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Home > Blogs > Arts and Entertainment > Archives > 2008 > July > 24
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Filmmaker challenges City of Dayton
Foodies and filmies mingled together Tuesday night, July 22, at the Cannery Art & Design Center downtown when two events - Restaurant Week “Sneak Peek” and “From Sketchpad to Screen: The Storyboards of J. Todd Anderson” - collided together to create one perfectly delicious evening of entertainment.
The Cannery played host to the first portion of the evenings events when it rolled out samples of 10 participating restaurant week menus that included Bahn Mai Thai Cafe, Bullwinkle’s, Barleycorn’s, Chappys Tap Room & Grille, Chin’s Ginger Grill, Coco’s Bistro, Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse and Wine Bar, Jay’s Restaurant, Madison’s Bistro and The Chimneys Inn. The food was fantastic … the venue was hot, hot, hot likely due to the number of people in attendance (over 250) and the number of heating elements going to cook food. Many choose to cool off outside. Those who stayed indoors didn’t seem to let it get to them.
Following the restaurant week sneak peek, those attending ambled down to the 520 Gallery to see a rare display of chronological storyboard work by Oakwood’s very own J. Todd Anderson.
Anderson was on-hand to present more than 1,700 storyboard drawings for his work on three well known films - The Coen brothers’ “The Big Lebowski” and “No Country for Old Men” (the winner of last year’s best picture Academy Award) as well as George Clooney’s “Leatherheads.” The stellar exhibit, which is on display and open to the public through Aug. 2, benefits Film Dayton, a volunteer organization that supports regional filmmaking.
Anderson told the crowd that he is currently in Ann Arbor, Mich., doing preproduction on Drew Barrymore’s roller derby film, “Whip It!”
“In order to get movies to come to you, you have to give them incentives,” explained Anderson who named Michigan and Iowa as two examples of states that have offered tax incentives to lure big and small budget productions in.
Anderson followed by challenging the City of Dayton to honor its visionary forefathers and lead the state of Ohio in offering incentives for film productions to come to town passionately stating to audience applause that, “it has to start somewhere.”
Anderson then called for an audience member to volunteer to be a “director” and help him illustrate just how his role in a film works. Mike Herrlein happily volunteered to lend a hand and joined Anderson on the stage. Anderson asked Herrlein to describe and set up a scene for a movie so that he could storyboard it for the crowd to see (see photo below) - a process that occurs before a film ever begins filming. Those listening were in for a treat. It was a visual lesson packed with humor and technical terms like “inserts,” “set-ups,” “band aids,” “tracking” and “panning.”
“The script is intellectual … when I draw it, it becomes existential,” explained Anderson. “Now you see it … it’s like I’ve uncovered a drawing for them [the director]. From then on the vision of the picture has been established.”
The Nick Kizirnis Band played music to help close out a great evening that proved that when events and organizations come together to become greater than the sum of their parts everybody wins. Here’s hoping the City of Dayton takes Anderson’s challenge on, perhaps working with Film Dayton, to show the state what can be possible.
Any thoughts or opinions about the film community in town? What about offering incentives to bring film productions in to town? Click here to see more photos from the event.
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DCDC in mood to celebrate at 40
The Dayton Contemporary Dance Company is going to party like its 2009.
Its 40th anniversary season observance, which officially begins in September, will continue through the end of next year because, according to company spokesperson Teri Fritze, “there’s so much to celebrate.”
For one thing, artistic director Debbie Blunden-Diggs has just signed six new dancers, although one of them, Nashville native Hershel Deondre Horner III, danced with DCDC briefly about five years ago.
The others are: Adam Crain, a recent graduate of Western Michigan University; Trent D. Williams Jr., a native of Houston who performed with DCDC2 last year; Marlayna Locklear, from Milwaukee, who brings experience with the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble of Denver and the Dallas Black Dance Theatre II; Ruka Hauta-Saar, who was born in Italy, grew up in Florida and has his BFA from Florida State University; and Amy Renee Jones, a graduate of Point Park College in Pittsburgh who spent last season with DCDC2.
For another, DCDC will leave Wednesday, July 30, for several days in New Orleans, where the company will perform works including Eleo Pomare’s “Las Desenamoradas” at Louis J. Roussell Hall, a theater on the campus of Loyola University.
William McClellan Jr. and Crystal Michelle preceded the rest of the company to Louisiana, where they’ve been heading a two-week dance residency with students in the New Orleans Ballet Association’s summer intensive course.
It’s the second year in a row DCDC has spent part of the summer in New Orleans. Meanwhile, New Orleans resident and dance director Lula Elzy is spending another summer in Dayton, assisting with choreography for the Muse Machine’s Aug. 5-6 concert.
It’s also been a year of weddings:
Company members Nabachwa Ssensalo and G.D. Harris married each other in Los Angeles, and dancer Crystal Michelle wed Marcus Perkins in Dayton. McClellan will be married later this summer.
Spouses and past company dancers Monnette Bariel and Ricardo J. Garcia Cruz, now of Chicago, had their first child several weeks ago.
DCDC, which was handling its own booking, has hired a new touring representative, Rena Shagan Associates of New York. The company will perform in Atlanta in August during a showcase for prospective presenters.
DCDC season subscriptions and single tickets are now on sale at www.ticketcenterstage.com or (937) 228-3630. The October concert will be a tribute to Jeraldyne Blunden. The February program will be done exclusively to live music.
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