The Confluence

Join Oregon Media Production Association on August 28 for an exciting evening immersed in the local production scene!

Portland-based production designer Paul Harrod will kick things off with a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Wes Anderson’s new stop-motion film, Isle of Dogs. We’ll get to see how the director’s distinct artistic sensibilities informed every step of the process, from design through fabrication, and ultimately shooting and performance.

After a Q&A, we’ll open the night up for casual networking on Ziba’s rooftop patio. Many of the attendees will be OMPA members currently working on Oregon-based productions.

Don’t miss this exciting opportunity to hear from Paul Harrod and mingle with other industry professionals! 

GET TICKETS

General admission is $20 in advance or $25 at the door. OMPA member tickets are $10. Food will be provided by a film industry favorite: Mundo Catering! Drinks are also included.

Special thanks to our presenting sponsor, Hinge, and co-host Ziba! 

More event information

Cottage Grove

The winning filmmaker, Leah Warshawski and her Oregon-raised animator, Dawn Norton, received a $3,000 grand prize as the Best Film. The winner aims to take the proceeds to launch high school curricula about overcoming the obstacles of our past and becoming stronger.

COTTAGE GROVE, ORE., 18 AUGUST 2018 – “Big Sonia” won the overall $3,000 Grand Prize at this weekend’s inaugural Bohemian Film Festival. The film – featuring 90-year-old Holocaust survivor who still goes to work everyday and stays busy so she “doesn’t have to think about it” – explores what it means to be a survivor, how this affects families and generations, and how trauma might define each of us.  It asks, “Will your past make you stronger? The trailer can be viewed here.

The Bohemian Film Festival  jurors narrowed 180-plus entries down to 62. The 62 films are showing this  weekend (see schedule here) at the film festival. Both professionals and amateurs entered the competition which featured a jury of judges for the entries comprising domestic, international, short and feature-length films. The categories of films showing are in adventure, drama, mystery, documentary, animation, Pacific Northwest, Sci-Fi and spirituality.  Read More »

Photo: Breaking Glass PicturesTHE PORTLAND CIRCUIT:

The#OregonMade Creative Foundation alongside the Northwest Film Center, the Hollywood Theatre, the Clinton Street Theater, and Cinema 21 announce the first film selected for a unique theatrical distribution program for locally produced feature films.

The Portland Circuit, a collaboration between the #OregonMade Creative Foundation, the Northwest Film Center, the Hollywood Theatre, the Clinton St. Theater, and Cinema 21, has been created to provide a local theatrical run for #OregonMade feature films. This initial pilot program will select feature-length films and allow them to have a paying audience screening in four of the most dynamically programmed independent theaters in Portland.

These “theatrical runs” will consist of a four day, theatrical screening in each of the participating theaters (each on separate days). The first run will be held in October 2018 and then a second run of a different, still-to-be-named feature film will follow in February 2019.

We are pleased to announce that the sixth feature film from director Jon Garcia, “Sex Weather,” has been selected as the inaugural Portland Circuit project.

The morning after the premiere his new film, a sleepy-eyed Darrel, played by Al’Jaleel McGhee, wakes to find himself in bed with his crew member Syndey, played by Amber Stonebraker. As they begin to discuss the previous evening and tepid reviews of the film, emotions give rise to a passionate and thoughtful relationship that once could have been if either had taken the chance. Filmed almost entirely in a small studio bedroom, actors McGhee and Stonebraker give stand out performances that guide the audience through tumultuous regrets and hopeful futures, while trying not to step on a fake lava floor.

Director Jon Garcia and crew members will be in attendance for a question and answer following all of the screenings.

The film will be distributed by Breaking Glass Pictures. The DVD/VOD will be available November 27, 2018.

 Read More »

Official Selections for the NINTH ANNUAL #EOFF2018. 

Eastern Oregon Film Festival is proud to announce its Official Selections for the 2018 Festival. An intimate gathering nestled in downtown La Grande OR, #EOFF2018 will feature film screenings, special events, and live music at The Granada Theatre and our own creative space, hq, as well as an Online Program consisting of 14 films—exclusively available to watch at Filmmaker Magazine. 

#EOFF2018 will open with director Bridey Elliot‘s hilariously-spooky debut feature CLARA’S GHOST (pictured above), in which she cast her entire family to play its dysfunctional protagonists. Friday night will wrap up with newcomer Erik Bloomquist‘s unsettling, psycho-horror drama LONG LOST about two brothers meeting for the first time. The final screening and closing night feature is none other than EOFF Alumni and community favorite Jim Cummings‘ heartfelt comedy about a cop who loved his mom, THUNDER ROAD!  Read More »

Starting next month, Commissioner Nick Fish will become the Portland City Council’s first official liaison to the Portland Film Office. His Senior Policy Director, Mr. Jamie Dunphy, will be point on this new relationship.

The role, created at Commissioner Fish’s request, recognizes the challenges that film productions face – tight turnaround times, tight budgets, and unique physical challenges operating in a busy urban city – and establishes a direct line of communication with City Hall. This liaison role can be helpful in coordinating broad cooperation across City bureaus, problem solving, assisting with long-term financial sustainability, and establishing a high-level City lead in any issue involving the film industry.

Commissioner Fish’s longstanding passion for small business and the arts led him to request this new assignment, and he is excited to elevate the unique role of the film industry in Portland’s creative economy.

Oregon Casting Director Lana Veenker invited to one of Europe’s largest film festivals as part of a weeklong program dr

awing international focus to the casting profession

(Portland, OR) On August 15, 2018, when the International Casting Director Award is handed over to the winner at this year’s Sarajevo Film Festival in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Oregon casting director Lana Veenker will be on hand.

Not only is Veenker—alongside longtime Portland colleague Eryn Goodman and Los Angeles casting director Heidi Levitt —nominated for Best Casting of a Feature Film (for Bad Samaritan by Dean Devlin), she is part of a team invited by the Festival to produce a special program centered on the casting profession, entitled “Casting at the Heart of Filmmaking.” The program is sponsored by Sarajevo Film Festival, Spotlight, and the International Casting Directors Network (ICDN).

 Read More »

Set in the heart of Oregon wine country, the McMinnville Short Film Festival (MSFF) is a “filmmaker’s” festival. MSFF organizers cater to filmmakers from the moment a film is submitted to the moment the festival wraps up, experience why Portland filmmaker Zach Putnam says “…the festival organizers curated a sophisticated collection of high caliber films from both local and international directors. They create a welcoming environment for all attendees, but as a filmmaker, it felt like I was treated like a king!…”

The MSFF is a 2-day festival with 4 screenings, a filmmaker reception to allow networking and enjoy local area wines, and an awards dinner with 2019 keynote speaker James Westby.

Call for entries for the 8th annual MSFF now open! Visit http://mcminnvillefilmfest.org/Submit for more information and how to submit your film via FilmFreeway. Early bird deadline December 1 and regular deadline December 31.

August 6th, 2018: The OregonMade Creative Foundation, Northwest Film Center and Playa Summer Lake announce the winner for the 2nd annual Playa residency award.

The Screenwriter’s Residency program, now in its second year, received over 30 pitches, proposals and outlines from screenwriters, filmmakers and related creators focusing on a new take on an old genre – The Western. Projects needed to be set in the Northwest but not necessarily all in Oregon, while writers needed to be current Oregon residents. Stories reflecting “unique, diverse and insightful” points of view and ideas and settings “embracing new communities” were encouraged. All submitted projects were vying for a $1,000 stipend and the opportunity to work on a script, story, pitch or narrative project during an up to 4-week residency at PLAYA in Summer Lake, Oregon. Local Oregon screenwriters Jon Raymond (“Wendy & Lucy,” “Mildred Pierce”) and Randall Jahnson (“The Doors”) will provide feedback on the finished script.
The winner of this year’s award is Janelle Lassalle with her project, “There will be Fury.” Lassalle is a writer and aspiring filmmaker based in Portland, OR.  After graduating with a BA in English from the University of California at Berkeley, Lassalle decided to venture into the world of travel writing, a vehicle which has allowed her to explore race and gender relations across the globe. Her journeys have inspired works in a variety of mediums including short stories, paintings, poetry and screenplays. She’s passionate about themes pertaining to racial inequality, in particular focusing on social justice and the nature of prejudice in America today, and enjoys bringing tales to life in a grand, hyperbolic style infused with dark humor.
“There will be Fury” tells the incredible story of a Syrian family that sets out to get their young daughter back from America. It is an unconventional tale of revenge, a tale strung together by violent episodes as our heroes discover the wild, wild West through an exploration of gender roles and inequality, racial tension, the need for law and order; alienation, fear, madness, justice.

Lassalle states, “according to Robert Wood, at its heart, every Western is about ‘confrontations between systems of belief.’ This occurs when a native group struggles to deal with change brought on by a foreign character that threatens to undermine their existence. Our heroes pursue their young daughter, now in the custody of her erstwhile father, across the PNW while their attempts to seek justice are consistently thwarted due to the fact that they are illegal immigrants.”

Lassalle is currently working to set her dates to travel to Summer Lake.

 Read More »

Bobby Warberg on top of Mount Hood

When I was 14 years old I answered our home phone and there was a man on the line that said he was looking for old cars to use in a new movie called, “Animal House”. I told him that my mom has an old car. The next thing I knew my mom and I found ourselves at the Dexter Lake Club for 2 nights of filming on the set of “Animal House”. I became instantly enamored with the film making process. Years later I graduated from the U of O with a degree in Accounting. With no prospects in sight, one of my best friends from college, Sara Burton, suggested I go apply at the accounting office for the new feature film, “Without Limits” that was just setting up production in Eugene. Sarah had been hired as the Location Manager on the show and my other good friend Shaun Gavin was one of her assistants. I got my first job as an accounting clerk on that show and decided early on that I liked what Sara and Shaun were doing far better than my job in accounting.

I soon became a Key Assistant and would work the next several years mainly for Shaun and my other good friend, Doug Hobart. We worked for peanuts back then and shot what seemed like an endless amount of Lifetime TV movies. My first job as a Location Manager was on Electric Entertainment’s TV series, “Leverage” which lasted 5 seasons. In 2013, I continued my relationship with Electric Entertainment on their next series “The Librarians”. Along the way I was also able to start a business, Locations PDX, which provides Location Equipment rentals to many local productions.

For me, the most exciting part of my job is peeling back the pages of a script and then hitting the trail and finding that perfect location. I have repeated that process thousand of times in places far from home, but there is truly no place like Oregon when it comes to scouting locations. I was lucky enough to work on the feature film, “Wild” staring Reese Witherspoon. We spent 35 days on the trail with Reese starting in Mojave, CA (Bend, Oregon) and ending at The Bridge of the Gods on The Columbia River Gorge. With stops in Ashland, Crater Lake and Portland along the way.  The amount of diverse and stunning locations on “Wild” was so much fun to deliver!

During my career I’ve been able to witness the steady upward trend in our film industry here in Oregon. This amazing growth to our industry is due in no small part to the efforts and hard work of our State Film Office and the dedicated craftsmen that make up our amazing film crews. It’s been so much fun to be a part of! I truly love my job and thank my good friends Shaun and Sara for helping me to find this path!

Bobby Warberg

https://locationspdx.smugmug.com/