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NJFA - New Jersey Film Alliance

June 15th 2009 12:51
After last week's ramble about stuff regarding the non-profit that i'm helping to start-up, we had our next meeting. I think that writing this blog may have helped me to synthesize what i wanted to accomplish because it was a pretty good meeting.

We determined that we needed to create an identity - who we are and what demographic we should be attacking first and foremost. Then from there how to branch out into other areas. By getting us focused on one specific area we'll be able to finally get things rolling. We've seemed to be stuck on the "idea" phase for over a month now.

So we seem to be after the young filmmaker/film fan demo. Starting with college and post grad people but dipping our feet into the youth market as well. We're starting by having 2 pretty diverse events. The first being a screening of high school films at a local taco restaurant in Belmar, NJ (Surf Taco!!!!). One of our main goals as an organization is community and youth outreach and this is a great start to that.

The second event is a fundraiser at a local bar (tbd) where we'll have some abstract films with a DJ spinning music from movies alongside it. It's a pretty cool concept and we're excited about the different, more artsy and older crowd, that might be interested in it.

Ultimately the goal for the NJFA is to have a couple of events a year (screenings, special events, demonstrations,etc...) culminating in a real-deal Film Festival.

At this point in the process there are about 5 or 6 people working on this project in various capacities but we need to move forward and find both volunteers and paying members. Interested people can contact us at info@njfa.com - the actual website should be up shortly.

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Non-Profit Film Organization

June 11th 2009 12:17
Ok - long story short - a couple of months ago I was asked to help out a friend of mine reboot a local film festival. The group running it originally kind of fell apart due to different schedules and life and whatnots. So we tried to get it up and running again. As we sifted through the ashes of what once was and getting things together people started trying to get back in and take credit for our work.

As it turned out the organization was more about saying they did something and feeling important, than actually doing something.

Plus they never paid their taxes.

So we left and have been working on starting up our own non-profit, community based, film conglomerate. We've christened it the New Jersey Film Alliance, or NJFA.



Now that we’re out on our own, I’m finding that this is way more difficult then I had envisioned and here’s why. There are 4 people really involved at the beginning, which is probably a good number, but we’re all kind of doing the same thing. We’ve come up with different events and ideas on how this should run but we don’t have any money or resources to make it happen.

I also don’t know whether or not an organization like this should have a specific demographic. What I mean is that if you took the 4 of us, 2 of us are looking at this being for film lovers and makers from 19 to 100, but the other 2 are looking at it as being for 13-19 year old kids.

There is definitely a way to incorporate both factions of people but what I’m curious about is if, when starting, we should be focusing on one aspect and not both. The events we’re coming up with, in either direction, will alienate, to a degree the other demographic.

For example, my event is the Found Footage Festival (www.foundfootagefest.com), which is definitely for the over 18 crowd. While one of my colleagues is trying to do outdoor movie night geared towards teens showing films like Indiana Jones and Back to the Future. Now, that’s not to say that adults won’t want to see Indiana Jones outside during the summer, but not necessarily if the crowd is all kids, just like parents won’t want to send their teens to a risqué comedy show revolving around silly videos.



So, for me that’s one of the challenges that I’m having with this start-up. But I think that this is mainly because it is brand new and we have to find our footing. All 4 of us have our own agendas on top of the general desire to have some really neat events and ultimately a film festival. So finding a way to work all of that in, while still being respectful and supportive of each other will take some time and effort, especially on my part (I’m a bit too stubborn at times). We have a great group of people with a genuine love for film and the community so I think that this bump will eventually smooth itself out.

The next problem we have is raising money. But that’s for next time.
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Craptastic Movies

June 9th 2009 13:19
I think that I'm going to alternate my postings between general film critique/ramblings with some short, yet in-depth, writings on some of my most favorite things in the the film world - bad movies. I know, I know, it's ironic that I like to critique movies for being bad, but the difference between this and that is that these films are "bad" and those film portend to be good. (I'm looking at you PIxar) I mean, there's no way that a film like Sharks in Venice is trying to be what Wall-E is trying to be.



And because of that very gray distinction, I'm able to enjoy that crappy Sci-Fi (or is it SyFy now?) Channel movie or whatever is on HBO super-late at night. In fact, for those that remember it, one of the most fun thing when i was growing up was to come home late on a friday or saturday night and watching USA's Up All Night, which showed such classics as Chopping Mall or Party Camp.



Maybe it's just the thought that a group of people all got together and wasted countless hours and thousands of dollars on making films that no sane person would think could be good. For instance, there's a film called Monster High, which is probably one of the high water marks in cinematic ineptitude. Apparently, as the plot goes, when aliens decide to blow up Earth they’ll do it by first invading a high school. Then, these same aliens, with technology far superior to mankind’s, will agree to spare Earth if the humans can defeat them in a game of basketball. Frankly, that’s so good I’m amazed it hasn’t been remade.



The special effects aren’t all that special and the acting is beyond terrible but for some reason, this film is mesmerizing. I used to think it was because I thought that I could do better, but really I think what it is that makes this and the other movies like it so compelling is that they are full of unbridled joy. The people making them are so in love with their ideas that they can’t see how bad they really are. They were able to get the hundreds of people involved in production behind them, raise the money to make it and ultimately get someone (me) to watch it.



So while I’ll make fun of them and I obviously know that Hell Comes to Frogtown and Malibu Beach Vampires are terrible, I’m forever drawn to the craptastic movie.



So, stay tuned for a sampling of these films mixed in with the usual sampling of indie, foreign and mainstream film reviews and ramblings.

Seriously though…Monster High.



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PIxar Schmixar

June 9th 2009 03:16
I don't seem to get what everyone is talking about with these Pixar movies. I'll give them the fact that the animation is beautiful but that doesn't make for a good film. If that was the case people would still be talking about that crappy Robin Williams movie "What Dreams May Come". It was a beautiful looking film. But it sucked, and so did Wall-E and from what I hear, so does Up.

What Dreams May Come

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Remember, no matter where you go, there you are.

June 9th 2009 01:14
So here's the thing, I'm a filmmaker and film teacher. I'm starting up a non-profit film alliance that is working on sponsoring, among other things, community based film opportunities as well as a yearly film festival. Above all that though, I have serious taste issues with the majority of the film-going public. That doesn't mean that I don't have both high brow and low brow tastes but I think dealing with pretentious high school students (did I mention that my film teaching is at a special high school for kids who are into film?) who think they have gold plated poop which allows them to say that whatever the last movie they saw, oh, let's say Terminator Salvation, was the best movie they've ever seen and then go on to site some sort of nonsensical reasoning has made me a bit bitter. And while that was quite a sentence it has made me try to get them some mutherflippin' culture.


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