Entertainment & Media

GPB On Stage this week features Eddie's Attic Presents, songs recorded live at this legendary Decatur, Georgia singer-songwriter performance venue. Artists featured in this edition include Uncle Earl and Uncle Green, Radney Foster, Caroline Aiken, and Fred Eaglesmith, among others. For more information on these performances or other upcoming performances at Eddie's Attic, we encourage you to click here.

GPB On Stage presents a very special performance featuring Jan Smith and Friends, recorded live in the GPB Performance Studio. Jan Smith is a longtime Atlanta area musician and voice coach who has worked with a wide cross section of major singers including Usher, Rob Thomas, and TLC. This particular session presented Jan a chance to select a number of lesser known but up and coming singer-songwriters, as well as her longtime accompanist Peter Vogl.

Guests on Jan Smith and Friends include Peter Vogl, Ben Deignan, B. David Stevens and Diane Thiel.

The performances were captured live in the GPB Radio Performance Studio, also known as Studio GPB. GPB’s Herb White is the guest host for the program.

GPB On Stage is a weekly performance series and airs throughout Georgia on Saturday nights at 8pm, right after A Prairie Home Companion. Regular series that can be heard on upcoming editions of GPB On Stage include Eddie’s Attic Presents on November 1, The Mountain Music and Medicine Show from the Holly Theater in Dahlonega on November 8, Evening Star from The Sautee Nacoochee Center on November 15 and The Sucarnochee Review on November 22.

GPB On Stage features Eddie's Attic Presents Saturday night October 4 at 8pm, just after A Prairie Home Companion. Eddie's Attic is a unique and innovative performance space that focuses on listening to singers performing their songs. The room's intimacy and ambiance make for a close bond between performer and audience. 'The Attic has been a place to work, rest, and woodshed for a number of musicians who've gone on to bigger things (Indigo Girls, John Mayer), as well as a place for the audience to get close to musicians who remain timeless no matter how many records they sell.
Tonight's program includes legendary Atlanta-area guitarist Glenn Phillips, Kevin Lawson and the late Alyssa Hadley, and Gove Scrivenor, among others.

Join us Saturday night at 8pm right after A Prairie Home Companion for The Mountain Music and Medicine Show, recorded live at the Historic Holly Theater in Dahlonega, Georgia. You'll hear plenty of old-time mountain music and a few jokes so old you'll have to blow the dust off of them. One of Rickey Bevington's favorite bands, Little Country Giants, will pick a few songs along with Bluegrass Alliance and the White Path Band. So give a listen and stay away from Doc Johnson's Wizard Water and you'll have a good time and hear some of the best of Appalachian mountain culture on GPB. For those of you who enjoy the show, you might be able to get a couple of tickets to the last scheduled live performance of the season, coming up October 4, by going to the web site linked to above.

Join Rickey Bevington for a special edition of GPB On Stage with Rolling Stones keyboardist Chuck Leavell. Chuck joins Rickey in GPB's Radio Performance Studio for an hour-long interview and performance. He shares memories about his start in the music business, how he landed gigs with the Allman Brothers Band and the Rolling Stones, tour life as well as his wife and two daughters, and his other career as a tree farmer at his middle Georgia plantation. Leavell performs classic songs like "Tumblin' Dice," "Down the Road a Piece," "Georgia On My Mind," and original compositions.

GPB’s Rickey Bevington had a great time doing this show. "Spending an hour in the studio with Chuck Leavell was like spending time with an old friend. He was eager to talk about his early days with the Allman Brothers Band and his 25 years touring with the Rolling Stones. He also opened up about the secrets to his 35-year marriage and his passion for protecting the environment. Having a personal concert with him playing our Steinway piano was an experience I won't forget. Our listeners will enjoy this intimate interview and performance from a fellow Georgian."
GPB On Stage airs Saturday nights at 8pm immediately following A Prairie Home Companion. Featured shows upcoming include include The Mountain Music and Medicine Show from the Holly Theater in Dahlonega on Sept 27, Eddie’s Attic Presents on October 4, and Evening Star from The Sautee Nacoochee Center on October 12.

In a couple weeks, I, your loyal narrator and guide, will be heading to the CineVegas Film Festival. While there will be some major releases in the program (Get Smart, The Rocker, Choke), I'm also looking to catch some smaller films, which is really what going to festivals is all about. Right now, the ones looking good are Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S. Thompson, Visioneers, and The Wackness (I've heard nothing but great things about this film) but the beauty of a festival is basically writing up a schedule that allows you to spend your entire day in a theatre watching films and trying to find the gems that no one else knows about yet.

If anyone has any recommendations for films showing at this festival, please post them in the comments section!

So last week I did my very first set visit. I went down to New Orleans to watch some filming on Final Destination 4. Aside from what you'd expect to see on Final Destination movie set (lots of extras experiencing a case of shrapnel-face), I also saw and experienced a lot of the cool 3-D effects they're planning to use.

"Pshaw. 3-D. Enjoy the gimmick, sucker." I hear you scoff. That's right: I HEARD YOU THROUGH THE INTERNET.

But before you dismiss my experiencing, know that no other film has attempted Digital 3-D on location. I really hope they do an in-depth featurette on the DVD where producer Craig Perry (a highly knowledgeable and entertaining fellow) explains how they pulled off some particularly difficult shots, like putting the 3-D camera in a car that's filling up with water but making sure that no water gets on the mirror that allows for the 3-D picture to come together.

I'll have more on this once I finish writing up my full report for the site that sent me, Collider.com

Welcome to our new feature that will be a huge part of our redesign: The Weekly Wesbite! Wouldn't it be awesome if instead of trekking across the vast expanse of the Internet looking for useful websites that can help you in your filmmaking goals, someone just did that for you? Someone did! We someone! That someone is we! Our grammar is good!

But even better than our grammar are the sites we'll be providing. And don't worry: you're not just going to get one site a week and that's it. We're not going to hold out on you. But on C-47 2.0, you're definitely going to want to bookmark our resources page so you can find stuff like this site:

http://www.findsounds.com/

You can lock someone in a specially-designed acoustic room and force him or her to make various noises you can later use when dubbing your film in post, but we wouldn't recommend it. Either you have to let them go, feed them, or explain that weird smell to you neighbors AND get a new foley artist. Better you just visit FindSounds which can take care of your Sound FX needs.

Film School is expensive. Like, thousands of dollars and stuff. And even trying to teach yourself filmmaking will probably cost hundreds of dollars on cameras and editing software (although there are programs that allow you to edit video online...more on this tomorrow). But for only tens of dollars, there are DVDs out there that not only have the films you know and love, but the special features are so robust that you can learn a lot without ever leaving the comfort of your sofa. And at most film schools, you usually have to sit at a desk in an uncomfortable chair rather than on a comfy sofa.

So without further ado, here are a few DVDs you may want to check out:

Pearl Harbor (Three-Disc Vista Series) [yes, I know the film is terrible but these special features are top-of-the-line]
The Alien Quadrilogy
Clerks X
Fight Club (Special Edition)
Brazil (The Criterion Collection)
Die Hard (Special Edition) [There's a feature on this disc that actually lets you edit a scene from the film your own way!]
Hellboy (The Three-Disc Director's Cut)
Hot Fuzz (Three-Disc Collectors Edition)
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (Extended Editions)

Basically, there are a handful of directors you can count on to give you a robust special edition: Michael Bay (I know, I know), Terry Gilliam, David Fincher, Robert Rodriguez (his book Rebel Without a Crew is a must-read for any indie filmmaker) who actually has a "Ten-Minute Film School" extra on almost all of his films.

You don't have to buy all of these but these are features beyond fluff and you should break out your notepad if you want to learn some valuable lessons without having to pay for an application fee.

As we continue to redesign our website, we want stay in touch with our readers and so we'll be providing weekly recommendations on what movies deserve your hard-earned cash. This week, there are two DVDs that deserve your attention and one film opening in theatres.

The first DVD you need to buy is Juno. Winner of the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, Juno was an indie smash at the box office, making over $140 million dollars. The film received almost universal acclaim, especially for its star, 21-year-old Ellen Page. Juno is whip-smart and if you can get past the first 15 minutes (which are good but uneven), you're not going to regret having this in your collection.

The other DVD that warrants your attention is Lars and the Real Girl. A premise that could have quickly been too quirky for its own good, Ryan Gosling and an excellent supporting cast create a heartwarming film about finding love in the most unconventional of ways. It's a funny, sweet, and lovely film and was one of my favorites of last year.

If you're heading out to the theater this weekend, you should catch Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Billed as a "Breakup Disaster Movie", Forgetting is like a lot of the other films from Lord Judd Apatow, who was also behind Knocked Up and Superbad. It's raunchy but honest and it's a date movie that guys will actually enjoy and so will their girlfriends if their girlfriends are cool. If she doesn't like Apatow's films, then she wasn't the one for you.

Festivals can be tough on the wallet and on the clock. There's so much to see and not enough time and money to see it all. So if you're overwhelmed by the amount of choices, I recommend any of these three:

American Teen (Friday, April 11, 7:30 PM at Landmark Midtown Art)
Son of Rambow (Friday, April 18, 7:00 PM at Landmark Midtown Art)
Nerdcore Rising (Saturday, April 12, 10:30 PM at Landmark Midtown Art)

Of course, the beauty of a film festival is that there are so many fascinating films and it's your chance to be part of a select group of those in the know and in a way to be an investor in a film. Your word-of-mouth and support is invaluable to these filmmakers and in the good festivals, you'll find the movies that don't have ten-million-dollar marketing campaigns but rather a lot of heart and creativity. This isn't to bad-mouth Hollywood films nor is it to deify independent filmmaking. But film festivals provide a unique opportunity and I hope that you'll take a chance and try to see a film or two at this year's Atlanta Film Festival. And if you don't want to take a chance but still want to go to the festival, the three films I've listed above are the closest suggestions I can provide for a "sure thing".

Yesterday I saw Son of Rambow and I would be very surprised if the film wasn't in my Top 10 of 2008. It's funny, heartwarming, and honest. Just a really beautiful film that I can't wait to see again. It will be playing on Friday, April 18th at the Atlanta Film Festival and you definitely should check it out.

The directors "Hammer & Tongs", are holding a contest for filmmakers. To enter, you will need to submit an original short film about anything, literally anything! Submissions can be up to 5 minutes max. Films must be submitted in one of the following formats: AVI, QA, MOV,
MPG, MPG4, WMV

The Grand Prize winner will have their short film placed in the Special Features section of the Son of Rambow DVD. Three runner-ups will receive framed movie posters signed by the director and producer.

The deadline for submissions is May 12, 2008. Filmmakers must be 13 years of age or older to enter.

Check out http://sonoframbow.filmmakingfrenzy.com/ for more information and be sure to see Son of Rambow!

The Who: Jimmy Lee Smith, FILMAtlanta Meetup Group

The What: "We make films. We have individual projects and FILMAtlanta group projects. We network to build crews and casts to get projects done. We have a set of scripts we plan to do this year. We hope you will join us in collaborating on films in the Atlanta area."

Click here to learn more.

The Who: Tracy Martin, Women's Angle Project

The What: The Woman’s Angle is a short film project specifically designed for the new or established woman director that desires an opportunity to gain a fuller understanding and appreciation of her voice as a filmmaker. Over the course of the project, participating filmmakers will create a short film (10-15 minutes in length, depending on the number of participants).

Click here to learn more.

The Who: Chris Shambis, Dailies

The What: Dailies, in association with PushPush Theater, unites filmmakers to explore their craft through community and creation. We challenge film artists of all disciplines to focus on process as the result. Great work evolves from experimentation, practice, and finally understanding. By creating a safe place to fail, and focusing on process over product and collaboration over isolation, Dailies is where one finds a voice - not simply to display it, but to nurture and develop its existence.

Click here for more information.

The Who: Melissa Randle, Women in Film & Television Atlanta

The What: Women in Film and Television Atlanta (WIFTA) is a Georgia-based non-profit organization affiliated with other national and international Women in Film chapters and is dedicated to improving the status and portrayal of women in film, video, and other moving images media.

With an emphasis on education, advocacy and networking, we support the work of women in moving images media and encourage high standards of professionalism.

Click here for more information.

The Who: Martin Kelly, The Atlanta Screenwriters Group

The What:

Founded in 1998, The Atlanta Screenwriters Group has become one of the largest screenwriter groups in the Southeast. Though based in Atlanta, the group boasts members from neighboring areas including Tennessee and South Carolina.

The mission of The Atlanta Screenwriters Group is to help local screenwriters develop their ideas, give support, swap industry stories and give constructive feedback for their work. We are also interested in supporting and developing a relationship with local area filmmakers and provide a forum for them to talk about their projects and help find support for them.

Click here for more information.

Last week, IMAGE held a Salon on various cinema groups in Atlanta. All next week, we'll be doing a profile on each of the five groups: Atlanta Screenwriters Group, Women in Film and Television Atlanta, Dailies, The Women's Angle, and Meetup.com-Atlanta Films.

So check back daily to learn about these great groups and the great services they provide.