun to talk with an audience that was clearly so enthused and excited about Birth. A number of the professors, including Professor McGeehee, were teaching about the historical events of the 60s, which perfectly tie-in to some elements of Birth. One of the questions was, "Was Romero as much fun as he seems?" The answer was, "Absolutely."  Romero was exactly the same off camera as he was on - incredibly brilliant, funny and entertaining.

    

After the Q&A I talked with a student who was in the process of editing a film he had shot, and he asked me if I had any basic advice about editing. I told him it was important to break the process up into bite-sized chunks so that you're not too overwhelmed trying to solve all the problems at once. I emphasized the importance of taking your time with the selecting process - breaking up and categorizing shots so that you know them well and can find them easily. I think it's important to do that thoroughly before beginning editing your sequences.

    

As I try to wrap up the tour - hard to do because it was such a rich experience and such a whirlwind - I realized how insular Esther's and my world is in NYC. It's easy to think that NYC is the center of the universe, and that's where all the cool and smart people live, and where anything that's really important that happens. (I guess most snobs don't realize they're snobs.) It was a wonderful experience to meet so many talented and extraordinary smart people -- from Tupelo to Charleston -- who truly love, have sharp insights, and  tremendous knowledge about film. I'm sure we'll remember our Southern Circuit Tour our whole lives.

October 23 - Clemson University, Clemson, SC

Another gorgeous drive today through mountainous roads from Cullowhee, TN to Clemson, SC. The weather has been nothing short of spectacular the last few days – brilliantly sunny and crisp.

My host at Clemson University, Sarah Lauro Ph.D., (see photo at left), gave a talk that afternoon called “The Transatlantic Zombie,” which was about her book of the same title. The evening screening took place at the McKissick Theater in the Hendrix Student Center.  There was a great turnout – some faculty members were there, but it was mostly students, many of whom attended her talk earlier. This was the first time the film got introduced by a zombie scholar, which I thought was pretty cool. At the Q&A I asked who in the audience had previously seen Night of the Living Dead, and nearly everyone raised their hands.  One man said he saw it in the mid-70s on a triple feature with a horror movie called, Torso, which he called, “terrible” (I believe him! I looked it up on imdb and the plot synopsis started with, “Someone is strangling coeds in Perugia.”) and Texas Chainsaw Massacre (a movie I love). He said he has yet to recover from the trauma of that night nearly 40 years ago.

After the screening, I went to a local hangout with Professor Lauro and some of her colleagues and students. One of her students, Michael, 50, is a mechanic and engineer who is pursuing his Bachelor’s (and plans to pursue a Masters and Ph. D.) with the intent of becoming a history teacher. He saw Night as a young boy and told me he used to keep his radio on as he fell asleep at night. On more than one occasion, the commercial for Night would come on just as he was starting to drift to sleep – terror set in and there’d be no sleep that night. Michael also had not-so-fond memories of Iron City Beer, a Pittsburgh-based brand that Romero made commercials for. I was once again sorry Esther couldn’t share this experience with me – she would have had a blast.

There’s been a delightful surprise at every turn on this trip. Thanks very much, Professor Lauro and company, for a very fun and informative night!

Morgan Nichols & 'How to Make Movies at Home' -- On Screen & in the Classroom

From Morgan Nichols

One thing that's easy:  connecting with the warm-hearted people at the colleges and universities on the Southern Circuit.

One thing that's hard:  finding a Blu-Ray scratch repair kit on the back roads of South Carolina.

Yeah, I can't tell you how it happened but we only got one projection out of the spanking-new Blue-Ray disk before it was fatally scratched.  Luckily, if there's one thing I know about cinema it's that a good story is far more important than High Definition!  So far these audiences have been engaged and engrossed (or so they tell me) and that's 

more important than having a few extra pixels in the frame.  

The workshops I've been teaching have also been a hit.  

At ETSU we spent two and a half hours doing a lighting workshop in their great tv studio.  Just a few students but a whole lot of craft - we ended up going beyond lighting and talking about lens and framing as well.  By the end, each student took a turn setting up a shot that would use light and camera placement to depict a specific kind of character.  Then we went to Quizno's and debated the Coen brothers and which was the best Batman movie.  Awesome.

At Auburn, thirty students attended a class where I gave a presentation on the unique form of directorless improvisational filmmaking (called lo-film) that I've been developing over the last decade+.  The lecture culminated in a brainstorming session where we collectively devised a whole film idea that we could shoot in the beautiful museum we were in.  It was bonkers, but great fun!

At Clemson I presented that same lo-film talk in a one-on-one conversation with professor Sarah Lauro, which we taped for future use.  Sarah was one of several fantastic hosts I've encountered, and we used every minute of our time talking about the political implications of zombie films, which Wes Anderson films were our faves (mine's The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.  You heard me.) and about a million other things.

At Presbyterian I taught 25 students the basic vocabulary of film, and then they broke into groups and made one-shot movies with iPads.  Watching the super-short films was a hoot, and we all wished we'd had a little more time.

At each school the Q&A's have been fun.  Here's a taste of what happened when I pass the FlipCam around the audience:

  http://vimeo.com/74414384

Luke and Cory take Smokin' Fish around the South- Part 1

Deep thoughts while eating BBQ

11/11/12, day seven of the southern circuit. Allison and Teresa of South Arts have been politely inquiring when I might right a blog post. My mom, in um, more direct terms, has been demanding an update.

Over BBQ at the Fox Brothers here in Atlanta, Cory and I pretty quickly reached a consensus that we should do this again, although with more eating and less driving. Maybe we could take Amtrak instead of the rental car. Then we could eat on the train too. Amtrak is so civilized (and apparently not as chronically late as I remember it being in the west.)

Our first stop was Augusta Georgia. Our hotel was pretty classy.


We appreciated some art at the Morris Museaum.




And, despite it being election night, quite a few people turned out for the screening and Q and A.

Some folks seemed really, genuinely, touched by the film. And they wanted some fish.

Cory managed to sell some scarves our of the trunk of his car.


In the morning we drove to Clemson SC for a screening at Clemson University. We stopped for some fried chicken for breakfast.


Savage vs. Fried Chicken.


I think Savage is winning,


In Clemson we had a group of smart curious students which sadly we didn't take any photos of. A few were aspiring filmmakers. Our next stop, Gainesville, GA Saw a large turnout of mixed students and community members.






On our day off we visited Ganesha Howell, Stunt Driver and Production Assistant on Smokin' Fish at his new home in Asheville NC.


And we visited the Cherokee Indian Reservation.




We were speculating that a traveling Tlingit must have carved these totem poles.


We also wondered if he was just far from home or if psychedelics where involved. We also visited the Casino.


This is where Jabba the Hut hangs out.


The Bears where cool.


Cory really wishes he had thought of this business name.


And our last screening, yesterday in a renovated church in Hapeville Georgia. Another really good audience.


Tomorrow we drive to Clinton SC. I'll keep everybody updated.

-Luke