PLANET EARTH SYMPHONY FILM ANNOUNCED
Contribute your nature video and be a part of breakthrough film to accompany Johan de Meij’s Symphony No. 3 Planet Earth.
SAUGERTIES, New York: Dynamic Maestro has embarked on an innovative project to create a multi-media experience around live performances of Johan de Meij’sSymphony No. 3 Planet Earth. There is no better time to celebrate the beauty and wonder of our natural planet. The project’s centerpiece will be a film artfully compiling hundreds of nature videos that we hope you’ll contribute. The film will run on giant screens as the orchestra plays.
Contributors should focus on aspects of our world that take their breath away. Try to film wild living creatures rather than our domesticated friends. Avoid filming any vestiges of mankind i.e. bridges, roads, plastic bags and people.
Please submit videos that are no more than two-minutes long to Dyan Machan at pearthvideo@gmail.com. In most cases, using your iPhone, Samsung or another smart phone will be fine. If your files are too large, upload them through the easy-to-use and free website called: www. WeTransfer.com
We hope to have footage from all over our beloved planet, and we will list the names of all contributors who submitted content that we use.
The objective is create something unique, a synergy between orchestral music, trained voices and crowd-sourced moving images toward protecting our revered mother earth.
For addition information, visit johandemeij.com
Stay tuned for more Hudson Valley Film NEWS.
Mohonk Preserve featured in NBC's BLINDSPOT
Does this cliff look familiar? NBC's Blindspot was at the Mohonk Preserve in April to shoot the climbing sequence in the opening of this episode involving multiple assents and several takes on the High Exposure Buttress.
"It was shot in early April at Mohonk Preserve," said Mohonk Preserve Director of Marketing & Communications Gretchen Reed. "We actually scouted it in March just after the snowstorm in two feet of snow! Fortunately, the melt came just in time for the shoot."
The Preserve's intrepid Associate Director of Visitor Services Jon Ross supervises all film shoots at the Preserve, from initial scouting to facilitating the logistics of the actual shoot. This shoot was particularly challenging because of the Trapps Bridge construction. High Xposure and Vertical Gains Belayed By Paul Curran were also on hand to facilitate the climbing logistics.
If your film project needs an ideal location, crew, cast or vendors, look no further than the mid-Hudson Valley. For more info, visit www.hudsonvalleyfilmcommission.org.
A HUDSON VALLEY DIRECTOR IN TULSA
Hudson Valley director John Swab’s feature film LET ME MAKE YOU A MARTYR premieres tonight in Tulsa Oklahoma where it was filmed. Beginning May 27, the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin will screen the film followed by opening at the Sunset 5 Cinema in Los Angeles (June 5) and Anthology Film Archives in Brooklyn on June 9.
The film, which stars Nico Nikotera, Mark Boone Jr. Sam Quartin, George "Slaine" Carroll, Marilyn Manson, and Michael Potts chronicles the consequences of abuse and betrayal while exploring the choices human beings make as a result of fear, love, lust, and hatred.
JOIN US FOR TASTE OF WOODSTOCK
Join us and 24 participants to celebrate the culinary diversity and delicacies that the region has to offer, at the 5th Annual TASTE OF WOODSTOCK on Wednesday, May 24, from 6-9pm.
For tickets and details, visit www.woodstockfilmfestival.com/events/tasteofwoodstock2017.php
Proceeds benefit Capital Campaign efforts to renovate and pay for the substantial costs of THE FILM CENTER, which houses both the Woodstock Film Festival and Hudson Valley Film Commission.
LOCAL DOCUMENTARY ADAPTATION TO BE HELMED BY ZEMECKIS
Leslie Mann, Janelle Monae Join Steve Carell in Robert Zemeckis’ Next Film (EXCLUSIVE)
Originally titled Marwencol and based on the 2010 documentary of the same name, the moving true story follows one broken man’s fight as he discovers how artistic imagination can restore the human spirit.
Read the full story in Variety.
In 2010, the documentary Marwencol, directed by Jeff Malmberg about Kingston artist Mark Hogancamp, won Best Documentary honors at the Woodstock Film Festival. The documentary was produced in the region in 2008-09. Read more about Marwencol in Chronogram.
Ironically, this is the second documentary featuring Hudson Valley artists, that will be directed by Hollywood legend Robert Zemeckis, who is best known for Back to the Future, Castaway, and Forrest Gump. In 2015, he directed The Walk based the Oscar winning documentary Man on Wire about Hudson Valley tightrope walker Philippe Petit, and his 1974 tightrope walk between the World Trade Centers. For the film, Petit trained actor Joseph Gordon Leavitt on tightrope at Tech City in the Town of Ulster. The Walk screened at the 2015 Woodstock Film Festival with Philippe Petit in attendance. In 2016, Petit was honored with the Spirit of Woodstock Award from WFF.
YOUTH IN OREGON now available on Amazon Prime
Joel David Moore's YOUTH IN OREGON, which filmed primarily in Dutchess County, is now available on Amazon Prime.
Fixed on being euthanized for his 80th birthday, Raymond (Frank Langella) embarks on a cross-country road trip with a son-in-law (Billy Crudup) determined to change his mind. The film also features Christina Applegate.
The production team included Woodstock native Joey Carey of Sundial Pictures, an independent film production and distribution company that works in all stages of the filmmaking process, from development through distribution, for both documentary and feature films. Their goal is to unite filmmakers with other film production companies, financiers, and philanthropists to help create powerful motion pictures and bring them to as wide an audience as possible.
MAY NEWS WITH MAISIE & ASA
Asa Butterfield, Maisie Williams and Hudson Valley Film Commission director Laurent Rejto, in Woodstock.
Several films are wrapping (or have wrapped) production, including THE RANGER, DEPARTURES, THE BREAD FACTORY and SHOTGUN. June will bring a new flurry of ACTION!
Voltage is co-producing DEPARTURES, with Kerhonkson based BCDF Pictures. The production, which filmed in Kingston, Annandale on Hudson and Albany airport, stars Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones) and Asa Butterfield (Hugo). The film is directed by Ulster County's Peter Hutchings. In addition to top management, many local crew members were hired and background casting was handled by Amy Hutchings Casting.
THE RANGER from Glass Eye Pix was helmed by first time director Jenn Wexler, who is familiar with the region after producing several movies, including Stray Bullets. The film, which stars Jeremy Holm (House of Cards, Mr Robot), Chloe Levine, and Amanda Grace Benitez, follows a group of teen punks who get in trouble with the cops. The kids escape to the woods to hide out, where they come up against the local authority, an unhinged park ranger with an axe to grind, hell-bent on preserving the serenity of his forest. Filming took place in Accord, Willow, Woodstock and other regional haunts.
Meanwhile, THE BREAD FACTORY, a double feature project directed by Patrick Wang, has been filming in Hudson with a cast that includes Tyne Daly (upcoming Spider-Man: Homecoming), James Marsters (Buffy The Vampire Slayer), Nana Visitor (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), Janeane Garofalo (Wet Hot American Summer), Brian Murray, and many local extras.
In THE BREAD FACTORY, 40 out of 99 speaking roles were cast by Hudson Valley Casting. Elisabeth Henry, a Hudson Valley Local, landed the number 2 role (out of 99 speaking roles) playing DOROTHEA (Tyne Daly's) life partner, and co-owner of the bread factory.
Also in May, SHOTGUN, written and directed by Hannah Marks and Joey Power, slipped into the area to film in Dutchess, Orange and Ulster Counties. The film, which is produced by Jordan Yale Levine (King Cobra, Welcome the Stranger), stars Marisa Tomei (Spiderman: Homecoming, The Wrestler), Maika Monroe (It Follows, Independence Day: Resurgence), Jeremy Allen White (Showtime’s Shameless, Bad Turn Worse), Dean Winters (John Wick, P.S. I Love You), Gina Gershon (Bound, Face/Off), and Sasha Lane (American Honey). Variety just listed SHOTGUN as 1 of 12 of The Hottest Titles for Sale at the Cannes Film Festival
Since the film tax incentive program increase was extended to the Mid Hudson Valley in November of 2016, the Mid-Hudson Valley has hosted seven feature films by top industry professionals, featuring A-list actors, including 5 Oscar Winners. In addition to feature films, the Hudson Valley Film Commission has been working overtime working with commercials, short films, industrials, fashion shoots and other media that generates local jobs and money! It's been a record breaking year to date, with many other productions slated.
Currently, the Hudson Valley Film Commission is working with over 20 potential productions, including several union films and a SHOWTIME TV SERIES.
"We've worked with many of these production companies in the past," says film commissioner Laurent Rejto, "but most of these projects were balking about filming in our region due to the imbalance in tax incentives."
In March of 2016, Peter Hutchings, the director of DEPARTURES, sent the following note to the film commission: "I am currently developing a new film, and it would be perfect to shoot in the Hudson Valley, but the tax incentive is not enough to keep us here. It can’t shoot anywhere near NYC, so we are looking at other states. Believe me, I would greatly prefer to keep these millions of dollars in New York State, but without a greater incentive in the Hudson Valley it won’t be possible. If the incentive were 40%, we absolutely would stay in New York."
In October of 2016, Larry Fessenden, CEO of Glass Eye Pix emailed the following concern: "Glass Eye is delving into another low budget feature and as always I want to shoot in NY State. My partner thinks Georgia. Hmmm. Do you know the status of the 40% incentive in the Hudson Valley? Shoot is in March. You think the percentage will be established by then? Is it a sure thing? Thanks for any insight!"
As early as January 2015 through the fall of 2016, the film commission was also corresponding and meeting with Academy Award actor Melissa Leo and producer Jenn Wexler to provide proof that producing the movie FURLOUGH in the region would make financial sense. A instrumental part of that pitch was the fact that the new tax incentives were in place. Melissa had previously sent the following: "Occasionally, I’ve had the pleasure of working close to home on film productions in Ulster County (“Francine”), Dutchess County (“Bottled Up”) and Greene County (“Stephanie Daley”). Sadly, all these films were relegated to incredibly small budgets because larger film productions cannot film in the Mid-Hudson Valley region without incurring costs that make production prohibitive. Our region deserves the ability to host larger film productions!"
Most of these productions would have never considered our region were it not for the additional tax incentives, which helped level the playing field with the rest of the state and other regions including Georgia and Canada.