This past week, I served as Art Director for a Collaborative Cinema film "Spare Change". The Milwaukee Film festival is something that I am very passionate about, and so it was such a great honor and experience to work on this project, which included some of the cities finest talent from actors all the way through to the production team. Please remember to come check out the film festival this year, which will run from Sept 23-Oct 3!
Below is the article that ran in the Journal Sentinel last week:
“Spare Change” Film Shoot
Today – Thursday, our Collaborative Cinema film “Spare Change” will be shooting downtown. Alexis Daubner, a freshman at Franklin High School, wrote the screenplay and five additional high school students from the area will be working as interns on the production of the film. Aaron Greer, director of "Gettin’ Grown" (Opening Night Film, 2004 Milwaukee International Film Festival) will direct the film and John Kishline (Theatre X, PUBLIC ENEMIES, and about 160 + plays) stars. Collaborative Cinema is program of Milwaukee Film, directed by Mark Metcalf.
Franklin High School Freshman Chosen Winner of Milwaukee Film’s Screenplay Competition
Winner will have incredible opportunity to have screenplay made into film to premiere at 2010 Milwaukee Film Festival
MILWAUKEE – April 20, 2010 – Alexis Daubner, a freshman at Franklin High School, emerged the winner this week of Milwaukee Film’s annual Collaborative Cinema program, and the screenplay she wrote, “Spare Change,” will be made into a short film this summer that will premiere at the 2010 Milwaukee Film Festival, running September 23 – October 3.
The field was narrowed from 110 idea submissions from local high school students down to 40, then to 15, and finally to one. Two additional entrants were singled out for Special Recognition for their Writing Craft, Commitment and Perceived Talent. They will each receive a cash award to be used toward furthering their study of creative writing and film. They are Corrin Laposki, from Franklin High School, and Meher Ali, from Brookfield Central High School.
Mark Metcalf, director of the Collaborative Cinema program, expressed how impressed he was with the commitment of the students who participated in the process, which began last October.
“The dedication and passion that these students show throughout the months-long process is truly inspiring,” Metcalf said. “We instill in them that anything worth doing well takes time. The students throw their hearts into the project, understanding what an invaluable opportunity it is to work with some major players in the film industry.”
Those major players include film professionals who volunteer their time and mentor the students throughout the writing and filmmaking process. Aaron Greer, director of Gettin’ Grown (Opening Night Film, 2004 Milwaukee International Film Festival) and co-author and director of the upcoming film Fruit of the Tree about Black Holocaust Museum Founder James Cameron, and professor of film production at Loyola University Chicago, will direct the film. Jeff Kurz, a writer who formerly worked at Miramax, and Alison Abrohams, producer of Feed the Fish, will act as mentors to Daubner as she writes the final version of her screenplay. When shooting begins in June, the crew will be made up of dozens of film industry professionals, and five additional high school students from throughout the state will act as interns on the production of the film.
“I’ve always seen a direct connection between my work as a filmmaker and my work as an educator, so I was honored to be asked to participate in the Collaborative Cinema program,” said Greer. “I was really impressed by the maturity, humanity and whimsy of Alexis Daubner's script, and I look forward to being a part of this project and what I believe will be a beautiful and touching film."
Last year’s Collaborative Cinema winning screenplay, “Ward Three,” premiered at the 2009 film festival to rave reviews and last week screened at the Wisconsin Film Festival.
About Collaborative Cinema:
The Collaborative Cinema program begins in the fall each year with a call for entries from local high school students to enter the Milwaukee Film Screenwriting Contest. The top 40 ideas are selected by the professional filmmakers who act as mentors for the program.
Those 40 students are invited to attend an all-day workshop on a Saturday in January at Discovery World. The workshop is an intensive introductory course in screenwriting wherein the students are taught the ins and outs of screenwriting by professionals who give them the tools to turn their idea into a screenplay for a short film.
The students submit a first draft of their screenplay and from there, 15 scripts are selected for a second workshop at Discovery World involving two-on-one mentoring and the students having the chance to delve further into their script and screenplay idea.
Following the second screenplay workshop is a film production workshop at Discovery World that invites any interested student to come and learn about filmmaking through hands-on demonstrations about film production and film equipment.
Five students from this workshop are selected to be production interns on the making of the winning film.
The winner is chosen by a panel of 10 professional filmmakers and screenwriters who have acted as mentors throughout the program.
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