So I was doing the Oregon Film rounds Friday night (very rare for me). I first stopped by OMPA’s “Oregon’s Got Talent” event which was literally packed with talent. Then I headed over to a wrap party at the North Portland Chopsticks – equally fully with creative talent. At the party I heard producer Neil Kopp was at the bar celebrating the news that “Meeks Cutoff” got a distribution deal with Oscilloscope Laboratories. I went looking for Neil before my curfiew of 11:00 but could not find him to congratulate him on the news. Continue reading... “"Meeks Cutoff" gets distribution”
Southern Oregon – Shawn Adams flying an auto-gyro for the shot. Jamie Lusch / Daily Tidings
It’s always great to hear of projects choosing to shoot in Oregon and when we heard about the producers of the documentary, Half Way Home, choosing the Ashland area over their native LA for some of it’s scenes, we learned the reasons in this case were threefold; less expensive, less red tape and solid talent. Gary Kout, producer and executive director of the Southern Oregon Film and Television organization, connected the producers with talented auto-giro pilot, Shawn Adams (Rotor-Head) in southern Oregon to get their tricky arial scenes. Continue reading... “Documentary Chooses Ashland for Easy Shooting”
Variety film critic Justin Chang gave a rave review of Kelly Reichardt’s film “Meeks Cutoff” last week in Variety. He saw the film at the Venice film festival. Among the things he praised were the locations credited to location scout Roger Faires. How often does a location person get credit in a review? Here’s an excerpt from the review.
“Reichardt’s decision to shoot in the 1.33 aspect ratio enhances the docu-like feel and yields one majestic composition after another, the nearly square frame capturing the wide-openness of these harshly beautiful desert vistas (Roger Faires is credited for the film’s Oregon locations, which look utterly of the period).Continue reading... “Glowing review of "Meeks Cutoff" from Variety”
“Unbelievable” TV Show is one of the highest rated TV shows in Japan, now in its 11th season. More than 15 million people watch every show. We’re thrilled here that they chose the Geiser Grand for a special show on the ten most interesting spots on the planet! Director and crew arrived last night, joined by a translater/producer out of LA (only one stop from Tokyo to Baker City, Oregon!)
As Shawn mentions in his article several positive reviews are already surfacing. We were also able to find several other web stories about the premiere. Here are a few links to more information on the film’s premiere.
Today in Salem the long running ABC show “Extreme Makeover Home Edition” showed up at the Oregon School for the Deaf. This season the show is focusing on community projects and they picked the school this year for their Halloween episode as they will be remaking the school’s dorm and a new haunted house. Construction on the project began today and the project is slated to be completed by next Sunday. All of the students from the school are traveling to Minnesota to visit the Starkey Hearing Foundation.Continue reading... “Extreme Makeover shows up in Salem, OR to help School for the Deaf”
The Toronto Film Festival has announced its 2010 lineup. Among them is Kelly Reichardt’s “Meek’s Cutoff” as part of the Comtemporary World Cinema Programme.
Kelly Reichardt directed the short films Ode (99), Then a Year (01) and Travis (04). Her feature films include River of Grass (94), Old Joy (06), which won a Tiger Award at the 2006 Rotterdam International Film Festival, Wendy and Lucy (08), which was named best film of 2008 by the Toronto Film Critics Association. Continue reading... “Meek’s Cutoff Selected For Toronto Film Festival”