C-U Blogfidential

Our movie and media Calendar appears every Friday/Saturday on C-U Blogfidential and caters to the downstate region anchored by Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA.

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MILESTONES | Happy Birthday to You!

2/8: Robin Christian (producer/director, C.O.R.N. II: MIND HARVEST, Dreamscape Cinema, Champaign, IL)
2/12: Gela Rediger (producer/designer, Camp Nostalgic Studios, Champaign-Urbana, IL)
2/13: Steven Bentz (director, The Virginia Theatre, Champaign Park District, Champaign, IL)

PASSINGS | You Will Be Missed

1/28: Kay Bohannon Holley, 71 (actress, WELCOME TO TOLONO, Me Me Productions, Los Angeles, CA)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

We suppose a fresh Report on timely filmy things wouldn’t hurt anyone this week, but we swear that we’re keeping this one short. And by that, we mean shorts! First, it sounds like a few entrants as well as past projects were screened by Champaign Movie Makers at the Phoenix Savoy 16 this past Tuesday, February 4, to mark the conclusion of another 48-hour filmmaking contest; the winner for this outing is a gooey lark titled THE BLUE OOZE BROTHERS from Andrew Nygard and company, which can be viewed right here at YouTube. Also on the ‘tube is a teaser for AN AFFAIR AT THE END OF TIME, the first “official” short subject from Earth-217 Studios, which features local talent Myles Valentine and Katherine Bokenkamp in the lead roles; producer Phillip Hazen and director/writer Chase Todd are submitting the piece to film festivals as we write. And then, we’d love to tell you that free tickets are still available via the CU International Film Festival website for their February 15 event at the UI Spurlock Center of World Cultures, but, not so fast; skip to this page instead, since all the tickets have apparently been claimed, and add yourself to the wait list by February 12 in case any seating opens up. Good luck!

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Back in Savoy, the Chambana Film Festival invites you to cavort about the Savoy 16 en route to the auditorium where they will be presenting all of this year’s Academy Award-nominated short subjects over the next three weekends with the following schedule: “Live Action” category on Sunday, February 16, 4 p.m., followed by the “Animation” category at 6 p.m.; “Documentary” category on Sunday, February 23, 4 p.m.; and, an “Animation” reprise on Sunday, March 2, 4 p.m., which should conclude before the televised Oscar ceremony gets underway. You can also feel free to hit the Savoy 16 on Saturday, February 22, 6 p.m., when, as was probably expected, the folks behind the locally-made documentary THE EVOLUTION OF THE BARBER will host an encore after all the tickets to their first screening were snapped up in advance through specific channels – hint, Beard Culture Barbershop & Gallery of Urbana, hint – as with the CU International fest in the last week. Pens to Lens is still accepting student-crafted screenplays for short films through Friday, February 28, to be reviewed and possibly produced by local film pros. And, Scott Murphy of Neon Street Productions in Danville shared with CMM on Facebook that his film, SHUTEYE, was completed and finally released to YouTube as of January 16; the 22-minute mystery, shot at locations in Vermilion and Douglas counties, stars Aereol Murphy, Pamela Adam, and Makiah Payne.

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We’ll tack on a mention of the following project that was recently introduced on CMM FB since the indie features are what we really like to see taking root in Champaign-Urbana. Despite the deadline of January 31 to apply for both crew positions as stated in the following graphic – you can click it to enlarge – and in this online notice at Backstage for acting positions, we encourage you to contact the producers of DARK SOUL RIVER by writing darksoulriverfilm [at] gmail [dot] com to show interest in case they still need help in certain departments. There is not much that is freely available about this film at the moment; writer-director Vijay M. Rajan, who is a recent transplant from California to central Illinois based on what we have found online, talks about the cross-cultural concept behind his psychological thriller in the materials he has posted on a fiscal sponsorship platform called Filmmakers Collab. He has at least ten narrative films under his belt, as noted on the Internet Movie Database, and also directed for the stage, produced industrial and online content, and taught courses and seminars at colleges and community organizations as well as through his own virtual studio, The Hive SJ. Rajan is clearly an enterprising fellow and that’s pretty key in getting any substantial movie off the ground, especially in our neck of the cornfields, so feel free to welcome him aboard to the C-U and also tell him CUBlog sent you if you decide to check in!

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IMAGERY DU C-U | Picturing Our Scene on the Screen

In the course of digging up this’s and that’s for today’s Report that we didn’t know a week ago we’d be writing, we came across evidence that the first of two sequels to Dreamscape Cinema’s horror yarn C.O.R.N. is finally being primed for release. Below we share with you the one-sheet design that is now on the Internet Movie Database page for C.O.R.N.II: MIND HARVEST and, if you hit this link, you can watch the trailer for it over at the Vimeo account of Playa Media Group. The series is a “taxidermists of death in the cornfields” concept and in this outing, per the description available at the official Dreamscape website, “The C.O.R.N. people want to perform taxidermy on 13-year-old Summer after she took down their leader, her father known as the ‘Doctor.’ Summer soon realizes her scarred face will prevent her from ever blending in. She befriends Maggie, a criminal psychologist, who becomes her replacement mother. But when Maggie decides to bring the law after the C.O.R.N. cult, she might have guaranteed her and Summer will become C.O.R.N.’s next stuffed art display.” Clearly, a dark sense of humor nourishes this variety of C.O.R.N., which, by the way, stands for “Collective Order of Recreational Necrophilanthropists.”

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Maggie is played by Jessica Morris, a busy character actress with lots of television and genre work to her credit, while Summer Olshefski and veteran heavy Robert Donovan (who appears briefly in SHUTEYE, talked about in the Report) return from the first adventure as Summer and the Doctor, respectively. Keep an eye out for MIND HARVEST and its follow-up, KISS OF DEATH, to soon sprout among the rows of entertainment viewing options out there along with the original C.O.R.N., which has been available to watch on Tubi and other services since 2021. We also wish a happy birthday to C.O.R.N. series creator and Dreamscape founder Robin Christian, who we presume will be cranking some Beatles music to eleven for the occasion at his home in Monticello this weekend. Upcoming projects for Christian and his Champaign-based studio include a long-in-the-works pair of music culture movies: JOY TO THE WORLD, a period comedy, and THE PRINCE OF MATHEW STREET, a biographical portrait of an early Fab Four manager, Sam Leach. Dreamscape releases that debuted in between parts one and two of C.O.R.N. include A FARGO CHRISTMAS STORY, the feel-good drama starring the late Ed Asner that is available for free on YouTube, and BELOW, a shark thriller that recently premiered on Amazon Prime.

LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers

@ Danville Public Library, Danville, IL
Danville Library Foundation and DPL present “Filmmaking 101” seminar with Demetrius Witherspoon of DV Entertainment Pictures (2/8, 12:30-1:30 p.m., free, Howard Rutan Meeting Room)

@ Lincoln Hall, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Film & Video* meeting: “Speed Dating” (2/10, 7 p.m., Room 1090)

@ University YMCA, UIUC, Urbana, IL
UI Global Relations, etc., present “Uman Tok: Tailoring Hope, Renewing Futures” discussion and trailer screening of documentary made by students at the University of Illinois-Urbana, Fourah Bay College in Sierra Leone, and the University of Birmingham, UK (2/13, 6-7:30 p.m., free, Latzer Hall)

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
HEART EYES, I’M STILL HERE (in Portuguese with English sub), LOVE HURTS, COMPANION, CREATION OF THE GODS II: DEMON FORCE (in Mandarin with English sub), DETECTIVE CHINATOWN 1900 (in Mandarin with English sub), DOG MAN (animation), THE FIRE INSIDE*, FLIGHT RISK, THE FORGE* (faith film), MUFASA: THE LION KING, ONE OF THEM DAYS, WICKED*, WOLF MAN* (2/7 on), KRAVEN THE HUNTER (2/8, 1 p.m.), PADDINGTON IN PERU preview (2/8, 1 p.m.), AX Cinema Nights presents COWBOY BEBOP: THE MOVIE (animé) (2/9, 4:30 p.m., in Japanese with English sub), ATTACK ON TITAN: THE LAST ATTACK (animé) (2/10-2/12, 7 p.m., in Japanese with English sub; 2/10, 8 p.m., 2/11-2/12, 3 p.m., English dub), MEMOIR OF A SNAIL event with filmmaker Q&A (animation) (2/11, 7 p.m.), BECOMING LED ZEPPELIN (music documentary), CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD, NE ZHA 2 (animation) (in Mandarin with English sub), HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE (re-release, standard and 3-D), PADDINGTON IN PERU (2/13 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
BECOMING LED ZEPPELIN (music documentary, IMAX), HEART EYES, LOVE HURTS, THE BRUTALIST, COMPANION, A COMPLETE UNKNOWN, DOG MAN (animation), MOANA 2 (animation), MUFASA: THE LION KING, NOSFERATU*, ONE OF THEM DAYS, PRESENCE, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3, VALIANT ONE, WICKED (2/7 on), PARASITE (re-release) (2/7-2/8, 9:45 p.m.; 2/10-2:12, 9 p.m.; IMAX). UFC 312: Dricus du Plessis vs. Sean Strickland, more (mixed martial arts) (2/8, 9 p.m., simulcast), CASABLANCA (2/9, 3 & 7 p.m.; 2/12, 7 p.m.), CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD, HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE (re-release, standard and 3-D), PADDINGTON IN PERU (2/13 on) *single screenings daily

@ Pine Lounge, 1st floor, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents CONCLAVE (2/7-2/8, 7 p.m., free w/i-card)

Events featuring locally produced movies are marked with an asterisk (*). Additional “Now Playing” and “Coming Soon” listings appear after the jump!

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Our movie and media Calendar appears every Friday/Saturday on C-U Blogfidential and caters to the downstate region anchored by Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA.

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MILESTONES | Happy Birthday to You!

12/27: Matthew Gladney (co-host, Mashley at the Movies podcast, Champaign-Urbana, IL)
12/30: Paul Benson (grip, FINAL SUMMER, Front 76 Films/The Line Film Co., Champaign/Chicago, IL)
12/30: Jason Pankoke (editor/publisher, C-U Blogfidential, Champaign-by-way-of-Mendota, IL)

PASSINGS | You Will Be Missed

12/26/22: Patricia Ann Pellow, 78 (matron saint to our arts, C-U Confidential, Champaign, IL)

FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said

Is it too late to mull over Christmas movies, dearest revelers? This peculiar genre of seasonal television programming that is designed to besiege basic cable packages in the months of November and December with manufactured warm fuzzies and cheer is finally infiltrating the movies of Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond. If the A- and B-list likes of Kristin Chenoweth, Bruce Campbell, Teri Hatcher, Christopher Lloyd, and Fred Olen Ray can go there, then so can we. If we have to. We guess.

On a higher budget level and very peripherally related is the new Disney streaming release DASHING THROUGH THE SNOW, directed by Tim Story (THE BLACKENING), which stars Chicago native Lil Rel Howrey as Santa Claus and Champaign native Ludacris as a social worker who resists enjoying the spirit of the season. On pocket change in comparison and much closer to home, we have the as-yet-unconfirmed feature – was anybody as highly amused as us by this WCIA-TV report that couldn’t bother (or, weren’t allowed) to identify the producer they interviewed and called the film I’LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS, a title as over-used and subject to change as it comes? – filmed on location in Champaign County between March and May of this year; sites chosen to help tell the tale, about a snowstorm that forces a holiday layover for the main characters, include the UI Willard Airport of Savoy and Church Street in downtown Champaign with, sigh, the dormant Art Theater as a backdrop. Presumably, this action was brought to the C-U by locally-based Shatterglass Films, the Champaign County Film Office, or both.

And then we have A FARGO CHRISTMAS STORY, the latest from Dreamscape Cinema of Champaign, which received an online bow back on Friday, December 1, through a YouTube channel billed as “Empress Movies.” Directed by company head Robin Christian, the drama stars Cynthia Strahan (THE OFFER) as an assistant in a development firm from Minnesota who is sent to the eponymous North Dakota city to oversee a construction project and is met with very mixed reactions from the townsfolk, never mind the shady overtures from the mayor, played by Robert Donovan, and her boss, played by Douglas Wilson. Complications of all sorts threaten her return home for Christmas with her family and, you betcha, it takes a community who grows to care for her to aid in setting things right.

Filmed in early 2020 on location in the aforementioned states as well as at Geschenk Coffee, Café, & Gifts of St. Joseph, located 10 miles east of the C-U, FARGO also features Sadie Katz (BLOOD FEAST), Nico Zahniser (THE RELIANT), Richard Riehle (BARRY), Maxwell Caulfield (GREASE 2), and Gary Houston, who appeared in both the FARGO show on FX and the classic Coen Brothers film from 1996. Wilson and Donovan previously acted for Dreamscape in the studio’s C.O.R.N. horror trilogy, the second and third entries of which are still unavailable to see, and the late great Edward Asner, who appeared in Dreamscape’s first commercial release SHEEBA, cameos as a dispenser of sage small-town advice named “Popcorn Bud.” Upcoming features that filmmaker Christian will be pitching to potential financiers and distributors include his own pet projects like JOY TO THE WORLD, about young people who attend Woodstock, and THE LEACH OF LIVERPOOL, about an early manager of The Beatles. A spinoff of Christian’s multimedia firm Dreamscape Design, the company marked its 25th anniversary in 2022.

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A FARGO CHRISTMAS STORY is a Dreamscape Cinema (Champaign-Urbana/St. Joseph, IL-Fargo, ND-Moorehead, MN) production that is written, produced, and directed by Robin Christian with cinematography by Daniel Clarke, art direction by Jiovanie Velazquez, editing by Skye Marcía, sound design by Jim Parker, makeup and costume design by Krystal Depew, and visual effects by Jacob Kuhne. First assistant director is Alison Lecouris, gaffer is Tommy Garrett, key grip is Sean Nielsen, sound recordists are Scott Murphy and Matt Wheeler, and music composer is David Stahl. Executive producer is James Lenz, associate producer is Jeff Trainer, and the film stars Cynthia Strahan, Nico Zahniser, Sadie Katz, Maxwell Caulfield, Richard Riehle, Robert Donovan, Gary Houston, Douglas Wilson, and Edward Asner. It is a 2023 release via Empress Movies on YouTube and runs 97 minutes.

NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area

@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
THE BOYS IN THE BOAT, THE COLOR PURPLE, FERRARI, ANYONE BUT YOU, AQUAMAN AND THE LOST KINGDOM, THE BOY AND THE HERON (animé) (in Japanese with English sub or English dub), GODZILLA MINUS ONE (in Japanese with English sub), THE HUNGER GAMES: THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS & SNAKES, THE IRON CLAW, MIGRATION, POOR THINGS, SALAAR PART 1: CEASEFIRE (in Hindi or Telugu with English sub), TROLLS BAND TOGETHER* (animation), WONKA (12/29 on), AMC “Screen Unseen” (mystery movie) (1/3, 7 p.m.), NIGHT SWIM, SHINING FOR ONE THING (in Mandarin with English sub) (1/4 on) *single screenings daily

@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
THE BOYS IN THE BOAT, THE COLOR PURPLE, FERRARI, ANYONE BUT YOU, AQUAMAN AND THE LOST KINGDOM, THE BOY AND THE HERON (animé) (in Japanese with English sub or English dub), GODZILLA MINUS ONE (in Japanese with English sub), THE HUNGER GAMES: THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS & SNAKES, THE IRON CLAW, MIGRATION, NAPOLEON*, POOR THINGS, SALTBURN*, TROLLS BAND TOGETHER* (animation), WISH (animation), WONKA (12/29 on), NIGHT SWIM (1/4 on) *single screenings daily

@ Redbox (streaming), Champaign-Urbana, IL
Follow the link to view seasonal favorites and the hottest new releases! (12/26 on) Online rentals

@ The Virginia Theatre, Champaign, IL
No movies this week!

Events featuring locally produced movies are marked with an asterisk (*). Additional “Now Playing” and “Coming Soon” listings appear after the jump!

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Ptew! Roughly a year ago, life took a nosedive here at Momkoke Manor on the edge of an American small town and it engulfed the attentions of yours truly so much that I have yet to regain my stride with C-U Blogfidential. It’s a drawn-out struggle to deliver consistently to this day, made all the more frustrating by the fertile pumpkin patch of ideas bound to inspire us this time of the season. I simply can’t act upon them all in good time, so, don’t be surprised when the ‘blog publishes an outburst of fully-baked content, such as our recent previews of locally-made horrors, and then coasts for several weeks on low-calorie Calendars before we plate our next treats. The seeds are always being sown at MFHQ Remote.

Today’s post is the CUBlog equivalent of the Hollywood studios’ recent tendency to “tease the trailer with a trailer.” While feature articles are in the works to highlight the filmmaking groups to be mentioned in a moment, we wanted to make sure you knew about their newest productions being added to Amazon Prime Video for streaming rental and purchase in case you’d like to watch them before we discuss!

Arriving on Amazon at the end of August, the first entry in the C.O.R.N. series is a bid by Dreamscape Cinema of Champaign to take a slice out of the lucrative horror genre market. Directed, written, and produced by company founder Robin Christian and originally filmed in and near Champaign County in mid-summer 2019, C.O.R.N.: A FIELD OF SCREAMS is about a pair of siblings (Kennedy Tucker and Mateus Ward) and their friend (Roger Cross) who become stranded in Midwest farm country during Halloween and must contend with the locals as well as a shadowy cult, influenced by the sinister Mr. Dr. (Robert Donovan), that practices bizarre rituals on unwitting victims. Harvest moon mayhem leads to a conclusion that sets up C.O.R.N. 2, shot in 2020 and starring Jessica Morris, and C.O.R.N. 3, wrapped in June of this year; both will stalk Amazon and other platforms in the coming months once the leg work is done by Total Content Digital, the Los Angeles-based firm that is a sales rep for A FIELD OF SCREAMS.

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Also staking its claim on Amazon bandwidth as of today, Tuesday, October 12, is the “directors cut” [sic] edition of UNLISTED OWNER. Filmed several years ago in the southern town of Sumner, Illinois, by first-time director Jed Brian for his fledgling label, Lawford County Productions, the thriller involves a group of teens and families who run afoul of an unbalanced young man, prone to squatting his childhood home and moving quickly to kill anyone else on the premises. Brian self-released a DVD of UNLISTED OWNER in 2017 and teamed up with Summer Hill Entertainment and J.R. Bookwalter’s Makeflix to offer Blu-rays and DVDs on demand in 2019 before agreeing to the current pact with POV Horror, a specialist in “found footage” horror fare. As told to CUBlog by Brian, DIRECTORS CUT adds briefly to the original “recorded live” scenes and incorporates brand-new material that introduces a handful of viral commentators who report on the slaughter several years after the fact. What more can they discern from the tapes?

Following the jump is a statement from Lawford County Productions on the UNLISTED OWNER re-release as well as a striking piece of promotional artwork. Watch for our exclusive conversations with Brian and Christian to appear in this space after we visit with another downstate Illinois storyteller who favors tales on the darker side, Ben Harl of Silver Compass Studios in Decatur.

~ Jason Pankoke

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During the more productive years here in Champaign County, the arrival of summer means that teams of media-makers will be out in the field realizing their dreams. It may involve setting up a scene in a literal field such as, not surprisingly, one filled with miles’ worth of corn stalks that might be hiding nefarious truths. This is the general scenario of the upcoming horror-thriller CORN from Dreamscape Cinema of Champaign, who recently announced a casting and crew call to staff the shoot that will take place between July 25 and August 14 in central Illinois. The studio is needing 18-years-and-older actors for all roles, the breakdowns for which can be found at this brand-new Facebook page, while paid positions behind the scenes in the camera, lighting, wardrobe, art, and makeup effects departments are detailed in this notice at the Champaign Movie Makers group on Facebook. Interest and headshots should be directed to robin [at] dreamscape [dot] la about CORN, said to be “a scary take on isolation … similar to HOSTEL, HOUSE OF WAX, and CHILDREN OF THE CORN,” as well as their next project, a “holiday movie” set in Fargo, North Dakota, that will be cast in July and filmed at the end of 2019. Dreamscape head Robin Christian tells C-U Blogfidential that BELOW, the bull shark attack flick they made last summer, is approaching picture lock and will be pitched to distributors in the next few months.

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Also spinning those storytelling gears is John Isberg of Swede Films in Urbana – look for his educational Web series MAGNETIC FIELDS to be unveiled on-line shortly – as he prepares for his debut in the full-length narrative format. A post to the Champaign Casting Call group on Facebook describes his venture as “horror [in the] haunted house genre in the vein of POLTERGEIST, THE INNKEEPERS, [and] THE AMITYVILLE HORROR” that will be filmed from July 7 to 15 in our immediate area. Swede Films is looking primarily for preteen-to-teenage actors in the main roles and is aiming to cast all talent from central Illinois. Hopefuls should forward their headshots to john [at] swedefilms [dot] com as soon as possible so they may be in the running for auditions to be held soon at Shatterglass Studios in Champaign. A brief skim through the timelines of the groups linked above will reveal bonus opportunities from DeShawn Hill of HD Productions Media and numerous point people behind this year’s armada of Pens to Lens films. Get involved in our film scene, friends!

~ Jason Pankoke

p.s. For those with deep-cut knowledge of the CUBlog milieu, we want to clarify that CORN is completely separate from an earlier attempt to harvest horror from our crops. Dreamscape Cinema lent production gear and good cheer in August 2004 to the makers of a proof-of-concept alternately titled STALKED and STALKED IN THE CORN. The brainchild of Ryan E. Heppe, a voice actor and former executive at the David Foster Company whose credits include COLLATERAL DAMAGE and THE CORE, the short was photographed on his parents’ farmland in his hometown of Homer with the help of several moonlighting technicians from WILL-TV and myriad contributors from the Chicago area. STALKED never took root as a feature and evidence of this version is hard to come by, but your humble editor did escape the set with a handful of snaps that have never been seen before. The portrait below of Heppe’s scarecrow fiend is one of them. You will also find mention of STALKED in C-U Confidential #10 if you look closely!

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While putting together our SHOT report from a few weeks ago, we happened upon a Facebook announcement from Robin Christian of Dreamscape Cinema in Champaign that BAD COMPANY, his company’s bioterrorism action film that was originally produced in Piatt County in July and August of 2013, would street on the same day as the vintage student adventure – Tuesday, August 28. This included placement in Family Video locations across North America and additional exposure in Redbox kiosks nationwide thanks to the connections of MTI Home Video, the long-running genre label that picked up the rights to BAD COMPANY from sales agent Artist View Entertainment. Other than securing international distribution for the project, previously called LOWLIFES, this clears the deck for Dreamscape as all the studio’s completed features are now in commercial release with most available via Amazon streaming. You can access the older catalog – SHEEBA, DISCONNECT, ACT YOUR AGE, MY DOG THE SPACE TRAVELER, and the VOD-only DISPOSABLE – at this Amazon search result.

Starring up-and-coming talents like Booboo Stewart (X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST), Giselle Bonilla (FREEDOM WRITERS), Kyle Massey (THAT’S SO RAVEN), Madelyn Deutch (THE YEAR OF SPECTACULAR MEN), and Quinton Aaron (THE BLIND SIDE) as well as veteran actors like William Atherton (DIE HARD), Christopher Judge (STARGATE SG-1), Tzi Ma (THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE), and Mark Derwin (THE SECRET LIFE OF THE AMERICAN TEENAGER), the film follows a group of teenagers that is enrolled in a disciplinary boot camp and becomes isolated when a rogue militia invades the immediate countryside. Troop members who survive an early search-and-destroy sweep by the invaders must put aside their pasts and band together in order to thwart a scheme to disable the nearby nuclear plant. Other than aiming to produce a yarn that is exciting and colorful, Christian took inspiration from the Lincoln’s Challenge Academy in Rantoul and their serious mission to help wayward youth turn around their lives so they may be productive or even heroic in the face of adversity.

The disc reproduces the film adequately – we can’t help but be impressed by the look of sequences involving woodlands and farm country, lushly captured by veteran cinematographer Bruce Logan (TRON, JACKSON COUNTY JAIL) – yet is barren of extras other than removable subtitles and trailers for MTI fare. (A similar fate befell this year’s other commercial releases of locally filmed features, CONSUMED and BEFORE ‘I DO’, although SHOT benefited from landing at a collector’s label that regularly supplements its titles with bonus content.) You can segue to the official Facebook page for a closer look behind the scenes or locate any fan site devoted to buff TWILIGHT star Stewart for a peek at the actor in character and then, maybe, something else BAD COMPANY. Christian’s current ensemble has recently wrapped the next Dreamscape production, a bull shark-in-the-Midwest-river saga called BELOW, and is now filming pickup shots in Illinois and Missouri. We’ll talk about that a bit more in an upcoming post. Until then, be alert when the cornfields surround you…

~ Jason Pankoke

p.s. William Kephart, we hardly knew ye in this movie and it’s not because you went uncredited in your cameo. Snif.

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“Six Stages and 1,000 Hours to Success”
Building your feature film resume involves keen understanding of how a production comes together. Luckily, the American Film Market provides a wealth of insight and tools for achieving that dream.

by Robin Christian

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Although I consider myself a “creative,” every decision must be all business when I put on my producer’s hat. With so many movies being made every year, distributors look for any reason not to pick up your independent film. I’m afraid the pitfalls aren’t as clear as they could be; everyone is so busy that you will simply hear “it’s a pass from us” with no explanation as to why they passed.

Examples on how I’ve learned this lesson the hard way include having an opening scene that didn’t clearly lead into the protagonist’s story or several scenes with poor sound design. Those could have been corrected after the fact, but you get one chance to make a positive impression on the sales agent or distributor just as they get one chance to impress a buyer.

Listen to your instinct, your significant other, and your good friends. Weigh carefully each thing pointed out by them and never take negativity personally. You’re entitled to make mistakes, but don’t show the movie to your trusted circle and expect everyone to see past numerous gaffes or unfinished visual effects.

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The pleasures of combining family time and enjoyable movie viewing in the out of doors during the summer months are not restricted to surviving drive-ins or programs in larger cities, so it seems! Dearest readers living along the I-72 corridor, which connects Decatur and Champaign-Urbana, will have a new entertainment option beginning later tonight, Friday, June 10, when the city of Monticello launches their “Monticello Movie Nights” for the season. An inflatable screen and refreshments will be set up by the parks and recreation department in a blocked-off corner of their cozy downtown area, leaving folks plenty of room to camp out comfortably and relax with their friends and neighbors. Headlining the series debut will be MY DOG THE SPACE TRAVELER, the most recent release from Champaign’s Dreamscape Cinema and producer Robin Christian, a Monticello resident who filmed much of this all-ages adventure on the home front a few years back. According to Facebook posts by Christian, cast members will kick back with the locals to watch MY DOG, which we believe has yet to play the C-U in any public capacity. (You might take a quick peek at our Calendar entries dated today as well as Friday, March 11, to learn about previous Dreamscape premieres.) Titles announced for future Friday evenings include HOME on June 17, MINIONS on July 1, THE PEANUTS MOVIE on July 15, INSIDE OUT on July 29, and STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS on August 5. Of course, the event will begin at dusk if weather permits; click here for potential updates alongside the show listings. Admission is free for all.

~ Jason Pankoke

[Squirrel! This is post #1100 on CUBlog! Rural space is the place!]

“Sweet Smell of a Trend”
The annual American Film Market reminds us that professional filmmaking is a business venture, typically requiring a talent for recognizing what some people want and other people can offer.

by Robin Christian

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Breaking my first rule of being a positive person, just for a moment, I will warn those starting out in this business that they will find rejection instead of satisfaction, more often than not. But, you need to be positive by far if you want to persevere and succeed!

After several ups and downs serving in public office, Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States. History doesn’t remember the elections he lost, even if the evidence is there. In your case or mine, fans will hopefully be watching our good movies 100, 500, or even 1,000 years from now, and not the bad ones.

That’s right! Much like we enjoy the work of composers from several centuries past, the digital age will enable our movies to far outlast us. I think it’s kind of cool to imagine and, being that positive person, I’d also like to think people a century from now will give my under-watched movies the justice they deserve. I’m talking about feature films, of course, which seem to stand the test of time better than television shows or film shorts.

So, here’s the point…

Please don’t rush into making your next movie. Give yourself a good shot at it by making something original, unpredictable, well-acted, well-told, and sporting high production values.

I am approached all the time by individuals with “the best movie idea ever.” I’ve always believed there are no bad creative ideas, so I listen and try not to judge hastily. I will then recap what they tell me. Finally, I ask if they are sure it would be worth 1,000 hours of each of their lives to make sure it gets made.

As a writer/director myself, I have fleshed out creative ideas that I believe will someday make me successful. This sage advice is something I have to remind myself to take heed as well.

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What should be the next movie made, then, by me or any of you? To assist us with that answer, let me refer to experts I met with or heard speak at the most recent American Film Market (AFM). More than simply the pulse of the indie film industry, the AFM this past November brought thousands of knowledgeable persons to Santa Monica, California, to investigate what is and is not working in today’s media landscape.

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“Conquering the American Film Market”
A dynamic labyrinth of talent and opportunity, the AFM can be overwhelming to navigate for neophytes. A veteran attendee offers guidance to green filmmakers who are otherwise game.

by Robin Christian

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Each year, the American Film Market (AFM) attracts tens of thousands of film industry professionals from all around the world to Santa Monica, California. I say professionals; however, not unlike the millions of actors and actresses who wait tables while awaiting their next role in a feature or on television, some of us producers, directors, writers, composers, costume designers, and so on are doing film business on the side while holding down other jobs. For those of you falling in this category, I can offer a glimpse into the exciting industry you hope to someday conquer through my experiences attending AFM.

Thousands of little meetings take place in the suites and hotel rooms, converted into mini-offices, of the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel and surrounding beachfront venues. Some may be about a single film, others might cover a slate of projects. It appears AFM has become the “go-to” indicator, or barometer, for sensing the pulse of the entire entertainment industry. (This excludes the major film studios, an industry unto themselves.) If movies sell poorly or attendance is up at AFM, the trades such as Variety or The Hollywood Reporter document it as a positive or negative reflection of the independent movie business as a whole.

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Space out, gang! Three full years after C-U Blogfidential last posted about SHEEBA, the first feature-length movie by Dreamscape Cinema of Champaign to be released in the United States, we’ve come full circle with the domestic distribution of MY DOG THE SPACE TRAVELER through NAMP/Cinedigm Home Entertainment as of yesterday, Tuesday, February 25. Not only has the studio revisited the boy-and-his-dog formula of SHEEBA but also successively sold international rights to all their initial titles, including DISCONNECT and ACT YOUR AGE. (This excludes their low-profile, micro-budget efforts seemingly mired in limbo, DISPOSABLE and LINK.) As you might have discerned, above is the cosmic box art and here is a more earthbound trailer:

Now available on extras-free DVD through Netflix and the expected merchants – Amazon, Best Buy, etc. – DOG is an adventure story involving the efforts of preteen Robbi (Logan Borsari), his parents Vernon (Chris Lemmon) and Pearl (Tonja Walker), and friends to rescue the family dog from an intergalactic portal hovering over a pond on their land. Silly as the conceit might be, it probably has the potential to attract more attention than SHEEBA due to the science fiction angle. We’ve already found this amusing DOGS notice by one MaryAnn Johanson, a.k.a. the “Flick Filosopher,” a.k.a. one of the many self-styled movie critics aggregated on Rotten Tomatoes. Johanson clues her readers in to comparable UK/Australia artwork that is oddly devoid of juvenile appeal save the title canine; see for yourself below.

DOGS director Robin Christian has been working on post-production for his most recent project, the action thriller LOWLIFES starring Booboo Stewart, Giselle Bonilla, Kyle Massey Mark Derwin, Quinton Aaron, Christopher Judge, Madelyn Deutch, and GHOSTBUSTERS veteran William Atherton, filmed in the Monticello and Champaign-Urbana areas last summer. According to Christian, Dreamscape will soon be announcing a drive to raise finishing funds for that film as they prep resources for production on a brand-new feature, the company’s first foray into the horror genre, later in 2014.

~ Jason Pankoke

p.s. Yes, we absolutely did go there with our headline. Deal.

The C-U Film Leader
November 23, 2012

Featuring: Dreamscape Cinema, Nina Paley & more!

The C-U Film Leader normally appears Thursdays on C-U Blogfidential to point our readers towards interesting cinema activity relevant to Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, and the surrounding area. Please support the artists and their work, attend screenings and events, and otherwise become active in our wondrous little world!

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Happy post-Thanksgiving, dearest readers! We hope you are enjoying time with family and friends but can steal away a moment from the dinner table, televised football, and Black Friday consumerism to skim through this week’s C-U Film Leader, our new “beta mode” column. We plan to drum(stick) up at least one more helping next Thursday, November 29, so feel free to send feedback via cuconfidential [at] gmail [dot] com or unload your thoughts in the Comments field below. Cheers!

4 :: DREAMSCAPE CINEMA LAUNCHES KICKSTARTER
CAMPAIGN FOR HAUNTED LAKE PICTURE

It’s been a while since Monticello/Champaign producer Robin Christian has alerted us about projects under development at his Dreamscape Cinema studio, but it seems he intends to combine elements from a recent box-office smash and his own previous production in the story for his next film. While seeking distribution for the family fantasy MY DOG THE SPACE TRAVELER, the main location of which is a lake in the countryside, Christian is taking a stab at Kickstarter fundraising for the horror tale PARANORMAL LAKE, the main location of which is most likely a similar lake saddled with PARANORMAL ACTIVITY style mayhem. You can read over the plot crunch and pledge levels on this page; Dreamscape looks to amass a $25,000 budget by Friday, December 21, with shooting to presumably take place in 2013.

3 :: ANIMATION FAVE NINA PALEY RETURNS TO URBANA,
RELEASES BRAND-NEW SHORT

Remember those Heartland Magnetic Powers [TM] we mentioned last week in CULead? Come to find out, they’ve struck again as alternative cartoonist and animator Nina Paley has returned to her native Urbana for a spell after wowing the world with colorful tour-de-force SITA SINGS THE BLUES. News-Gazette writer Melissa Merli discussed with Paley the motivations behind her move in a “Studio Visit” piece run last month, also delving into her macabre Jewish-themed short THIS LAND IS MINE which is a sample scene from the proposed feature SEDER-MASOCHISM. You can review many of her early visual concepts, animation tests, and thought processes on her Web site as well as donate to the project; however, turn away if you can’t handle the lack of Disney sentimentality or DreamWorks superficiality.

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You know what, dearest readers? C-U Blogfidential expects nothing less than the very best to emerge from the creative denizens of Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond in 2012! No more bemoaning the doldrums of 2011 and mock-fearing both the presidential election and “Mayan Armageddon” coming soon, for we have work to do! That includes the “we” who slave away within the Secret MICRO-FILM Headquarters to provide you with the most informative and illuminating editorial possible.

While we’ll reserve our philosophical perspectives and valid diatribes for the annual “In My Backyard” address in February, we’d love to give you the skinny about what specifically lies ahead for CUBlog, particularly during the next six months. So, here goes!

Our man in Indianapolis, drive-in manager and independent filmmaker Tyler Tharpe, will begin the second year of his quarterly column “The Double Life of a Cinéaste” on Tuesday, January 31, by contemplating the switch to shooting digitally. Champaign movie producer Robin Christian will also contribute his annual, wintertime report from the floors of industry events he attends; we’ll post the next one in February.

More immediately, we’ll commence a journey through the mind of Champaign filmmaker Mike Trippiedi starting tomorrow, Wednesday, January 18, with a never-before-published interview about his original B-movie play, Caged Vixens! This will be followed in March by a second vintage talk concentrating on Trippiedi’s first feature DOGS IN QUICKSAND, and again in the spring with a brand-new feature chronicling his current projects including AMBER ROSE, Way Off Broadway, and the soon-to-be-filmed C-U comedy SCARY NORMAL in which he’ll play a lead role. We hope this will kick off a second wave of long-form interviews in the CUBlog tradition!

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“C-U Biz-en-scène” appears every Thursday/Friday 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:
Another Fine Mess We’ve Gotten Into?

Spring cleaning usually takes place during the summer at the Secret MICRO-FILM Headquarters – let’s call it “keeping Mr. JaPan time” – such as right now, and it’s become apparent lately that our snazzy confines feel stuffed to the gills with cinema madness even after we restore order to the clutter. Yet, it’s not the accumulated physical matter that bothers us so. (That said, our first-ever “garage sale” might just transpire later this year because we need to make room, make room, and collect some dough to help pay the printer’s bill so stay tuned for the details!) We’re always reviewing or exhuming said matter pertaining to the movies of Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond, attempting to make use of it on a constant basis even if we never have enough reasonable hours or man/womanpower to do so regularly. Whether you believe it or not, dearest readers, mountains of original material could be generated from the molehills filled with videos, clippings, press materials, photographs, and so forth littering the MFHQ battlefield, and we’re at the crossroads now (given what we discussed at the head of last week’s CUBiz) where we seriously need to find out whether you, you, or even you are interested in augmenting our output by sharing the load. Down for expanding the breadth and depth of coverage CUBlog provides for our communities and in honor of our movie artists, which happen to also be your friends and neighbors partaking in the incredible if not simply unusual? Hopefully, the more you hear from us on this issue, the more our readership will benefit as our void is filled with a cacophony of your voices belting out vital independent press for independent cinema. Make it happen, people, it’ll be good for you. Onward:

• Dark Maze Studios of Champaign recently sent out an e-blast highlighting recent news, beginning with the announcement that the “Korean TRON” episode of DEJA VIEW won the group its first Telly Award! Since then, brand-new entries on “Turkish STAR TREK” and “Nigerian TITANIC” have hit the Internet in the name of spreading remakesploitation love; we’ll let you discover which one kicks off with an Ed Glaser happy dance. Dark Maze will also place the DVD of their early effort NIGHT OF ANUBIS on moratorium after today, June 30, while the SPACE NINJA animated series has finally slashed, dashed, and pranced to life now that the PRESS START juggernaut quieted down some;
• Don’t forget that staff from the University of Illinois’ National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) will introduce THE TREE OF LIFE at the Art Theater tomorrow, Friday, July 1, 7:30 p.m., describing their collaboration with auteur filmmaker Terrence Malick in creating computer visuals for the highly acclaimed feature;
• In a rare pair of items concerning gear, Robin Christian of Dreamscape Cinema in Champaign has a lightly-used professional Sanyo HD projector he is willing to unload for roughly half off the list price; contact rpeters [at] dreamscape [dot] bz if interested. Also, former C-U indie filmmaker Alaric Rocha is enlisting the popular Kickstarter crowdsourcing site to help reach an atypical goal that will help enhance school projects to be produced for his MFA studies at DePaul University in Chicago – raising seed money to purchase a Steadicam;
• Finally, Melissa Merli of the News-Gazette filed a report published yesterday on the passing of Warren York, the self-taught organist and caretaker of the classic Wurlitzer installed at the Virginia Theater in downtown Champaign. We send our thoughts and prayers to his family, friends, and loyal fans.

Already have ambitious thoughts on how you might like to contribute to CUBlog? If you’re stuck, re-read our pitch from a few months ago wherein we suggested readers write essays about five key milestones in their C-U movie lives, think it over for a little bit, and keep an eye out for our revised prompt in the next couple of days with all the parameters and deadlines you’ll need to know. Intend to please us, inspire us, thrill us with your stories!!!

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We’ll squeeze in this final grouping of five key posts from the first five years of C-U Blogfidential’s existence tonight before Roger Ebert’s Film Festival kicks in tomorrow! We’ll also tell you a little bit about why we chose the ones we did, although it would be very impressive to hear you regurgitate our motives accurately a week from now. Feel free to click away and read what has gone before – even the links not relating to “Ebertfest” in some way – and please leave Comments below about those stories or your own favorite CUBlog entries. Hope you’ve enjoyed this “Magical History Tour!”

~ Jason Pankoke

Select C-U Blogfidential Stories, 2006-2011
Part 6 of 6

“NATPE expo shows value of TV,” 11/10/10: At the risk of sounding facetious, local filmmakers want their movies to be seen outside Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond, too! (Is that so wrong?) They owe such an effort to everyone involved in the process of making their work, whether for business or other reasons. We shout out to Robin Christian for providing us a peek into his industry travels.

“Article du C-U: Ebertfest X, pt.4,” 2/12/09: Anthony Zoubek’s analysis of the Ebertfest phenomena, relative to its 10th occurence in 2008, is exactly the kind of detailed but accessible writing we’d love to showcase on CUBlog a lot more often. We shout out to Zoubek for filing material at a level above and beyond what we deserve; the linked installment on Paul Schrader’s MISHIMA is outstanding.

“When Roger met Nina (& Sita, too),” 1/28/09: A prime example of the famous doing good for the sake of art, Roger Ebert’s attentiveness to Urbana native Nina Paley’s SITA SINGS THE BLUES gave this virtual one-woman animated tour de force a big boost towards recognition and legitimate DVD release. If our upturned thumbs could talk, they’d be shouting out to both Paley and Ebert (& SITA, too).

“Critique du C-U: SHOT reloaded,” 10/6/06: We’ll say it – the 1973 UIUC student-made, feature length SHOT is a quintessential bad movie. Yet, we’re still entertained by it in that fuzzy 2 a.m., “Did we really just watch this?” sort of way. We shout out to “Ebertfest” director Nate Kohn and collaborator Mitch Brown for setting aside graduate studies to cut loose on and off campus with their camera.

“It was 10 years ago this week…,” 3/7/09: We wrap up our suggested CUBlog reading with this item, less to blow our own horn than as a reminder that you – yes, you – will the biggest fan and hardest-working contributor on your own projects. Never expect anything to be accomplished without selflessly applying your dedication, talents, smarts, and wits. Therefore, C-U movie people, we shout out to YOU!

:: Part 5 ::

Time usually escapes us every spring, but C-U Blogfidential has managed to stop a time-shifting adventure in its tracks for our new contest! Courtesy of Osiris Entertainment, we have brand-new DVD copies of Dreamscape Cinema’s locally-made murder mystery, DISCONNECT, for three CUBlog readers to score! You can enter by writing us at cuconfidential@gmail.com and placing “DISCONNECT DVD contest” in the Subject line. To qualify, please tell us your:

Name / Age / Mailing Address / E-mail Address / Telephone Number

Also let us know if we should add you to our Mailing List to receive weekly updates about what we’re conjuring at the Secret MICRO-FILM Headquarters!

Finally, up to three additional lucky readers can win complete sets of C-U Confidential digest (#1-4) by answering the following questions correctly! (To clarify, everyone who enters is eligible to win DISCONNECT regardless of individual scores on the trivia!) If you are not up on your local movie history, everything you need to know can be found right on this very Web site:

1. DISCONNECT demonstrates producer/director Robin Christian’s knack for casting quality character actors in key roles, such as Eddie Jones who plays the sheriff. In which other Dreamscape production does Jones appear?

2. Where on the University of Illinois campus did Dreamscape premiere DISCONNECT in mid-2006?

3. What is the name of the second industry event mentioned by Christian in his coverage of the 2010 American Film Market, exclusive to CUBlog, and who is the acclaimed independent filmmaker pictured at the end of the article?

We will accept one entry per person until Monday, March 21, 5 p.m. CST, after which we’ll pick the three winners at random and announce the results. Good luck!

~ Jason Pankoke