5 SFSDF DOCUMENTARIES SELECTED TO SCREEN AT BERKELEY FILM FESTIVAL!

Official selections for the 16th Annual Berkeley Video and Film Festival (BVFF) were recently announced, and – incredibly -- five documentaries from San Francisco School of Digital Filmmaking (SFSDF) students were among the selections. Stories from summer workshop documentary filmmakers Chet Patterson, Dawn Green, Michael Cho, Marlene Siniki and Ephantus Njenga will be shown at the prestigious and competitive festival, to be screened October 5th, 6th and 7th in the Landmark's California Theatre at 2113 Kittredge St. in downtown Berkeley.

Mel Vapour, Director of BVFF, called this year's entries "extremely competitive," and noted that student films were going up against some of the top film schools in the country, including NYU and UCLA. Vapour called the quality of this year's student productions "extremely high," saying the festival received "great works from many students."

Over 200 entries from around the world were submitted to the competitive festival this year, which got whittled down to just over 60 official selections. Of those, only ten student films were selected to be screened at BVFF, and just five of those are documentaries – the five from SFSDF students.

"I'm amazed," said Chet Patterson, author of LANESPLITTING, a documentary that explores some of the controversy behind motorcycles that split lanes in congested traffic. You can visit his website at http://www.echet.com

"It's a huge honor to be selected, and to have so many entries from my fellow classmates included in this festival is just incredible," Patterson said.

Also featured at this year's BVFF will be Dawn Green's IMPROVED ODDS, about a recently-married couple who find themselves faced with new challenges when husband Matt becomes paralyzed as a result of a Christmas Day 2004 skiing accident, and Michael Cho's PAUL WADE: THIRD STREET GYM, a portrait of Golden Glove winner Paul Wade's quest to once again make San Francisco a boxing powerhouse.

Additionally, the festival will screen Marlene Siniki's WORLD WITHIN WORLDS, about artist Neil Seth Levine, whose art transforms some of nature's tiniest and most beautiful artifacts into larger-than-life visions, and Ehpantus Njenga's SAN FRANCISCO IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER, an exploration of a homeless woman's bitter expreriences in San Francisco's Dogpatch District.

BVFF Director Mel Vapour plans to screen all five selected SFSDF documentaries as a group, and said he hopes to see additional submissions from the school's students in next year's festival.

"I found the quality of this year's student submissions extremely high," said Vapour.

For complete information about the BVFF festival, including the screening schedule when it becomes available, see http://berkeleyvideofilmfest.org/.

For more info, please visit http://www.SFDigiFilm.com

BAY AREA WOMEN IN FILM Monthly Meeting at SFSDF on 9/19

Come join us for a provocative and enlightening evening with Filmmaker Emiko Omori at
BAWIFT's upcoming Monthly Meeting on Wednesday, September 19th (WOMEN ONLY):

REEL SUCCESS STORIES: Featuring Emiko Omori - on the making and distribution of
"Passion & Power, The Technology of Orgasm."

Veteran filmmaker Emiko Omori has been on the frontline of the Bay Area documentary
filmmaking since the late 1960's. Her outstanding work as a producer and
cinematographer has won Sundance and Emmy awards. Her latest film, "Passion & Power,
The Technology of Orgasm," already being self-distributed through Amazon,
will screen at the 30th Mill Valley Film Festival this October (www.mvff.com).  BAWIFT is
also serving as a  Co-Presenting Community Sponsor of "Passion & Power" at this year's
Mill Valley Film Festival.

DATE:   Wednesday, September 19th
LOCATION:  San Francisco School of Digital Filmmaking, 2565 Third St., Suite #337,
between 22nd & 23rd Streets, SF

AGENDA:
7 pm - networking and snacks
7:30 to 9 PM – Emiko's presentation/discussion and Selected clips from "Passion & Power:
The Technology of Orgasm" plus Q&A.
9 to 9:30 PM - more networking & Wrap.

Although many of our special events include both men and women, our general monthly
meetings, such as this one, are for women only.

This event is Free for current BAWIFT members, $5 for non-BAWIFT members. $3 for non-
BAWIFT members with student ID.

Soon to be Graduate, Tyler Willis, Talks About his Final Project

“In the last year at SFSDF, I've become well versed in the art of the visual metaphor, and when I hear "school," I think back to big yellow buses taking children to class in the morning. It's a bit ironic that as I leave school, my final project focuses on a bus.

You might call it my last big joke; my tweedy version of spray painting our graduating year on the water tower; my "Seniors ROCK!" exclamation, but it is my hope that "Divergent Roads" will not only begin to define my filmmaking style, but also help propel the success of my peers and the school. It's a lofty dream, it is also an attainable one.

"Divergent Roads" started with a desire to show the bus the way I'd come to see it. I wanted to portray its intimacy. I wanted to capture the very urban experience of having "a bus story" because everyone in this city has one -- an odd, different, or crazy experience that won't soon be forgotten.

I spent three months pre-production writing the story, arranging for the bus, assembling the largest cast I'd worked with and planning all the elements for the only multi-day shoot I've directed. It was an incredible learning process, and while it turned out better than I'd hoped, it did hammer home one very important lesson.

I enjoy the quote that tells us, "you start out wanting to make the greatest movie ever made, and you end up just wanting to live through it." I can't remember who said it, but it's humor stayed with me. I now understand it's truth. I would have never gotten it had I not took on a self-funded project of this scope. I've always loved my projects, but I've never felt that one might bankrupt, harm, or destroy me if I didn't give it my all. This project did. The quote means that movies are entities -- almost living, breathing beings – and just as no child succeeds without love and encouragement, and each movie you make requires your full attention and priority.

With production behind me, and post-production wrapping up, I'm beginning to form a plan for action. This film will be my first foray into the festival world where I will try to beg, borrow, or steal enough resources to springboard my next project. I think it has a good chance at winning some awards, but I'm also well aware that no father can see if his child is ugly.

Should the project ultimately only be a learning experience for me, I would like to share the things I learned with those who might benefit from it. Therefore, I'll be writing a series of articles which I will post on the movie's website ( www.divergentroads.com ) and will give reproduction rights to the school's blog should they want to include them here. The first post will be about lighting an enclosed space (relatively) inexpensively without access to a power supply, and will be up at the website in the next few days with lighting diagrams, equipment recommendations, stories and more."

Tyler Willis
1-Yr Digital Filmmaking Program
Fall 2006 – Fall 2007

More Places to Post Your Films!

http://Blip.tv
http://www.veoh.com/
http://www.blinkx.com/
http://funnyordie.com
http://www.gofish.com/
http://www.dailymotion.com/us
http://videohybrid.com/
http://www.revver.com
http://www.grapeflix.com
http://www.atomfilms.com
http://www.ifilm.com

GET YOUR FILMS OUT THERE!!! Here's a list to help...

Hi SFSDF Students & Alumni!

As you all know it’s hard to get your name out there into the industry.  Here are some sites that should help you POST YOUR FILMS, join filmmaking communities, and win prizes!

If you post your films to Youtube, don’t forget that you can link or share them with http://www.youtube.com/SFDigiFilm

I hope you find it helpful!

 http://www.vuze.com/az-web/Publish.html  
 http://www.caachi.com/caachi  
 http://www.youtube.com/  
 http://medialab.ifc.com/  
 http://www.current.tv/  
 http://myspace.com/  
 http://videocodezone.com/  
 http://www.bolt.com/  
 http://uncutvideo.aol.com  
 http://www.dvxuser.com  
 http://www.ifilm.com/video/2641652  
 http://www.webfives.com  
 http://alternet.org/  
 http://video.aol.com/  
 http://www.facebook.com/  
 http://www.flickr.com  
 http://www.imdb.com  
 http://www.imeem.com  
 http://movies.yahoo.com  
 http://myspace.com  
 http://www.netflix.com  
 http://pikeo.com  
 http://reelviews.net/  
 http://www.rottentomatoes.com  
 http://www.slashdot.com  
 http://www.somethingawful.com  
 http://www.youtube.com  

Thank you!
  
--
Shelby Stricklin
Marketing
Tel 415.522.1200 ext.111
<http://www.SFDigiFilm.com>
<http://www.youtube.com/SFDigiFilm>
<http://myspace.com/sfdigifilm>
<http://sfdigifilm.blogspot.com>

I DEW

DEW you?

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF PRODUCTION.

"Call time is 10 am and I still have to pick up the lead actress I met via a craigslist ad. It is now a quarter past 10 and I still have now clue where I am driving to as my phone continues to ring. I try not to answer it as I try and make sense why there are two different Mission street exits. I crumble my mapquest directions and throw it in the back seat. My phone rings again, it is a crew member asking me where I am and verifying that they are on time despite the director not knowing where he is going. My phone rings again. The lead wants to know where I am and I tell her I will be there in seven to ten minutes (the typical answer I give to anyone when I am running late). As I am explaining my tardiness to an actress that I have talked to once in the back of my head I am thinking that in the back of her head she does not trust me and probably questioning the validity of our prior conversation. I bring a female crew member to avoid scarring off the actress from the feel of a shady adult filmmaker. I stop by two gas stations and against my internal instinct ask for directions and of course neither of them know where I am going. That’s makes 3 of us. A strange coincidence occurs when they both try to get me to buy maps. At this point I want to punch them in the neck for lying in order to sell a 3 dollar map, but I am trying to make a commercial so I will save this for tomorrow. I jump back in my car to see 3 missed calls. So I drive following my instincts which have done nothing for me. Welcome to 10:40 am. This is when God realizes he is done laughing at me and I see a road sign that shows me where to go. I quickly call the actress saying, “I am here.” I still have another 2 minutes until I am there so I kept her on the line. Finally I see her and introduce myself. I quickly call my crew members that are waiting at a coffee shop and I tell them I will be there in 7 to 10 minutes. At this point my brain is thrown off track and I am trying to figure out how to make up this time when I only have one day to shoot and need the daylight. So I tell myself it is just 30 seconds that I need despite knowing that telling a story in 30 seconds can be more difficult than telling a story in 5 minutes. I arrive at the coffee shop 15 minutes later. I am try rushing everyone as they all make smart ass remarks saying I am late not them. I know this. I rush everyone into the parking lot where I do a quick wardrobe check. We then all begin our 5 car motorcade to the beach. We arrive to the beach and begin setting up in what should have been a clear day by now, but the fog has yet to burn off. We start shooting and things finally begin to run smoothly. Once I get the take I needed for the first shot, a huge weight lifts off my shoulders. I am able to have fun with the shoot now. It turned out to be my favorite production day of all my projects."

Dave Keenan
Digital Filmmaking Program Graduate
Writer/Director of "I DEW" Commercial

Welcome to our blog!

Hello SFDigiFilmster Students, Staff, Alumni!

Welcome to our blog!

We welcome you to think of this blog as your own. We'd like to use this blog as a way to keep up with ALL of the student productions, feature films, and alumni gigs and jobs.

Should you wish to add stories, events or pictures to this blog, please email shelby@sfdigifilm.com and request to be a moderator.

Thanks for checking out our blog...and be sure to check in again!

Shelby Stricklin
Marketing
www.sfdigifilm.com