C-U Biz-en-scène: 09.02.2010
“C-U Biz-en-scène” appears every Wednesday/Thursday on C-U Blogfidential to give our readers a succinct snapshot of the cinema activity in and near Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA. Please support the artists and their work, attend screenings and events, and otherwise become active in our esoteric little world!
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MFHQ & YOU:
C-U Confidential Goes to the (YouTube) Movies!
Something ornery must have been rolling around in the atmosphere of the Secret MICRO-FILM Headquarters this past weekend since we felt compelled to spend time on YouTube, experimenting with your humble editor’s dormant Crimson Mole channel to finally see what makes an account tick. (No, he doesn’t remember what exactly he intended to do with a channel named after his Eye Trauma alter ego.) We briefly transformed it into a prototype C-U Confidential channel before doing it all over again when it became clear that established YouTube URLs can’t be changed. Therefore, we have this functional “Beta version.” (We guess that distinguishes it from a VHS version.) Watch us, befriend us, subscribe to us, and otherwise let us know how we’re driving … even though we still have our training wheels on. Vroom!
PRODUCTION
Line producer Johnny Robinson tells C-U Blogfidential that the Dreamscape Cinema production MY DOG THE SPACE TRAVELER has wrapped principal photography. “We shot at a private residence north of Mahomet,” he says. “Most of the shooting was done on a Panasonic HVX on a jib and dolly track. We had a crowd scene [for two evenings and] about half of the shooting was at night, often working all night.” The crew numbered more than 40 for the two-week schedule, led by writer/director/producer Robin Christian, director of photography Tony Nako, who works under various screen names as a lighting tech on Hollywood films (THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE, BURLESQUE), and gaffer Jim Andre, who has logged numerous features and shorts on his resume including prior Dreamscape films DISPOSABLE, DISCONNECT, and TOXIN. Along with young lead Logan Peters, the cast includes Chris Lemmon (LAND OF THE FREE, WISHMASTER), Tonja Walker (ONE LIFE TO LIVE, THE DERBY STALLION), and Phillip Edward Van Lear (PRISON BREAK, MEET THE BROWNS). Presumably, the studio will have SPACE TRAVELER ready for lift-off in 2011.
Per an announcement posted in this week’s Illini Film & Video e-newsletter, a production opportunity is available through NCSA on campus: “The Public Affairs Division at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) is seeking a University of Illinois student to pursue non-traditional storytelling projects for the fall 2010 semester. The student will have the opportunity to tell science and technology stories with video, multimedia, social media, and other novel techniques. Must be available 10 hours per week from September 2010 to December 2010, with the potential to continue into the spring 2011 semester. Salary: $9/hour. Applications are due September 7, 2010. Direct any questions to Trish Barker at tlbarker [at] ncsa [dot] Illinois [dot] edu or (217) 265-8013.”
MEDIA LINKS
Is the end of the physical video disc at hand thanks to high-quality streaming video? Maybe, maybe not, but the physical brick-and-mortar chains offering them for rental and sale to the viewing public have been crumbling as a result of video’s omnipresent on-line supremacy. We may just witness the trend’s nadir this month when Blockbuster Video will reportedly enter a long-rumored bankruptcy, according to a report filed last week by the Los Angeles Times. Earlier this year, the co-owned Movie Gallery and Hollywood Video stores bit the dust in highly publicized fashion and we’re not particularly sure how many tears have been shed since their demise, even though we feel the pain of those who lost employment because of it. (Your humble editor will admit to having a “just in case” membership card for the HV in the Katsina’s plaza at Neil and Green streets in Champaign for the occasional rental he could get nowhere else…) Granted, we’ve always encouraged trips to better stocked and more personable local stores like That’s Rentertainment and The Movie Fan, but if Blockbuster should go bye-bye the distribution methods for movies in secondary channels will shift dramatically, particularly for independent and self-released work. We’ve been warned for some time about this inevitability and here it comes…
PLAYING THIS WEEK
@ The Art Theater, Champaign, IL: RESTREPO, WINNEBAGO MAN (9/3 on)
@ The Canopy Club, Urbana, IL: Pizza + Pitcher and Movie – FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH, WEIRD SCIENCE, REVENGE OF THE NERDS (9/5, 6 p.m.)
@ The Avon Theater, Decatur, IL: GET LOW, GOING THE DISTANCE, WINTER’S BONE (9/3 on)
@ The Normal Theater, Normal, IL: The Complete METROPOLIS (9/2-9/5), THE ART OF THE STEAL (9/7-9/8)
@ Harvest Moon Drive-In, Gibson City, IL: SHREK FOREVER AFTER, TOY STORY 3 (9/3-9/5)
@ Route 66 Drive-In, Springfield, IL: DESPICABLE ME, GROWN UPS, THE KARATE KID, THE OTHER GUYS (9/3-9/5)
@ That’s Rentertainment, Champaign, IL: HARRY BROWN, OSS-17: LOST IN RIO, RED RIDING TRILOGY, I NEED THAT RECORD!, MARMADUKE, more! (8/31 on)
COMING SOON
9/10-9/12: “Lost Survivor” multi-media performance
@ Hoogland Center for the Arts, Springfield, IL, 7 p.m. Fri/Sat, 2 p.m. Sun
9/17-9/19: Route 66 International Film Festival
@ Hoogland Center for the Arts, Springfield, IL
9/17-9/22: Latin American Film Festival
@ The Art Theater, Champaign, IL
NEW! 9/21: Champaign Movie Makers meeting
@ Class Act Interactive, Champaign, IL, 7 p.m.
9/24-9/26: 2010 B Movie Celebration, Franklin, IN
9/25-9/26: LEADING LADIES
@ The Art Theater, Champaign, IL, 5 & 7:30 p.m. Sat, 2:30, 5 & 7:30 p.m. Sun
9/25-9/26: REVOLTING
@ The Art Theater, Champaign, IL, 3 & 10 p.m. Sat, 12 p.m. Sun
10/7-10/21: Chicago International Film Festival, Chicago, IL
10/14-10/23: Heartland Film Festival, Indianapolis, IN
10/22-10/23: THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW
@ The Avon Theater, Decatur, IL, Midnight
10/23: REVOLTING
@ Sleepy Creek Vineyards, Fairmount, IL, 8 p.m.
10/29-10/31: Freeky Creek Short Film Festival
@ Sleepy Creek Vineyards, Fairmount, IL
11/5-11/7: Illinois International Film Festival, Chicago, IL
11/11-11/13: Embarras Valley Film Festival
@ EIU campus/Will Rogers Theater/Charleston Public Library, Charleston, IL
11/11-11/21: St. Louis International Film Festival, St. Louis, MO
11/19-11/21: Dark Carnival Film Festival, Bloomington, IN
2/18-2/27, 2011: Big Muddy Film Festival
@ Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL
3/22-3/27, 2011: Ann Arbor Film Festival, Ann Arbor, MI
3/30-4/1, 2011: Wisconsin Film Festival, Madison, WI
4/27-5/1, 2011: Roger Ebert’s Film Festival
@ Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
UNIVERSITY FILM SERIES
NEW! AsiaLENS: AEMS Documentary/Film Series
@ Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, 7 p.m.
9/7: JOURNEY OF A RED FRIDGE; 10/5: 1428; 11/2: UNMISTAKEN CHILD; 12/7: BURMA VJ
NEW! Global Lens 2010: International Films
@ Main Lounge, Allen Hall/Unit One, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, 7 p.m.
9/22: GODS, Peru; 10/13: LEO’S ROOM, Uruguay; 10/27: MASQUERADES, Algeria; 11/3: MY TEHRAN FOR SALE, Iran; 11/10: OCEAN OF AN OLD MAN, India; 11/17: ORDINARY PEOPLE, Serbia; 12/1: THE SHAFT, China; 12/8: SHIRLEY ADAMS, South Africa
NEW! IPRH Film Series
@ Room 62, Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, Champaign, IL, 5:30 p.m.
10/7: FAST, CHEAP, AND OUT OF CONTROL; 10/28: NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968); 11/11: THIRTEEN CONVERSATIONS ABOUT ONE THING; More TBA
NEW! Israeli Movie Club
@ The Cohen Center, University of Illinois, Champaign, IL, 7:30 p.m.
9/13: KIPPUR; 9/20: TIME OF FAVOR; 9/27: OUT OF SIGHT; 10/4: TURN LEFT AT THE END OF THE WORLD; 10/11: VOSSI & JAGGER; 10/18: VITZHAK RABIN; 10/25: LEMON TREE; 11/1: THE SECRETS; 11/8: HALFON HILL DOESN’T ANSWER; 11/29: OR (MY TREASURE)
OUTRO
As you can see, we’ve added some “bulk” movie listings to the calendar. These film series take place on the University of Illinois campus and provide a cultural and educational alternative to the usual offerings playing at the usual places. For the longest time, we’ve had a silent gripe here at MFHQ that information about UIUC movie screenings like these are not centralized in the slightest, disseminated to the Champaign-Urbana community in a wildly uneven fashion. Promotion seems to consist of departmental e-mail blasts as well as random fliers and postcards scattered in key buildings; ambitious volunteers or professors may enter the shows into Internet calendars or distribute extra paper collateral to coffee houses and other communal spots. (We found postcards for the Israeli club and AsiaLENS/AEMS at That’s Rentertainment, as good a place as any to leave them, while WILL-TV’s David Noreen was kind enough to post the Global Lens schedule on a forum.) However, if the event is not nicknamed “Ebertfest” then it doesn’t seem to receive a wholesale push. Is there no one person in the hallowed halls of UIUC with thoughts about collecting this information onto a dedicated calendar? Wouldn’t the long-standing Cinema Studies department (now pseudo-morphed into Media and Cinema Studies (MACS) under the auspices of the College of Media) be the ideal stewards of such data? Bueller? Bueller?!?
To wit, the following quote from MACS assistant professor Christine Catanzarite is taken from an introduction to this year’s Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities (IPRH) Film Series, the entries for which are usually chosen to address an annual theme. Catanzarite discusses how she almost shelved the series for 2010-2011 but instead decided to revisit early choices, saying that “while the films themselves have represented some of the finest examples of cinematic art, in the early days of the IPRH, our mechanism for spreading the news of our upcoming events was still a work in progress. Consequently, some of those early films didn’t find the audience they deserved.”
We can only imagine that not all UIUC departments and clubs have equal resources for promoting their respective screenings. To be fair, we can also imagine that the appeal of particular programs will be different in intensity and range even if well-advertised, thereby influencing turnout. Regardless, it would be great if an entity like MACS attacked the disparity and coordinated campus-wide cinematic information for the enlightenment and accessibility of all … including your friendly neighborhood chroniclers at C-U Blogfidential.
That’s it for the “business of our scene” this week!
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If you have relevant news, opportunities, dates, or promotions that you would like included in CUBiz, please forward the who, what, where, when, and how much to cuconfidential [at] gmail [dot] com.
Compiled by Jason Pankoke
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“C-U Biz-en-scène” no. 6 © 2010 Jason Pankoke/C-U Blogfidential.