C-U Blogfidential

Ah, the perils of low-budget filmmaking. We’ve all heard the variations on the classic war stories, so it should come as no surprise that one of our own has been challenged by the proverbial “unexpected big bump in the road.” In this case, the crew of LEADING LADIES fell behind schedule this weekend while shooting at Franklin Middle School in Champaign and had to arrange for an encore appearance to finish the coverage they need. Doubling the urgency is that LADIES is tapped to wrap after tomorrow, Tuesday, June 23.

So, dear extra-in-the-making, why worry about tomorrow when you can help out now? Call time is 12 p.m. later today, Monday, June 22, for able bodies to populate the dance marathon scenes which will appear at the beginning and the conclusion of the movie. Please contact Jenna at jenna [at] leadingladiesmovie [dot] com or (630) 532-7672 if interested; approximate end time for today will be 8 p.m. and you can glean the general details from our prior post.

Be sure to check out this bonus coverage of Saturday’s shoot by The News-Gazette to get an idea of what will be happening.

~ Jason Pankoke

By now, you know about the independent feature film LEADING LADIES that has been in production all over Champaign-Urbana for the past four weeks. How would you like to capitalize on one last opportunity to be in LEADING LADIES? Well, my divine little dance machines, the time has come to put your best foot forward in the interest of helping foster film activity in our neck of the woods!

If you have not participated yet, then your final chance lies this coming Saturday, June 20, starting at 9 a.m. as “Teahm Beahm” takes over Franklin Middle School, 817 N. Harris, Champaign, IL, to film a series of swingin’ scenes with you … if you show up prepared according to the guidelines following the jump. Please tell extras casting director Jenna Weglarz-Ward that C-U Blogfidential sent you!

While all the usual press outlets have already tackled this filmmaking development, we’ll be reporting in due time with a bit more studied coverage after LADIES enters post-production. I can tell you that my visits to the various locations, primarily the “underground dance club” situated at the former Rialto Theatre in downtown Champaign and the “grocery store dance sequence” orchestrated at Jerry’s IGA in the Round Barn Center of west Champaign, have been pleasant and eye-opening experiences. (Thank you, Luke Boyce and David J. Ward, for being my guides.) Watching area residents actively create with artisans from Chicago, Colorado, California, and elsewhere to pull off this massive undertaking on a sub-$1 million budget right here, right now certainly can cause individuals like your humble editor to mumble “What if …?” relentlessly under his exhilarated breath.

In other words, this is certainly a dance step in the right direction, dearest C-U. Keep it up with the way you’ve been generously supporting LEADING LADIES and cross your fingers that more exciting local filmmaking is on the way!

~ Jason Pankoke

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Champaign Movie Makers meets at least once a month to afford area filmmakers and talent an opportunity to discuss and join forces on the making of independent cinema in the area. If you are interested in being more “in the loop” if not directly involved with CMM-related productions, please visit and join their Yahoo! Group.

The next meeting will take place tomorrow night, Tuesday, June 16, 7 p.m., at the home of host Johnny Robinson at 1204 N. Broadway Ave., Urbana, IL. Robinson and Mike Boedicker of Roselawn Productions will offer a presentation called, “Working out scripts in collaboration with writers and actors;” additional topics will include the formation of a satellite writers’ group as well as how to improve the overall effectiveness of CMM gatherings.

~ Jason Pankoke

p.s. Tuesday’s meeting was attended by 20 individuals, the best turnout so far! There are only two ways you would have known this prior to now, dear reader. Either, A. you were one of the 20, or B. you are a member of the CMM Yahoo! Group. Make sure to contact Johnny Robinson at johnny [at] johnnyrobinson [dot] com or Bill Kephart at billkephart [at] juno [dot] com and join right now so you don’t miss another minute of CMM action!

[Updated 6/18/09, 09:30 p.m. CST]

Is keeping up with the Beahms and Glasers and Butlers (oh my!) the new bandwagon when it comes to entertainment reporting in central Illinois? Maybe we’re seeing the beginning of a craze because hot on the heels of Dan Schreiber’s SmilePolitely story about LEADING LADIES is Paul Wood’s write-up covering the very same movie set which appeared in yesterday’s News-Gazette. Thanks to the journalistic sixth sense of Melissa Merli, the latter has been paired with some quotables from your humble editor about the recent rash of local cinema production. Topping it off at the bottom of the page spread is a profile of C-U musician/artist/good guy Brian Reedy, who just rocked out with MICRO-FILM pal Brian Robertson in the resurrected band Lonely Trailer during the “Play or Pose” reunion/benefit.

Good stuff all around; the stories hit the proper marks which one always hopes for. The N-G needs to do this sort of collective pop-cultural coverage a lot more often. Just make sure to visit the links above before the content is banished to their archives where one must pay to read … unlike, say, right here on C-U Blogfidential.

Finally, if you happen to be connected to the inner workings of the University of Illinois or its College of Media, then my profile ends with a bit of advice just for you. Please pass it on!

~ Jason Pankoke

p.s. It took a little while but the young guns at buzz magazine finally made the scene with not just one story, but two additional pieces covering LEADING LADIES. Can you picture that?

[Updated 6/18/09, 09:45 p.m. CST]

Personally, I did not know Jay Bennett except for a handful of brief encounters, harking all the way back to that fix-it job referenced in several of the on-line obituaries. I remember talking to this low-key hipster cat with the glasses and unbridled hair at Greg Danner’s former electronics shop on Race Street in Urbana; suddenly, he had split to join that up-and-coming group called Wilco, apparently born out of older bands including something called Uncle Tupelo. The rest was history – at least, until the meltdown (selectively?) documented in I AM TRYING TO BREAK YOUR HEART, when Bennett’s relationship with his band mates bent a little too far in the wrong direction during the recording of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.

Is “Puzzle Heart,” the opening track on his subsequent collaboration with my former Octopus co-worker Ed Burch, The Palace at 4am (Part 1), an artful response to that particular break-up? Regardless, Palace remains one of my favorite records released this decade, and Summerteeth is the one Wilco album in my stacks that I play on a regular basis due to the gorgeously swirling pop gumption introduced and engineered by Bennett. I had mixed feelings about his uneven Palace follow-up, The Magnificent Defeat, and have yet to hear the most recent work, but certainly understand to a point what this musician achieved in his brief time on planet Earth.

I don’t know if it has been confirmed publicly what killed him, but I hope that Bennett has befriended a fix-it person up in the sky that can solve what ails him.

~ Jason Pankoke

p.s. As reported last Wednesday in The News-Gazette, a coroner’s report revealed that Bennett perished from an overdose of pain medication.

[Updated 7/1/09, 08:20 a.m. CST]

Click to read: Glide magazine interview by Brian Robbins

Click to read: Jim DeRogatis obit in Chicago Sun-Times

Click to read: Daniel Kreps obit on RollingStone.com

Click to read: Staff remembrances on SmilePolitely.com

Even though we at the Secret MICRO-FILM Headquarters have an arguable problem sometimes with imposing and upholding deadlines, it doesn’t mean that you should befall the same fate, dear media-makers. As a test of your mettle, we’ve compiled a handful of relevant due dates coming up in the near future for events and contests that you might find of interest, especially in a promotional capacity:

• Monday, June 15: Submission deadline for the 16th annual Chicago Underground Film Festival, to be held this year at the Gene Siskel Film Center in the Art Institute of Chicago

• Monday, June 15: Entry deadline for “Public Transportation Rocks!” sponsored by Virginia-based Innovations in Transportation; films of two- to three-minutes long should feature the company’s products in action, which locally would involve our very own C-U MTD; winners screen in Virginia Beach with cash prizes up to $1,000

• Tuesday, June 16: Submission deadline for the 18th annual Heartland Film Festival in Indianapolis

• Monday, June 22: Deadline to enter your work in the 2nd annual Naperville (IL) Independent Film Festival

• Tuesday, June 30: Entry deadline for the 5th annual Illinois International Film Festival in St. Charles

• Friday, July 31: Submission deadline for the 2nd annual “Shortcuts” contest sponsored by the Illinois Film Office and the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity; short film entries should be made in the Land of Lincoln; winner will screen at this fall’s Chicago International Film Festival

• Tuesday, September 1: Deadline for the brand-new Elgin (IL) Short Film Festival, as unearthed by C-U Blogfidential agent The Voice

• We’ll also throw down mention of the 18th annual St. Louis International Film Festival, for which their Web site does not actually list the submission deadline (?!?) although entrants will be notified by September 15 as to whether or not they made it. It’s probably safe to go by whatever Withoutabox tells you.

All of these events (and probably more that aren’t on our radar at the moment) play up locally- or regionally-made entrants, so don’t be hesitant to look closer than Los Angeles, New York, or Toronto for potential options that could expose your work to people beyond the home crowd.

~ Jason Pankoke

Honestly, we have no evidence whatsoever if France is overtaken with love and affection for Brainsmart Productions‘ comedy-horror-musical THORAXX II: THE BREEDING, but it highly amuses us that even one Gaellic citizen is pleased with C-U’s original MutAnt chronicles. Jason Butler tells C-U Blogfidential that he sent over a screener on the advice of an Australian film writer and, as a result, we now have a fresh review by one Carcharoth courtesy of the “nature amok” fan site, AnimalAttack.info. If you prefer the native tongue, then it’s Aggressiones Animales to you, dearest Francophile.

Anyone still up on their French lessons is encouraged to chime in with an accurate translation so we can peek into the psyche of someone viewing our micro-cinema from a culture half a world away. Speaking of peeking, those whose Brainsmart memories only reach as far back as the first installment of WEREWOLF CEMETERY - given its umpteen playdates at Mike ‘n Molly’s in recent months - should now heed this very important announcement:

The oddball epic that is THORAXX II emerged upon outgrowing its humble origins as a college video project made by co-star Annie Fitzgerald with help from JB, who used the opportunity as an excuse to sequelize/remake his rarely-seen THORAXX short. The usual gang of Brainsmarties that many of you have seen in WEREWOLF make up the cast here, including Barney Joyce, Lacie Ucherek, Scott Kimble, Bill Turner, Thomas Schrepfer, Steve Ucherek, Ryan Walker, and Dr. Erik Martin. THORAXX II is one of only two JB projects (we’re yelling at you, SCREAMING APE) actually available on DVD, but you’ll have to hit up The Man for makin’ copies since you can’t order them on-line.

~ Jason Pankoke

p.s. Before you bother asking - because I know you will - WEREWOLF CEMETERY is still filming. In fact, Brainsmart plans to film some more this weekend before their fearless leader retreats back to Portland. Can he finally wrap it up this visit? Will the mosquito-bitten crew revolt in sheer rage? Why hasn’t Peaslee keeled over yet in a PBR fuelled stupor? (On set, dumbass…) All these questions and more will be answered in time, true believers!

Usually, when one refers to a “fun little ditty” the implication is that one is talking about a song. In this instance, we’ll make the case that the new music video for “Let Me Inside When I Knock On Your Door” by local lo-fi group Morgan Orion and the Constellations is as much a fun little ditty as the tune that’s front and center on its soundtrack. Why not stream the goods while you’re here, dear reader:

Anchored by a clean “band in a box” composite effect, the music video was produced by Sam Ambler of Mongoose Productions, which has apparently been AWOL since the last time we reported on their doings, and Matt Harsh of HarshPro. Look fast and you will recognize several Mongoose regulars like Ernie Springer and Gabrielle Reisman, Orion’s older sister. The video’s release comes hot on the heels of the debut of the Litterbox Collective, a live performance nucleus formed by Orion and several fellow artists; look for multi-band bills bearing the Litterbox handle in the very near future.

It’s too bad that we didn’t have more public showings of the locally-made A/V persuasion, apart from the occasional this and that. Following in the tradition of their earlier “Film Dependency” festivals, maybe Ambler and Reisman would consider launching a companion lo-/no-fi film group to Litterbox called - what else? - the Letterbox Collective.

I’ll leave the tip jar up front.

~ Jason Pankoke

Think you’ve got “the look” to effortlessly melt into a sea of retro swinging hipsters in an underground dance club? Then, wethinks you must get involved with the independent film production LEADING LADIES, which is shooting in Champaign-Urbana from now until the end of June! Most important need right now is for extras to fill said underground club setting during the next three days starting today, Tuesday, June 2, at the former Rialto movie theater in downtown Champaign. Please read this cheat sheet carefully and then contact extras casting director Jenna Weglarz-Ward at (630) 532.7672 or jenna [at] leadingladiesmovie [dot] com immediately to make an appointment.

LEADING LADIES, a music and dance-filled drama concerning the lives of a professional dancer and her two daughters, is produced by Daniel Beahm and Erika Randall Beahm, who directs from a script she co-wrote with Jennifer Bechtel. The film stars Melanie LaPatin, Benji Schwimmer, Shannon Lea Smith, Laurel Vail, and Nicole Dionne.

Look for in-depth coverage on this promising endeavor to appear right here because, of course, that’s the way C-U Blogfidential swings!

~ Jason Pankoke

Last year, we gave up the ghost right away that the second issue of C-U Confidential sported two different covers, leaking the alternate “Indiana Jones” concept to SmilePolitely.com while the noir variation popped up first on C-U Blogfidential. This year, we managed to refrain from tipping our fedora in advance as we introduced dual designs for CUZine 3 at intervals. While most of you saw this cover make the rounds at “Ebertfest” 2009, most of you have not seen the following until now:

Our first-ever “alias cover” features a different color scheme and alternate pose of our principals, played by Paul Brooks, Genevieve Jauquet, and Caragh Brooks, and also suggests a storyline as the P.I. and femme fatale have caught wind of a third wheel in the moment connecting images A and B. “Uh-oh” says the face of our innocent onlooker, a sentiment that may or may not be dead on … depending on what happens next!

The inspiration for transforming CUZine to BNZine for part of the press run came from the abundance of Bloomington-Normal material in the issue as well as the annual BNFilmFest organized by Chuck Thacker, which took place at the Normal Theater back on May 12 and 13. (I do have to correct a slight here; I learned too late that this year’s BNFF was actually the 10th, not the 7th as stated on the spine.) Reinforcing the conceit is the front-cover presence of Normal residents Paul and Caragh in a Bloomington location – the back stairwell of Kymberly Harris’ TheatresCool in the downtown area.

We must give a special shout to the lovely Ms. Jauquet who not only traveled down to B-N from Chicago for the photo shoot, but went the extra mile of doing make-up and hair on herself and her equally lovely cousin, Caragh. (This is correcting a second slight, since I forgot to credit her extra contributions in print. Did I mention the Secret MICRO-FILM Headquarters was swamped this spring? Ay…) Let’s transition to discussing an unrelated digest your humble editor designs (Did I mention the Secret … oh, never mind …) that features another lovely lady who knows a thing or two about being photographed in the proper light:

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“Wha’ happened?” – Mike LaFontaine (Fred Willard), oblivious that he is the punchline instead of his joke, in A MIGHTY WIND

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May has pretty much blown right by the Secret MICRO-FILM Headquarters, that’s wha’ happened! We apologize for experiencing non-technical difficulties that resulted in the temporary absence of fresh C-U Blogfidential postings. Unlike last summer, this summer promises a deluge of filmy activity at the top of the season and CUBlog plans to dive in headfirst just for you, dearest reader!

Watch right here as your humble editor fishes out the key evidence after investigating the sets of at least four … yes, four … overlapping productions: LEADING LADIES, the dance-drama that officially begins its month-long Champaign-Urbana shoot tomorrow, Tuesday, May 26; STILETTOS, a Webisode Mafia thriller that launched in April and will shoot weekends through the end of June; RAGSTONE AVENUE, a coming-of-age low-budget feature that will begin shooting in Bloomington-Normal in a few weeks; and the ever-wily WEREWOLF CEMETERY Issue 4, which would have resumed local shenanigans earlier today were it not for saturated grounds, flooded locations, and teeming mosquitoes out for blood – human or lupine.

Believe it or not, a fifth project also began production two weeks ago and CUBlog understood that it was to be kept on the downlow – but we found this yesterday. It doesn’t exactly spoil the surprise even though additional material in the print edition of The News-Gazette comes close to doing just that. Perspiring filmmakers should still take the time to read Ed Glaser’s advice; much of it is well-worn but worth repeating today in this Digital Age.

So, keep your peepers trained on C-U Blogfidential for near-daily additions as we spill a lot of catch-up, including posts on the aforementioned local films, updates on additional local films that wrapped some time ago, approaching submission deadlines, an Ebertfest 2009 overview, the elusive HOOPESTON interview feature, a recap of our springtime adventures including the first-ever C-U Confidential Local Movie Show, and a note about this weekend’s untimely passing of a musical wünderkind in our midst.

~ Jason Pankoke

p.s. To all those awaiting pictures and/or magazines, please extend us a little patience (and a lovely secretary) as we claw through the work at hand. Danke!

With “Ebertfest” XI and the C-U Confidential Local Movie Show in the books, that must mean the next exciting film exhibition is right around the corner! Tomorrow, grab your beer and pizza money (although the U. would rather you consider it just pizza money) and head on down to The Canopy Club, 708 S. Goodwin Ave., Urbana, IL, for Illini Film & Video’s annual end-of-the-school-year festival! The free event is scheduled for 5 to 7 p.m. and will serve as lead-in for the evening’s “Pizza + Pitcher and Movie” presentation. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first IFV showcase to take place off the University of Illinois campus, so we’ll see how much farther incoming president Andrew Stengele and vice-president Andrew Nygard push the geographical boundaries at this time next year.

Elsewhere, you will soon notice that most of our upcoming posting (save the HOOPESTON article) will be shorties designed to help us get back on track and keep it current. If interested in helping this here cause, feel free to hit up your humble editor at cuconfidential [at] gmail [dot] com and ask what you can do for C-U Blogfidential!

~ Jason Pankoke

We think that’s how you spell it. We’re not fanboy enough to know…

Leave it to Skip Huston to remind us virally that there is life after “Ebertfest” at the movies, even with franchises that have arguably worn out their welcome. I rue the day that the Hollywood summer season starts in, say, February. (Some would claim that it already does.) But, I digress on the grounds that this quickie post is a sign to you, dear reader, that we’re still alive and kicking!

Since we’ve almost recovered from our annual April local culture coma, expect a rash of tantilizing posts to appear in rapid succession right here on C-U Blogfidential. If you can’t wait for us to crank it up, then hunt down a copy of C-U Confidential #3 to tide you over!

~ Jason Pankoke

What is it exactly that interests the lovely young explorer in the secret exchange occurring at stairwell’s end?

Hopefully, it is the sense of adventure and creative enlightenment that you will discover, dear readers, in the next exciting issue of C-U Confidential! You can pilfer your favorite localized movie-making periodical for FREE starting tonight at WOODSTOCK, which opens the eleventh annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival in downtown Champaign. Look for it on the left end of the merch table in the East Lobby of the Virginia Theatre, adorned by our brand-new noir escapade featuring Caragh and Paul Brooks and a femme to die for, Genevieve Jauquet.

Flip open the new edition, and you will discover excerpts from our interviews with upcoming New York producers Thomas Bender and Jake Bakkila (HOOPESTON) and low-budget director Joe Stoltz (MISTER UNDERSTANDING), as well as never-before-seen stills from the set of Luke Boyce’s dark-edged drama PRELUDE and a sampling from our coverage of “Ebertfest” X by Anthony Zoubek. We also summarize the past year in downstate Illinois film, reprint several choice postings from C-U Blogfidential, and harken back to that fateful date of October 29, 1999, when a certain Magazine of Personal Cinema in Action made its debut with a then-novel section devoted to the movies of Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond … curiously disguised as a novel!

We have an extra surprise in store regarding CUZine 3 although we’re holding onto this one for a little bit before making the reveal. Stick right here for the first news and make sure to come back during the next few days to hit the beginning of our Ebertfest XI coverage, the complete interview with misters Bender and Bakkila about their Sweet Corn Capital documentary, and relevant reports from that far-away land we know as Bloomington-Normal! Finally, we’ll give you a wrap-up of the inaugural C-U Confidential Local Film Show, which gave MICRO-FILM Country the concentrated dose of local cinema madness it sorely needed!

~ Jason Pankoke