The Confluence

Ashland International Film Festival, BendFilm, and Portland Film Festival all made the cut for the MovieMaker 2018 “50 Best Film Festivals Worth The Entry Fee.”

Here is what MM had to say about each:

AIFF: “Submitting to screen at this five-day Southern Oregon fest comes with the promise that your film will be viewed and evaluated by more than one screener. Ashland Independent Film Festival’s crowd of over 7,000 fills out the art-deco Varsity Theatre, historic Ashland Armory, and other venues to take in over 90 doc, feature, and short selections. In 2017, maverick moviemaker Alex Cox took his Japanese-inflected Western Tombstone-Rashomon to AIFF for its world premiere; panels dug into on-screen activism and indie doc journalism in the age of fake news; and Pride Award-winner Jenni Olson conducted a queer film production workshop for Southern Oregon University students. Consistently high-quality programming.”

Debra Granik’s #OregonMade “Leave No Trace” is one of 50 films that have been selected to screen during the Director’s Fortnight at the Cannes Film Fetsival this year.  “Leave No Trace”  already premiered at Sundance and received rave reviews.  Sony Pictures Worldwide was quick to acquire international rights, and Bleecker Sreet has aquired North Americn rights. “Leave No Trace,” set in Portland’s Forest Park, tells the tale of  Will and his teenage daughter, Tom, who “have lived off the grid, blissfully undetected by authorities in a vast nature reserve on the edge of Portland. When a chance encounter blows their cover, they’re  removed from their camp and put into the charge of social services. Struggling to adapt to their new surroundings, Will and Tom set off on a perilous journey back to the wilderness, where they are finally forced to confront conflicting desires—a longing for community versus a fierce need to live apart.”

Starring Ben Foster as Will, and Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie as Tom, written and directed by Debra Granik.

Roger Faires in the high desert of Oregon scouting for ” Meek’s Cutoff.” Photography by Simon Max Hill

Spotlight on Roger Faires – Location Scout and Manager.

We caught up with Roger scouting a feature out in the field and asked him how he feels about living and working in Oregon. “I’ve been doing this long enough to not be surprised; about 31 years. Yet here in Oregon, I get surprised. Still. About once a project. Sometimes more. This is no one-trick pony state. Farmland that rivals California’s Central Valley or the plains of Illinois where I was born. Deserts that rival desert anywhere and are usually higher in elevation. And a coast that is purely our own. The other states usually say they have parts of their coasts that rival ours. I say, “Prove it”.”

“So, that leads me to one of the better reviewed 2018 Sundance Festival films this year, “Leave No Trace”, starring Ben Foster and Thomasin McKenzie – and one that I scouted and managed. Through some hard work and my thicker-than-is-normally-good head came across a location who’s benefit to our film probably won’t get matched again soon on whatever next projects I do: A nudist colony! Yeah, you read right, Squaw Mountain Ranch outside of Estacada, Oregon. (About 30 miles from downtown Portland). Neither I, nor any of my peers, ever knew it was there until a chance conversation with a local elderly logging family revealed it’s existence. A place with layers of cabins, unique trailer grottos and a vibe that Jack Kerouac would write about. So without further adieu here’s a couple of photos for you to judge. Sorry, no nudes – just places – hey, I’m a Location Scout not a Casting Director!”

For more information, email Roger Faires or call him on: 503-975-1936.

On Saturday May 5, at 2:00 PM at the enchanting Siren Theater, 315 NW Davis, archivists Elizabeth Peterson, Libby Burke, and Dennis Nyback will present a screening of selected films from the minor cinemas of Oregon.

FILM #1

Elizabeth Peterson will screen LUTHER METKE AT 94 (1979), directed by Jorge Preloren & Steve Raymen. 27 min, color, shot on 16mm.

“A portrait of Luther Metke who has lived in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon since 1907. Tells how he was a veteran of the Spanish American War, an early labor organizer, a poet, and a builder, and today serves as a vital and lucid example of the rural ethic in America.”

LUTHER METKE AT 94, an ethnographic film, comes from UO Libraries, where Elizabeth Peterson is Curator of Moving Images.

 Read More »

The Pacific Northwest Lens Summit is coming on May 5th to Koerner Camera in SE Portland.

If you are interested in attending the 2018 Pacific Northwest Lens Summit, please fill out the form found here. Once registered, you’ll be in the loop for all the latest information.

Students at Portland State University are asking for help with their film as supporters of student filmmakers! Check out our Proof of Concept above.

Logline: 

The lives of a sorority girl, a star athlete, an activist, and a low income student intersect at a college party that determines their true identities.

Synopsis:

 Read More »

Let’s just say that we’re big fans of both OPB and OHS, especially the original programming of the former and the film and media archives that are housed by the latter. And we’re always excited to watch the content that both of these great #OregonMade organizations create. And, yes, we’ve binged on Netflix’s Wild Wild Country but the roots of that incredible documentary are grown from several deep journalistic roots here in the state that should always be recognized.

The first is the incredible 20 part story from Les Zaitz in The Oregonian. The second is the other great finally-told-Oregon-story from Maclain and Chapman Way The Battered Bastards of Baseball (also available on Netflix) which, the story goes, brought them deep into that glorious film and media archive at OHS mentioned above (and, some say, led directly to their interest in the story of the Rajneesh after viewing much of the local footage stored there, but that’s a story for another time). And the third journalistic pillar that Wild Wild Country was built upon comes from OPB’s terrific series Oregon Experience. 

Raider/Contributor Phil Oppenheim takes us into this wild, wild country that was Co-produced by OPB and OHS with Co-producers and writers Eric Cain and Nadine Jelsing.

From the looks of last weekend’s box office, many of The Confluence’s readers were staging a pop-culture Raid of their own, proving their geek cred by identifying the onslaught of avatars in Steven Spielberg’s interpretation of Ernest Cline’s novel Ready Player One (nerd note: while the movie wasn’t #OregonMade, having been shot in the UK, the novel is at least partly #OregonSet, with the character Og Morrow living in Oregon; similarly, Cline’s second novel, Armada, starts off in the character’s hometown of Beaverton!).  But for the rest of us, we found that a more engrossing epic was streaming on Netflix: the six-part miniseries Wild Wild Country, a fascinating and immersive documentary about the followers of guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their (mis)adventures in trying to create an oasis for themselves in Central Oregon.  Read More »

The OregonMade Creative Foundation, Northwest Film Center and Playa Summer Lake announce the second year of a unique residency opportunity for screenwriters and filmmakers.

This program calls for proposals from screenwriters, filmmakers and related creators to work on a script/story/pitch/narrative project during a 4-week residency at Playa in Summer Lake, Oregon.

The OregonMade Screenwriter’s Residency Award is open to Oregon Resident filmmakers, screenwriters and other creative teams (no more than 3) to develop and write a narrative project with a “western” theme that is set here in the Northwest. This “western” theme can have traditional roots or have a new spin on what is a broad genre – this means the idea could run all the way from “Rooster Cogburn” and “The Way West” to the more recent “Lean on Pete” and even “Wild.”  The more unique, diverse, and insightful the point of view, the better. Ideas and settings embracing new communities and points of view are very much encouraged.

And where better to develop such an idea but in the beautiful western setting of Playa at Summer Lake.

Find out more here.

Deadline for Submissions: 5pm on May 18, 2018.

Bent Image Lab spin-off Augmented Reality YOUAR Inc. was recently recognized in Forbes.

For Immediate Release
April 9, 2018

Forbes covered our recent technical demonstration, for the first time, Apple and Android phones playing together in the same AR environment. Call us to plan your next AR project we’ll knock your socks off!

Portland-Based YOUAR Enables iOS and Android Devices to Share Persistent Augmented Reality

Android and iOS Devices to Play Together:

PORTLAND, OR — YOUAR, an Augmented Reality (AR) company, has released a video demonstrating their Convergent Computer Vision (CCV) solution enabling shared cross-platform persistent AR experiences for iOS and Android devices. YOUAR’s hardware agnostic, social augmented reality platform and application operating environment allows developers to create and share AR experiences across all AR enabled devices.

YOUAR’s patent-pending CCV, “UberCVTM”, and AR Cloud localization system makes sharing between ARKit, ARCore and other proprietary CV enabled systems possible.

Carlo Calica, YOUAR CTO explained, “ARCore and ARKit do not currently allow users to reload localization information, so they cannot save dynamic content and nothing is permanent. With UberCV, YOUAR environments and content is persistent. Users can add new content in person or remotely and when you open the app, everything is right where you left it.”

YOUAR Convergent Computer Vision / UberCV Demo
We are creating a system that can support an entire world of shared augmented experiences. Android and iOS devices playing together: made possible by YOUAR’s UberCVTM technology.
The demonstrations released today shows Android and iOS users sharing a common, interactive experience, walking their sharks in the park. The scene includes persistent AR content, a 3D Monolith, seen in POV on an Apple and Samsung phone with two additional Apple and Samsung phone user-controlled sharks in view. Normally automatic, developer mode buttons and functions have been added to explicitly illustrate the loading of a shared, persistent, environment and the launching of a shared application on the devices.

“Combining Android and iOS platforms is just the beginning” said Ray Di Carlo, CEO of YOUAR. “UberCV highlights our ability and commitment to deliver open, social AR Experiences across all platforms, not limited by brand or device type. Allowing users to choose any AR enabled device to engage in real-time interactions within the same persistent Augmented Reality experience is the key to unlocking powerful social AR”.

Visit YOUAR.io to view the demonstrations, get more info and sign up for early access to YOUAR’s developer and partner programs today.

About YOUAR
YOUAR is a Portland OR based augmented reality company building a social “AR Cloud” Platform that allows users to discover, create and share AR content, games and experiences anywhere. YOUAR was founded by Ray Di Carlo and David Daniels in 2014.