R.I.P. Darrell Sweet

It is with great sadness I report that Illustrator Darrell Sweet, best known for his Wheel of Time covers, passed away this morning at the age of 77.



Darrell created more than 3000 works of art in his lifetime, successfully spanning a wide variety of genres, including Science Fiction, Fantasy, Western, and Landscapes.



Read a bit more about Darrell's life, and his work, at Tor.com

Crystal Glass' "Witness"

One Way or Another partner Crystal Glass is writing and directing her first feature film! Her exciting campaign has launched and is live now. Here is more about the film Witness.

Who can you trust? A feature action-drama about a man hidden from the mob by US Marshals only to have hitmen hunt him down in a secluded suburb. Here is a teaser:



Here's the Story...

ACE Film Productions is a newly formed production company founded by Crystal Glass Warner born and raised in the City of Newark, New Jersey. Crystal takes pride in her community and wants to provide job opportunities for her cast, crew and production staff in Newark and the surrounding metropolitan area. Filmmaking is our passion and it’s our belief to provide talented people with an artistic outlet to showcase their works. Crystal's story started with an idea in 2008 to start writing a screenplay. That turned into a catalog of over 15 movie ideas. One of those stories came to light on June 17, 2011. "Witness" was written in one day by seeing a photograph of a beach house. "Witness" started out as a short film but has now turned into a full length feature action-drama. Here is the film's website.

The Impact of a Team effort

ACE wants to make an impact not only by creating a community of artists to showcase their works but to also give our audience a chance to get involved, this excites us. We at ACE Films want to create job opportunities for artists within the surrounding areas of Connecticut, New York and especially Newark, New Jersey. We want people to think about the idea of "What If?. What would you do if your neighbor was in the witness protection program, would you know? The story gets people thinking about who their neighbors really are. We are starting this fundraising process in two phases.

Phase One:

is for production. Monies raised will pay for union talent, camera operations, rentals of equipment, lighting, set design, wardrobe, food, travel, insurance, and legal fees.

Phase Two:

would be solely for post-production and promotion.

If ACE does not reach it's goal "Witness" will still happen and all will still receive their gifts. We are known to be frugal and make good use of our resources. So even if you can't make a monetary donation your help in any capacity will be greatly appreciated. You can offer your services on production, promotion etc. Make a suggestion to ACE that will help all involved.

To learn more and make a pledge visit the film's IndieGoGo page!

- Lena

Odd Nerdrum

by Arnie Fenner



A few months back artist Odd Nerdrum [b 1944] was found guilty of tax evasion in his native Norway and sentenced to two years in prison: the ruling and sentence are being appealed. The artist moved from Norway to Iceland in 2002, reportedly now lives in France (he was at the Louvre with assistants and students when the sentence was handed down in Oslo), and has boycotted Norwegian media for years. Nerdrum has said that he felt the Norwegian state has been trying to destroy him, with the tax claims against him “pushing me towards suicide.” While testifying at his trial he had trouble answering the prosecutor’s questions about sales and deposits reportedly in the millions of dollars, saying “I’m not so good with numbers. Do you know much about Venetian turpentine? No, but I don’t expect that either.”







Now, Nerdrum is interesting for any number of reasons, not the least for his 1998 manifesto On Kitsch, which takes the stance that art should be viewed and understood under his definition of kitsch rather than art as...art. Instead of seeing the description as derogative, he began to argue for kitsch as a positive term used as a superstructure for figurative, non-ironic, and narrative painting. He was once asked to define what was "lacking in contemporary art" and Nerdrum ticked off the following list:

1. The open, trustful face,


2. The sensual skin,


3. Golden sunsets, and


4. The longing for eternity.

It's hard to overcome long-held perceptions and use of descriptive language, particularly in the art world...and I'm not sure I entirely agree with Nerdrum's viewpoint in the first place. But I do know that I like his work. A lot. And I would much prefer to see him pay a fine and taxes owed (if owe them he does) than to cool his heels in the clink.

Irene Gallo Interview - Available for download

For anyone that missed the Irene Gallo interview last week, you can listen to it here, or download the episode yourself. If you're interested in listening to future episodes, subscribe to the show in iTunes, or follow us on Tumblr. 



Thanks to everyone who took the time to write in questions.

Support THE JACQUES BOLSEY PROJECT

Ever so often, you come across a crowd-funding project that is really special. Our new friends, the LA-based team from The Jacques Bolsey Project have a real winner on their hands, and its just a matter of time before we hear a lot about this film at festivals and on TV outlets nationwide.

Imagine finding out in film school that your great-grandpa invented the Bolex & your family never mentioned it! This is exactly what happened to Alyssa Bolsey, the film's director.

Here is more about this exciting documentary and how you can help below. This project has our full support!

THE JACQUES BOLSEY PROJECT

One Renaissance man's fight against his own mortality.


THE JACQUES BOLSEY PROJECT (Development Teaser) from HME on Vimeo.
LOGLINE

In the early 1920’s a prolific inventor, Jacques Bolsey, put motion-picture cameras into the hands of amateur filmmakers. Decades later, the dramatic life of the mysterious Renaissance man is uncovered.



ABOUT THE FILM

With a working title of “The Jacques Bolsey Project,” this documentary follows the life and struggles of Jacques Bolsey, a forgotten inventor whose 1924 innovation, the Bolex camera, links the earliest amateur filmmakers to some of today’s creative giants in directing and cinematography, including Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson and David Lynch. The Bolex, a direct precursor to today’s modern home video camera, forever changed the face of filmmaking. It was a camera accessible to most, if not all people, giving amateur filmmakers a tool to tell stories and to record their lives.

Until several years ago the story of the man behind this camera was a mystery, even to the inventor’s own family. It wasn’t until 2004 when his great-granddaughter, Alyssa Bolsey, stumbled upon boxes that had been housed in the family basement for decades, that the story has come to light. Through these materials and thousands of feet of film dating back to the 1920’s, it has become evident that the documentary is more than a narrative of one single man. It is a narrative of motion picture development. Furthermore, it is a story of pushing technology forward and the documentation of one’s life through moving images. Today, Jacques Bolsey’s ideas of the accessibility and the miniaturization of cameras are more prevalent than ever. It is a story of perseverance, vision and the untimely death of a man who had his hand on the pulse of the future. Nevertheless, as influential as his invention of the Bolex was, it was but one notch on his belt among the many other significant inventions he had created during a lifetime marked by turmoil, revolutions and world wars.



SYNOPSIS

The inventor of the Bolex camera was Jacques Bogopolsky/Boolsky/Bolsey, known to his friends as JB. He was a Russian Jew who traveled the globe to realize his vision of empowering the amateur artist. Beginning his journey in Russia, he traveled to France, Switzerland and finally to the United States, all the while setting up numerous companies to achieve his goal of improving the fortunes of humanity. In the process of achieving his vision, his profits, as well as his future legacy, would take a backseat to moving his ideas forward. Money was but a means to an end and was not a primary motivator.

As he navigated the tumultuous times, his only fear lay in his certain and unavoidable mortality, a fate that would halt progress towards realizing his visions. It was a fear that would drive incredible speed and productivity in his work.

JB was a complex man who was far from perfect but who followed his dreams while encountering obstacle after obstacle. Poor business decisions, deceitful advisors and alleged foreign industrial espionage led to a boom and bust business economic cycle. An attraction for beautiful women, including a rumored affair with one of Charlie Chaplin’s ex-wives, in combination with a demanding personality, led to complications within his personal life. Still, to many he was viewed as being larger than life. He was an inventor who was greatly respected in his day for his contributions to society, yet somehow was forgotten with the passage of time.

In death, as in life, JB’s story has undergone many twists and turns. For the half century since his passing, little has been known about the inventor. The contents of JB’s life’s work, including plans for his inventions, documents, cameras and films shot on those cameras, have been buried in a cramped basement in White Plains, NY. To “Google” his name is to come across misinformation and confusion. To some, the scope and timeframe of his work appear implausible, impossible. But was it? With his words and work unearthed and available for study for the first time, we will find out. It is a story of insatiable drive and a will to survive and create; a story that will counter the doubts of skeptics.

This story was brought to light as a result of an accidental discovery by Bolsey’s great granddaughter over 40 years after his death. During her second semester of film school, Alyssa Bolsey was confronted with the realization that her enigmatic great-grandfather, Jacques Bolsey, had been one of the pioneers of the consumer motion picture camera revolution. He was in fact, the inventor of the iconic Bolex camera. Why had this significant family history never been shared with her? With more questions than answers, Alyssa is presented with a mystery she is compelled to solve. She assembles a team of filmmakers, historians and family members to help her tell the story of a man who, almost a century ago, created a device that is still used today. It is time to uncover everything and she won’t take silence for an answer.

Read More about this exciting project or make a pledge HERE!

- Lena

Conan commission

by Petar Meseldzija

For many years I wanted to do a Conan painting, but
never got the chance to realize this dream. As a young adult I passionately read
the Conan comics, especially those that were done by John Buscema, a master
draftsman. I was also very much impressed by Frazetta’s Conan, but I also regarded a few of the Conan paintings by
Boris Vallejo as one of the best.

A few months ago a private collector asked
me whether I would be willing to do a Conan
painting for his collection. I said YES, of course, and soon after that I did a
little rough sketch of the scene that had to depict a moment from the story of
“The Frost Giant’s Daughter”. Well, as you probably already know, “to depict” a
scene from a story, means in my case “to interpret it”, in one or another way.

I decided to present you with a series of posts about
the development of this commission. I intend to lead you through all the stages
of the process, as the work on the painting progresses. But, I have to ask you
to be a little patient because this project might take some time, for I have to
do three different projects at the same time.



So, let’s get started.

This is the rough sketch of the composition. After I
became sure about the general positioning of the characters, I went in search
of the reference material. The appropriate reference photos and props will
play a very important role in this commission, for one of my main objectives this
time will be the “naturalism”. This task of using the naturalistic approach within
a painting that deals with fantastic, is a tricky thing. Although not the only
way of depicting the world of Fantasy and Mythology, the appropriate
stylization of form and atmosphere seems to be the most often chosen path by
the artists. Anyway, in the coming weeks (if not months), we shall see how far this painting will let me go
in my pursuit of this aim of naturalism. But I have to say that, although an important aspect, the
naturalism is not the final station of my Conan journey. The right atmosphere
of the painting as a whole, is (should be) the ultimate goal.

The study of the Snow Giants done after I made a several
photos of the Vikings from Germany, during a Viking Festival that was held in
Archeon, a fascinating theme park here in the Netherlands.

The final preliminary study of the scene, or better
said the characters, because the background has not yet been defined. In order
to collect the appropriate reference material for the background, I will have
to travel to the North Pole…(just joking, a library around the corner would be
a perfect solution).

The Conan figure was done more or less from memory,
because I had no reference photos. Unfortunately I have some problems with
finding a nicely shaped male model for my Conan. Any volunteers…? I pay 20 Euro
per hour if you are an amateur model, and I pay nothing if you are a friend,
except for the unforgettable cup of Turkish coffee and a glass of Serbian
Sljivovitsa, or a bottle of good Belgian beer (we do this after the photo
session), and a delicious diner.

The same preliminary study with the Conan's leg
slightly shifted to the right to achieve a better balance of the negative
space.

A detail from the final preliminary drawing.

The final tracing of the drawing. This is going to be
transferred onto the wooden board. The next step is underpainting.

End of part 1

"5 Sobering Realities of Crowd-Funding" by Princeton Holt

Film Courage just hosted a great article with our CEO Princeton Holt that got really great feedback and lots of views! Film Courage has already asked Holt to return for a new article soon. Congrats to him and thanks to Film Courage!



5 Sobering Realities of Crowd Funding

Film school was the first time in my life that I was early for school – early to every class, and the first to raise my hand to answer questions. NYFA at the time taught us how to “make do” with what we already have. That’s the strongest impression they left me. The technical stuff was just a prerequisite. But they taught us HOW to get films made. We had to get them made one way or another. So that’s what I did.

I directed a short film called Phish in 2005, where I met some of the people that form the core of my company, One Way or Another Productions. When the film was done, I wrote a comedic script about “the one that got away” called The Butterfly Chasers.

Everywhere I walked or drove in the city would remind me of this girl, so to finally move on, I wrote this character Diana Lee based on her. Writing the character with her in mind, II attached the great Rochelle Aytes (White Chicks, Madea’s Family Reunion, Desperate Housewives), since at the time she was looking for something different than what she was getting in Hollywood. She wanted to be funny, smart, etc, and this girl, and consequently this character Diana, is just that. Afterwards, I created the other 8 or 9 characters purely out of my imagination. I had a bunch of actors I wanted to work with, and simply wrote parts for them. I deliberately wanted to work with a lot of actors on this one. It’s an ensemble cast, multiple storyline film, heavily influenced by Woody Allen’s Husbands and Wives as well as some of Ed Burns’ work. I gorging on a diet of Altman’s Short Cuts and The Player during this time.

I was convinced that this would be my first feature film. I was able to raise a little bit of the budget but for the most part investors were not too confident that I could deliver, or even actually finish a feature length film simply because nothing I had done previously indicated it.

So I decided instead to write and direct another feature film, Cookies & Cream, on a shoestring budget. Working with a close-knit team, we made a ton of films. Within a few years, we had a nice collection of titles - character driven indies that were critically well-received, and even found distribution.

Our company was strong, and our successes seemed to reawaken the financing in the first film, The Butterfly Chasers. Some more investors came to the table, and we are now closer than we have ever been.

But here is the deal. As I am now about 10,000 feet in the air, about to cross over from Nevada into the California state line, I am going to just lay it all out here, publicly, what’s going on with The Butterfly Chasers.

Like it or not, this is not a one-man show. It never has been. From the beginning, I partnered with Rochelle as producing partner as well as her director. Which means we are making most decisions together. She has helped me compile a much stronger script and form her character with more precision. She encourages me to give her as much as she gives me, to shape this film into the best production that we can make it.

Read the rest of the article HERE.

- Lena