"THE LOST BACKPACK"

BEF is involved in a fantastic project going on.........ACROSS THE ENTIRE WORLD! Okay, so let me explain. There's a project called "THE LOST BACKPACK". Its a feature length film being shot over the next few months from the collaboration of 20+ filmmakers from all over the world. These filmmakers made the cut from thousands of applicants. One of the chosen few is Brian Shephard.

Brian has worked with BEF on the 3 videos shot for Florida Hospital during their "Thanksgiving Community" program. They can be seen at our vimeo page at:

http://vimeo.com/8078964
http://vimeo.com/7341187
http://vimeo.com/7584504

So, the way the filmmakers collaborated on this project is that they picked a central theme (the backpack) and wrote 20+ short scripts to be put together in sequential order into the feature. Stanley Pomianowski will be helping out on the production side, while Enrico Marcellino will be the lead actor in Brian's piece. This is a wonderful opportunity for BEF, as it will give Brian, as well as us, INTERNATIONAL EXPOSURE! Current distribution is unknown at this time, but more to come as we have details.

The shoot is on Sunday, August 2nd. Stay tuned for more!

ARMOR OF GOD

Every so often I get to make a 30 second intro for a show broadcast to the Hope Channel. I made one earlier about “Great Prayers” and it involved lighting someone’s hands on fire. After giving my actor some pretty serious blisters (and one scar) I decided that I might be done with fire (for now, anyway). This series is called “Armor of God.” I typically film on a dark soundstage because most of these Christian sermon series are set in Biblical times and the easiest way to fake Biblical times is to be devoid of background, but for this one they wanted a modern day twist, so we filmed in a medical warehouse. Forest Lake Church, the producers of this show provided me with full riot gear: helmet, boots, Kevlar vest, police officer belt, and best of all a real life taser gun. Don’t worry no one got shocked!

Enrico was brave enough to agree to be the actor in this, which was especially bold because he had just had his appendix removed earlier that week! I naturally made him run, jump, and crouch down for various shots, but he was a real trooper the whole way through and never complained or even winced. Oh and did I mention that the warehouse didn’t have air conditioning? So it was a sweltering humid 93 degrees inside. Shooting these things is always an adventure.

I always rent a dolly to make these intros, but this time in addition to the dolly, we got to use our new slider for the first time. The slider is basically a bar about the size and shape of a two by four that has a sliding plate on the tope of it that the camera attaches to. The slider can either be used by placing it on the ground and getting really low moving shots or you can mount it on a tripod allowing dolly moves at any height really. It was easy and a joy to use.

Look for the video some time next week but for now enjoy this picture of Enrico.

PRODIGAL WINS AT FILM SLAM!

The votes are in, and the Enzian Film Slam audience decided that PRODIGAL was the best film at the festival.

This means a few things: PRODIGAL gets an automatic placement in this year's BROUHAHA Film Festival, which is a pre-cursor to the Florida Film Festival. It also means that PRODIGAL joins the ranks with other BEF projects (CONFESSION and HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS) as a potential contender for acceptance into the Florida Film Festival. But most importantly, it means that our old pal Jeremy is coming back to Orlando very soon!

Congratulations to Jeremy Rowland and everyone else who worked on the film! You deserve it.

If you STILL haven't had the opportunity to watch PRODIGAL, check it out here.javascript:void(0)

PRODIGAL screens at Enzian Film Slam

PRODIGAL screened at the July installment of the Enzian Film Slam today. About 75-100 people were there to see 6 different films from all over central Florida.

Some info on PRODIGAL :: This film was written and produced by Jeremy Rowland and shot up in Tennessee with the help of Southern Adventist University (SAU). Jeremy was one of the founding members of BEF and has enrolled in the film program at SAU, which is also Stanley's alma mater. The film was shot using the RED ONE camera and was masterfully directed by Chris Bohlender. If you haven't had a chance to see the film yet, please take a moment to watch it here.

There were very positive reactions to the film from several of the audience members, who made it a point to see Jeremy after the program and congratulate him on his efforts. Several people even recognized the BEF team from when they screened HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS at the Enzian last year!

Audience voting takes place by ballot during the screening and a winner will be announced within the next few days. More details to come as we know them!

Congratulations Jeremy!

2011 is fast approaching!

2010 is only halfway over, yet people are starting to plan their 2011 weddings already! We have been receiving a lot of phone calls from eager brides that are in the early stages of planning and are choosing BEF to be a part of their special day.

I can't help but reflect on how much we have learned over the past year. We started from very humble beginnings, but are eager to now take our product to the next level. We have added several key pieces of equipment to our gear, which will only add to the quality of the wedding videos we produce.

I hear many couples, who are heavily engaged in the late stages of wedding planning, say that they don't really care about having videography at their wedding. Sometimes its a question of price, sometimes they just never really think about it. To these couples who are having questions or doubts about having a videographer at their wedding, I would ask this: "Don't you want to re-live the moments leading up to that very special 'FIRST KISS as a married couple'?" "Don't you want to see what it was like for someone who attended your wedding?" "Don't you want your children to see the happiest day of their parents life?" You don't even have to hire us, but you should think about this really carefully, because that day can go by so fast, and all your left with is a photograph or two. (BTW, you should definitely hire us if you are going to hire anybody. Just putting that out there)

Photography is an extremely important aspect of any wedding. It can capture the absolute beauty and artwork of the most important day of your life. But a video can do so much more than that. It can take you back to that place, and give you the experience of those moments.

Alright, alright, enough of the sales pitch. If you know of anyone who is getting married either in the remaining months of 2010, or in 2011, be sure to have them contact us right away. Who knows, if they mention your name, they may get a discount!


If you haven't already, check out some of our wedding highlights at www.barefootempirefilms.com

Newmyer Maternity Photo Shoot

I had the amazing opportunity to work with Nicole and Jason Newmyer shooting their maternity pictures. Apart from being an absolutely beautiful couple, they brought some really creative ideas and were open and free to explore some different things on this shoot.

Photographer - Enrico Marcellino
Camera - Panasonic Lumix GH1 w/ kit lens / Canon FD 50mm 1.4

We have a blog!

So here we go, adding yet another point of contact for the world to know everything that is Barefoot Empire Films. There have been some pretty amazing things that have happened for us over the past few weeks. We are going to be traveling abroad to do some pretty amazing work with some pretty amazing people. More to come on that, but it will definitely be........you guessed it.......PRETTY AMAZING!

We basically just wanted to start this thing so that it doesn't look like we do nothing...........which we SO do not do.

Hope everyone has a great 4th of July!

Don't blow your hand off...........but if you do.........be sure to film it!



:: BEF ::