The Screengrab

With just a few days of Screengrab remaining, I thought I'd take this opportunity to squeeze in one last double-feature episode of Self-Promotion Theater.

The short subject below is Sock Pox, my entry in the 2009 Boston edition of the 48 Hour Film Project, a competition that takes place throughout the year in 80 cities around the world, wherein teams from every walk of life are given 48 hours to shoot a 4-7 minute digital movie. Each individual team is given a specific genre to emulate, and all teams must also work in a common prop, character and line of dialogue. (In this year's Boston competition, for instance, every movie needed to include a magnet, a "second-in-command" character named Marty (or Mary) Quinzani and the line, "Yes! I mean, I hope so."  And, as should hopefully be somewhat apparent, my team's genre was comedy.)

The second feature is 3:15, a ghost story featuring the students of the Burt Wood Summer Arts Festival (a great vacation activity, by the way, for Massachusetts kids of all ages, if you happen to know any)!

Okay, that's it for the plugs...and now, on with the show!

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Good morning, afternoon or evening, and welcome to another edition of Screengrab Self-Promotion Theater, wherein I share my short films with you, the entertainment-starved public.

This week's offering is a five-part teen comedy entitled Most People, featuring students from the Burt Wood School of the Performing Arts, i.e., real teenagers, i.e., no pie sex or thirty-year-old "adolescents" in Porky's-style shower romps.

But if you're a fan of zero budget John Hughes-ian geek love, enjoy!

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Last week, I premiered the first episode of Screengrab Self-Promotion Theater, partly to help pad out your movie-watching options in the annual cinematic graveyard known as January, but mostly as an excuse to foist some of my own short films on a grateful nation.

This week, in honor of the January 21st premiere of what hopefully won't be yet another disappointing and ridiculous season of Lost, the SS-PT is proud to present Shoe, the Team Bait Shop/Burt Wood entry in the 2006 Boston edition of The 48 Hour Film Project. Enjoy!

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We've reached the Horse Latitudes of the film-going year, and Screengrab feels your pain.  Sure, there's 17 hours of Steven Soderbergh's Che to look forward to, but then what?  If you've already seen all of the prestigious 2008 releases, you're basically stuck with off-season programmers like Hotel For Dogs or (egad) Bride Wars.

And so, to help alleviate the mid-winter entertainment blahs, I'm launching a new feature, Screengrab Self-Promotion Theater, whereby I selflessly share a few of my old zero-budget short movies with you, the grateful public.

First up is De Zomer Kamp, an entry in the 2008 Boston edition of the 48 Hour Film Project (featuring the music of theremin supergroup, The Lothars).  Enjoy!

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Filmmakers...start your engines.

Tonight in Boston, approximately 90 teams of varying skill levels and experience will receive a random cinematic genre, line of dialogue, character and prop to be utilized as part of the 2008 Beantown edition of The 48 Hour Film Project.

As the name suggests, teams will then have just two short days to write, produce and edit a 4-7 minute epic incorporating the aforementioned elements. Films completed within the tight timeframe are subsequently screened and judged by a triumvirate of local critics and filmmakers. The winning teams receive a “Best of Boston” award, national distribution on a 48 Hour Film Project DVD, and the chance to compete in a second round against other “Best of City” winners from around the U.S.

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