A Catalyst for Change

Ed says:

We just finished a great project for a marvelous Chicago organization "The Ounce of Prevention". They are focused on early learning programs in disadvantaged neighborhoods through a network of education centers called "Educare". Our favorite production team of Tom McCosky, Bruno Strapko did a phenomenal job with Chris Guillen producing and directing.

Chris Guillen is also a great still photographer.

I love doing work like this.

Thailand

Jeff says

I recently had the privilege of traveling to Phuket Thailand for Molex's Asia Pacific Sales Meeting. We were tasked with producing several roll-ins for the five day meeting.

Other than the long plane rides I had an amazing experience.
The meeting was held at an amazing hotel the JW Marriott Phuket.

I traveled from Chicago from to Seoul South Korea, 13 hours. Then another 7 hour flight from Seoul to Phuket. I watched a few movies and read a few books and was happy to get to Thailand. We started shooting right away, is it really work when your overlooking a beautiful beach on the Andaman Sea?

I did manage to get off the property and here is a shot of the dinner I ate that night.

I'm looking forward to the next Sales Meeting :)

Forson Reviewed In Variety

Today we were reviewed By Joe Leydon in Variety:

"..deftly balances the feel-good exuberance with the acknowledgment that the young Fordson high schoolers, along with their friends and families, continue to face the prejudices of those who insist that Arab-Americans -- even those who excel at the all-American game of football -- may not be true Americans after all.

Production values are first-rate."

Read the entire review...

Slamdance Special Jury Award

Ed Says:
I'm pleased to announce that last night Fordson: Faith, Fasting, Football won the Slamdance Special Jury Award for Documentary Feature.

The Grand Jury Prize for Documentary Feature went to the excellent film "Bhopali". Our sincerest congratulations to the producers of that moving and important work.

Everyone at Slamdance has been incredibly supportive of Fordson. At the awards ceremony they said, "The Slamdance jury was moved by this great American story about life, liberty and the pursuit of football."

The juror who presented us with the award, Adrian Belic (director of the 1999 doc Genghis Blues), was personally very vocal, supportive and complimentary of the film. My personal thanks to him for championing us all this week.

Kudos, congratulations and thanks go to the production team: Director Rashid Ghazi's dogged determination to get this thing done and done right, producers Ash-har & Basma Quraishi's creative guidance, Ruth Lietman's insight providing structure to the chaos of 75 hours of raw footage, our amazing photographers Michael Shamus and Mark Berg for their amazing photography, and to all of their unwavering trust in my input and ability to help bring it all together.

I look forward to the next opportunity I might have to submit a work to Slamdance. I'll always keep an eye on Park City, Utah.

Vilmos

Ed Says:
I'm at Slamdance this week. It's been really fun out here in Utah.

We had a pretty full house on the first showing of Fordson and they were a really receptive audience. Very responsive -- and seemed to cue to all the right places, and then some. It was a total kick watching the audience watch the movie. Second showing was on Monday first thing (noon) with a smaller, more subdued (read: hung over) crowd.

I've been getting stopped by people and complimented on the film. My friend Sue Lawson said yesterday that she had been given a list of top 5 must-see docs, and we were first on it.

I'm not bragging, I'm kinda stunned. All of the other work here is so amazing. Last night without realizing, I sat next to Vilmos Zsigmond (the DP for The Deer Hunter) to watch a showing of the first feature he shot (Summer Children, 1965). The dude shot frakking "Deliverance", and all I know is he's some old guy who DP'd once in 1965. After the screening I turned to him and said, "wow, that was really beautiful. Nice job." He looked me in the eye and said "thanks", like no one had ever told him that before. Then he got mobbed by the press, and I realized he was "somebody".

I think he took the compliment the way he did because when he looked at me he realized I didn't know he'd worked with DePalma, or Spielberg, or Cimino, or Altman.

My point is that we're all just sitting in the dark together, hoping someone likes what we've made.

I changed my flight home. I'm staying here 'til the end of the week.


(We don't normally link to clips that we didn't create, but in this case I'm making an exception. Also, you can buy it here)

Ed Says:
Well, we're just chock full o' Fordson lately here at Motion Post. We've been accepted to the Slamdance Film Festival. One of only 18 or so films of the 5000 submitted for this year's event. Wow.

Here's the announcement...

Check out the Facebook fan page...

And the website: fordsonthemovie.com

Awards

A recent commercial we edited for Mothlight Pictures. The client was Memorial Hospitals Cancer treatment Center and featured cancer survivors.