More from the CINES

At the cocktail reception on the 7th floor terrace of the Newseum, we ended up sharing a table with a very interesting gentleman named Tom Hope. He had a white ribbon on his badge, indicting he was a Jury Chair. He was with his niece, Karin, and a lovely lady whose daughter is the executive director of CINE.

Tom, it turns out, was a photographer with an elite unit during WWII. He recently helped compile a book about that unit, and he had a copy for us to look at. Included was a first person narrative submitted by the soldier in the hospital that Patton famously slapped. The rest of that story is that Patton returned a while later. He had found out that this Canadian soldier, who was serving in a unit with American soldiers, had been wounded in a key operation. Patton pinned one of his own Purple Hearts on the soldier. And after Patton left the building, someone came and took the Purple Heart away -- because the soldier was Canadian!

We enjoyed hearing Tom's stories, and were very surprised when, during the Awards Ceremony, he was identified as one of the founders of CINE 50 years ago. Here's a link to a fascinating interview with Tom about how the US Government wanted someone to found an organization to encourage quality documentary films that could be entered in foreign film festivals, which at the time were being flooded with well-produced propoganda films from Communist countries. It's a fascinating story, and made the award even more special for Craig.

Freedom Dance Wins CINE Masters Series Award

Freedom Dance, the animated short documentary co-directed, co-produced, and co-edited by Steven Fischer and Craig Herron, won the CINE Golden Eagle Masters Series trophy for Independent Films last night. The trophy came with an award of $10,000 in post production services from Henninger Media in Arlington, VA.

The 50th anniversary awards gala was held at the Newseum, a brand new $400 million museum on Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington, DC. In addition to presenting the Masters Series awards, CINE honored Edward James Olmos, the Oscar nominated actor (Stand And Deliver), with a Cine lifetime Achievement Award, and Gwen Ifill, of television news fame, with a Cine Trailblazer Award.

The evening started with a cocktail party and buffet catered by Wolfgang Puck on the 7th floor terrace of the Newseum overlooking the Capital building and the museums on the mall. Afterwards the awards ceremony was held in one of the many beautiful theaters inside the Newseum.

Steven Fischer, myself and my wife Barbara attended. As usual I was a bit excited at the prospect of our winning. They had all the trophies lined up on a table on the stage (there were only ten awards in addition to the Lifetime and Trailblazer awards). The golden trophies were glowing in the spotlights and I wanted one. Something about trophies glowing in the spotlight makes me crazy.

When they announced that Freedom Dance had won I shouted, "Yes!" maybe a bit too loud -- well, maybe a lot too loud. They showed a clip from the movie and Steven and I took the stage to receive our trophy and the award from Henninger Media. Steven did most of the talking as he is great at public speaking and then I thanked Edward Hilbert, the CINE awards people and Barbara.

Among the many hi-lights of the evening were video clips from famous people in the news and entertainment fields who congratulated the CINE Awards on their 50th anniversary, and the filmmakers on their achievements. My favorites were from Ken Burns, the famous documentary director of WWII, Baseball, Lewis and Clark, The Civil War and many others, and Steven Spielburg, who remembered receiving a CINE Award for his first short and how much it meant to him.

This was truly a wonderful night for Freedom Dance and all the people who helped us win this award. Thanks from Steven and myself to:

• Edward and Judy Hilbert for their wonderful story and Edward's cartoons;
• Mariska Hargitay for narrating this small movie and helping us get attention;
• Diane Leigh Davison, Esq., Attorney at Law who arranged for Mariska to narrate;
• Gregg Landry of Blue Rock Productions for shooting the live action sequences of Edward that formed the structure of the movie;
• Kevin Hill of Studio Unknown for the fantastic sound design of Freedom Dance;
• Phil Rosensteel for the composing (along with Steven) and playing the score;
• Dr. Michael Davidson DDS for the location photography of Hungary and Austria that were turned into backgrounds for the animation;
• John Bintz for setting up our website and keeping it going all this time;
• Barbara Herron for digital paint and enthusiastic support of me and this project;
• Paul Sulky for digital paint and animation;
• Leanna Chamish for being our video host;
• Edy Bondroff for her work on the Gallery show at the Jewish Communtiy Center at Park Heights;
• Claudine Davison, for making the Gallery show and an early screening at the JCC happen;
• Rachel Kreutzinger for digital paint;
• Joel Loukus for digital paint and some animation;
• Marc Gillis for his watercolor paintings that were used as backgrounds; and
• Meaghan Dunn and Jason Bloom for digital paint.

Craig talks about "House of Usher"

In case you (like some others) have been wondering why it's taking so long to get going on what's going to be about a 15-minute short film, here's an explanation in Craig's words:

Why is this taking so long to shoot, you are probably wondering. This type of production with live actors against the greenscreen where the house will go is a really heavy pre-production and post-production type of movie, and is similar to animation in that respect. Unlike most movies, the shoot itself is the shortest part of the process.

Since it is a period piece we are making costumes in the Regency or Empire style (think Jane Austen -- 1795-1820s) We are also working on furniture, as we need a few pieces where actors will touch or sit on things. Steve Landry has made a beautiful Recamier couch/chaise longue (yes, that's "long chair") which we will paint and upholster. Barbara has already posted photos of Madeline's dress and the chaise. (Ed note: Click on the "House of Usher" subject label to find them.)

Probably the most time consuming but crucial part of the process is the storyboard. Everything that will be in the movie visually is decided before we shoot. Rough versions to scale of the entire house have been made. Once the storyboard is finished and revised then the movie will be shot based on the storyboards with the camera lined up to the CGI house as much as possible. After everything is shot, the house and everything in it will need to be reconstructed and textured photo-realistically and composited with the greenscreen shots.

Craig

More as it happens...

More daffodils!

This is how the daffodils along the front walk looked on Thursday morning. The rest have bloomed since then, so I'll have to get another picture. Spring is here, in all its unpredictability!

Ruler of the Roost

Regular visitors may remember that Niece Heather came to us in January and asked if we'd adopt her pug, Marshall, because she and Jeff are both working such long hours that poor Marshall was home alone way too much.

We brought him home with us in mid-January, and as you can see, he's settled right in. This afternoon Craig was downstairs. I went into his upstairs office to get something, and found Marshall settled very comfortably into Craig's chair.

Meanwhile, Baby, our Jack Russell, was downstairs having a nice afternoon nap in Marshall's crate. Whatever works...

Madelaine's Dress Fitting

Here it is -- Madelaine's crushed silk blood red Empire/Regency dress. That's the train she's holding in her left hand. This version of the dress is make with drawstrings at the neckline and under the bust. They weren't quite adjusted when Craig snapped this shot. I was busy snipping stray threads from the edge of the right sleeve. You can see the gathering detail on the left sleeve.

The white muslin dress that Madelaine will wear for the burial scene has elastic at the neckline, under the bust, and around the bottoms of the sleeves. That dress, alas, is going to get ruined with fake blood, but we hope our Madelaine will be able to wear this dress to one or more screenings.

Daffodils!

My daffodils are almost all out.

We have a roughly 60-foot-long front sidewalk, lined on both sides with daffodils that my grandmother planted. She passed away in 1990 at the age of 90, so most of the bulbs were planted between 25 and 40 years ago. I've thinned them a few times and distributed bulbs to other beds, and they'll need thinning again this year. All together, there are at least 6 or 7 different varieties in various shades of cream yellow and saffron. And they smell good, too!

Enjoy this bit of spring.