{"id":1646,"date":"2010-02-04T23:50:36","date_gmt":"2010-02-05T05:50:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/?p=1646"},"modified":"2014-09-06T14:56:28","modified_gmt":"2014-09-06T20:56:28","slug":"rocha-settles-in-for-winter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/?p=1646","title":{"rendered":"Rocha settles in for WINTER"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leaving downstate Illinois behind to weather Chicago, Alaric Rocha<\/strong> possibly never imagined migrating back south after making his first suburban short, THE RECIPE<\/strong>, a year ago. Yet, the former Champaign <\/strong>filmmaker has done just that to shoot a follow-up called WINTER IN LOUISIANA<\/strong> starting tomorrow, February 5<\/strong>, in and near the backwoods property of his parents, Gil <\/strong>and Sherry Rocha<\/strong> of Oreana<\/strong>. Production will continue through Sunday on the project, which involves a prisoner\u2019s escape from a chain gang and pursuit by guards and guard dogs. We won\u2019t spill who <\/em>exactly comes to the man\u2019s aid in the climax, but luckily a skinny chimney fails to appear as an obstacle on the escape route.<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, Rocha turned an ear towards music to find inspiration for the current Blue Bassoon Pictures<\/strong> film<\/a>, in this case a late Eighties recording combining the seasonal standard \u201cJingle Bells<\/strong>\u201d with an African-American spiritual, \u201cChildren Go Where I Send Thee<\/strong>,\u201d played in an acoustic \u201cNew England\u201d style. \u201cMy family and I always think [the song] sounds like a prisoner from the old South running from hound dogs and then getting scooped up [unexpectedly],\u201d he explains to C-U Blogfidential<\/strong>, although we\u2019ll skim certain details to preserve the surprise. \u201cI took the story and made it a bit more serious, kind of a BRAZIL <\/strong>idea where imagination saves a person from the pressure and darkness of reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Unlike the dense dystopias and fantasias dreamed up by Rocha\u2019s personal hero, BRAZIL <\/strong>auteur <\/em>Terry Gilliam<\/strong>, this film story will be staged somewhat out in the open as his parents\u2019 property will stand in for a not-quite-urbanized South. \u201cI needed all forest and back road locations,\u201d describes the filmmaker when asked about returning to his native Macon County<\/strong> for the show. \u201cYes, there are probably places in the \u2018burbs that are closer, but my parents own a lot of the land we\u2019ll be shooting on \u2026 plus, Hardy\u2019s Reindeer Ranch<\/strong> is in Rantoul <\/strong>where we\u2019ll hopefully be shooting, too.\u201d Of course, if that <\/em>quote didn\u2019t reveal the secret ingredient, then you haven\u2019t been paying well enough attention, dear readers.<\/p>\n

The WINTER <\/strong>crew will be a mix of metropolitan, college town, and home turf contacts. \u201cSam Ambler<\/strong> has done a lot in the area,\u201d says Rocha of his assistant cameraman, who\u2019s appeared in our sights recently because of his collaborations with Matt HarsH<\/strong>. As well, \u201cHugh Sullivan<\/strong>, who works for the [Decatur Herald-Review<\/span><\/strong>] paper, and Alida Duff Sullivan<\/strong>, who teaches at Richland Community College<\/strong>, are good friends with my family\u201d and will serve as grip and stills photographer, respectively. Filling out the Blue Bassoon production team are Rachel Joy<\/strong> as assistant director, Ren Velarde<\/strong> as director of photography, Jonathan Carter<\/strong> as production assistant, Elizabeth Ryan<\/strong> on wardrobe, and Sherry Rocha cooking up craft services.<\/p>\n

One key factor that will distinguish the look of WINTER <\/strong>from Rocha\u2019s prior films is the medium. \u201cMy good friend, roommate, and co-worker Ren [has shot] a lot of 8-mm work and loves it. This\u2019ll be the one time I won\u2019t be able to hover over the camera \u2013 not only because there\u2019s no flip-out screen, but also because I\u2019m not as knowledgeable with real film,\u201d he admits. \u201cI\u2019m excited to see how I do [working in the small-gauge format].\u201d The characteristically grainy stock will certainly enhance the rustic milieu of the chain-gang break, attempted by prisoners to be played by Thomas Nicol, Elvis Garcia<\/strong>, and Michael Anthony Pierce<\/strong>. It is Pierce\u2019s role, referred to as \u201cDay Dreamer\u201d in the script, whose shot at freedom is almost swallowed up by the tangled woods.<\/p>\n

Coming back to the subject of testing out the Windy City\u2019s artistic spoils and job market, Rocha is philosophical about what his future will entail. \u201cThe biggest advantage has been meeting more people and being exposed to more film sets,\u201d says Rocha, who discussed the downstate era of his working career<\/a> with CUBlog <\/strong>in 2007. \u201cGetting work, though, has been sparse. I\u2019ve started teaching more and really enjoy that. I am planning to get my Masters in social work so that I can create more opportunities for teaching and use filmmaking as a form of art therapy. I think the best thing about coming to Chicago <\/strong>is it\u2019s helped me decide what kind of filmmaker I want to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

~ Jason Pankoke<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Decatur area native and former Champaign resident Alaric Rocha returns downstate this weekend to shoot his latest short film, WINTER IN LOUISIANA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55,10],"tags":[370,371,373,372],"class_list":["post-1646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alums-done-good","category-production-updates","tag-alaric-rocha","tag-blue-bassoon-pictures","tag-oreana-il","tag-winter-in-louisiana"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1646\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}