Boston Camera News and Notes

The People Speak, a television miniseries based on the work “A People’s History of the United States” by Howard Zinn, recently shot at the Majestic Theatre at Emerson College. In the production, several Hollywood stars, including Matt Damon and Kerry Washington, were selected to read passages from Zinn’s work in front of a live audience. These selections will be condensed into four one-hour programs.

Boston Camera was happy to help support this production during its stay in our city.

Black Irish, a film our cameras shot last year, is now available to rent on DVD. The feature took home several awards at film festivals in 2007.

Recent months have seen several more feature films come to Boston. We have been fortunate enough to provide support to The Lonely Maiden, The Box, and Real Men Cry. Also, in the near future Boston will be hosting the film The Surrogates, starring Bruce Willis.

Back in October, some of our cameras were used to shoot the new production Cook’s County, an offshoot of the popular PBS cooking series America’s Test Kitchen. The series is scheduled to air this summer. For more information, visit www.americastestkitchen.com.

Twelve, featuring twelve local directors making twelve short films over twelve months, has wrapped principal photography. Boston Camera is excited to have been a part of such an interesting production.

Thanks to newly passed tax incentives for the motion picture industry, Boston has been alive with feature film production. Both Bachelor No.2 and The Women recently completed photography in our fare city and The Pink Panther Deux is filming through early November. Bachelor No. 2 stars Dane Cook and Kate Hudson, while The Women features a laundry list of talented actors, from Annette Bening and Candice Bergen to Meg Ryan and Jada Pinkett Smith. Pink Panther Deux finds Steve Martin reprising his role as the bumbling Inspector Clouseau. He’s joined this time by Alfred Molina, Jean Reno, Emily Mortimer, and Aishwarya Rai in a wacky adventure through the streets of Paris (yes, Paris. Boston is substituting for the city).

Boston Camera has been lucky enough to be a part of all three of these films and we look forward to the next slate of productions to head into Massachusetts, which include Richard Kelly’s The Box and The Lonely Maiden.

Massachusetts rocks, and in the recent weeks, Boston Camera has provided equipment to a variety of music video shoots. Our gear has shot spots for The Dropkick Murphys, Godsmack, and Boys Like Girls. Check them out!

Boston Camera congratulates the makers of Stiffs, which recently world premiered at the Montreal Film Festival. It also had a local premiere at the Boston Film Festival. For more info on this film, visit stiffsthemovie.com.

Sox Appeal is a limited run dating-style television contest in which a single fan participates in three blind “speed dates” throughout a Boston Red Sox home game. Each date lasts just two innings, so everyone involved has to be ready to impress!

At the ball game’s seventh inning stretch, the fan is forced to choose one suitor with whom they would like to spend more time. The pair then enjoys the final two innings of the game, and maybe more.

During each episode, viewers will also get to hear what the fans around our couple think of the match. And, knowing Fenway fans, they’ll be pretty honest.

Abandoned in the Arctic, a new documentary from Cocked Hat Ventures, is a compelling tale of survival and redemption in the face of staggering physical hardship. The project tells the story of Lt. Adolphus W. Greely, who, along with 24 men, set out in August of 1881 as part of the First International Polar Year to construct a research station on Ellesmere Island, near the North Pole. The journey, known as the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition, was the most ambitious arctic expedition in the history of the United States, yet it became a test of the troupe’s will. At the end of the three-year voyage, only six men survived, the rest lost to starvation, cannibalism, and mutiny.

Abandoned, according to Cocked Hat Venture’s website, ‘attempts to unravel the mystery surrounding what really happened during the three years Greely and his men were marooned in the arctic. Did the U.S. government abandon 25 men to certain death? Did Greely's arrogance and miss-calculation result in the death of 19 men? Or, was he a skilled leader whose courage, integrity and humanity made it possible for even some to survive?’

The documentary sets forth to answer these questions through not only traditional storytelling techniques, but by also following six individuals who, in 2004, set out to retrace the path of the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition. This modern expedition tries to connect the present with the past, and tries to ultimately find the answers to the mystery of Adolphus W. Greely.

Boston Camera provided camera for this project, and we are happy to report that Abandoned in the Arctic recently screened at the Music Hall in Portsmouth, NH. More information on this project can be found at www.cocked-hat.com.

Twelve months in a year. Twelve short films. Twelve directors. That’s the concept behind the aptly titled Twelve, a new project being shot locally by a group of Boston film veterans. Led by Scott Masterson, the team has been hard at work and is slated to complete principle photography this December.

The thought lived in Masterson’s mind for years: a film collaborative that could assist in the creation and production of multiple film and video projects, ultimately leading to one full-length, feature film. He tinkered with the idea until November of 2006, when he gathered a group of up-and-coming young filmmakers in the Boston community together to pitch his concept. He packaged it around the yearlong calendar, deciding it would make an interesting project if one short were to be shot in each month of the year. Also, it was decided that each short was to conceptually recognize the month in which it was filmed.

The group worked together to iron out the mechanics of the project, choosing to shoot Twelve on the Panasonic DVX-100 camcorder, in which they could utilize the unit’s 24P technology to achieve a film-like look. They also partnered with High Output to put together a comprehensive yet inexpensive lighting package to be used on each shoot. These decisions allowed the filmmakers to be confident in the visual results of each piece, yet kept to the ultra low budget approach of the collaborative.

Boston Camera is proud to be assisting Twelve throughout its journey, providing video and lighting accessories, and we look forward to seeing the completed project in 2008.

Boston Camera Presents On Broadway- One of this year’s opening night films at the Independent Film Festival of Boston is On Broadway, and Boston Camera has the honor of presenting it in its World Premiere at the Somerville Theater. The screening is April 26th at 8:00PM.

Dice-K and Nike - When Daisuke Matsuzaka, the flame-throwing pitcher from the Boston Red Sox, recently filmed a commercial for Nike, Boston Camera’s equipment was there to catch all of the action. The newest fan-favorite filmed the spot while on a break from Spring Training. The commercial won’t be seen around here, though. It’s for the Japanese market only.

Just what is in store for the world one century from now? This is the main question addressed in 22nd Century, a PBS science pilot created by Boston Science Communications and Towers Production.

In this fascinating documentary, experts in multiple fields of science discuss what future generations may expect to find in everyday life. Topics include the “world wide mind,” a theory that suggests, in the coming decades, “all our brains will be wired together just as computers were wired together via the World Wide Web during the 1990s” (press release). The pilot for this series can be downloaded for free from Apple’s iTunes website as a podcast from PBS.

BE A BRUIN

Produced locally by Moody Street Pictures, Be a Bruin is a reality show competition following a series of hopeful hockey players as they attempt to make the roster of the Boston Bruins. Shot on HD, the program follows the participants as they battle for one of three invitations to the 2006 Bruin training camp. The eight episode series is currently airing on NESN. You can see more at http://www.boston.com/sports/nesn/promos/be_a_bruin/.

Writer/Director Brian Neuls created this crime-drama television pilot using a Canon XL2 from Boston Camera. It recently competed at the New York Television Festival.
The Hub, according to its press release, follows Boston Police Detective Fred Markham, a man who ponders quitting the force after losing the biggest case of his career. However, through a leaked secret meeting, Fred is drawn into a web of deceit that propels him headlong into a murder and perhaps his own undoing at the hands of two powerful crime kingpins.

"SPEAKING IN CODE" WITH AMY GRILL
For over a year, director/producer Amy Grill has traveled the globe, filming her feature-length documentary Speaking in Code. The film explores the world of electronic music, following music writers, producers, promoters, DJs, and label heads as they, according to Ms. Grill, "survive and thrive in the digital age." Boston Camera has been providing equipment to the Speaking in Code crew and, recently, Ms. Grill agreed to speak to us about the project.
READ the interview

4 Peace, a local hip-hop collaboration featuring Antonio Ennis (Made Men), Derric Quest, Edo G. (Da Bulldogs), and Wyatt Jackson, is on a mission. The group wants to show the youth of the city of Boston that gun violence is not the answer to conflict and that peace should rule the streets. To accomplish this, they are creating a music video for their locally produced song “Start Peace.” Boston Camera is proud to assist them in this venture by providing camera and lighting equipment to the group.
This grassroots effort at reducing violence began after four young men were murdered at a Dorchester recording studio in December of 2005. The members of 4 Peace, all well known in the local hip-hop community, saw this incident as a springboard to promote a positive message in the face of tragedy.
The Boston community has quickly embraced their efforts and the group has appeared on local television, radio, and in newspapers. Mayor Thomas Menino even makes a cameo in the “Start Peace” music video and has employed the group as a key part of his new gun buyback program.
see photo
To learn more about this effort, visit www.cityofboston.gov/aimforpeace

"Larry"
BCRC client movie trailer now on BCRC Video Podcast and iTunes music store.

"Gone ,Baby ,Gone"
Now filming in Dorchester. Feature film directed by Ben Affleck is based on the novel by local writer Dennis Lehane ("Mystic River").

Howard Stern Film Festival
Boston Camera congratulates local filmmaker Scott Masterson for his win in the first annual Howard Stern Film Festival, which took place last week in New York City. We're happy to see you and your crew succeed, Scott!

"ON BROADWAY"
Boston Camera is pleased to be supplying camera support for the feature-film On Broadway, which recently began shooting in the city of Boston. In this Super-16mm film, Joey McIntyre (Boston Public, New Kids On The Block) stars as Jack O'Toole, a young newlywed who decides to write a play after his godfather dies. Struggling when no one will help stage his work, Jack quits his job to produce it himself. The film co-stars such well-known names as Mike O'Malley, Amy Poehler and Will Arnett. Written and directed by Dave McLaughlin (Southie), the film is scheduled to wrap in late May.

"UNDERDOG"
Boston Camera has also recently been involved with the film Underdog, which is being shot in Providence, RI. Based on the classic cartoon from the 1960s, the film is scheduled to shoot throughout the Summer and will be released in 2007.

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