Thursday, October 22 | 5pm PT | RSVP for Zoom Info
Hang on to your ballots! 📮🇺🇸 We know it might feel like you can’t vote fast enough, but there’s more than one race (and ballot measure) to vote on! Join OMPA 🌟today at 5pm🌟 to hear our political strategist’s take on the candidates and ballot measures, and discuss over beers with your peers! 🍻
This single $10,000 grant will be awarded to the City of Portland BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, Person of Color – including but not limited to Latinx, Asian American, and Pacific Islanders) creators or creative teams for a virtual-residency in order to develop, explore and/or shoot story(ies) applicants want to tell in any film format they choose.
The connections, insights, experience, access to physical office space (at the Oregon Film Office, if needed), and consultations with strategic supporting and contributing sponsors, will be made directly available to each of the winning creators for a period of six months.
“Coraline,” the first feature created by Hillsboro-based animation studio, Laika, was released in 2009 to much critical acclaim and box office success. Recently, Oregon Film reached out to the film’s screenwriter and director, Henry Selick, to find out how the movie, based on a book by NeilGaiman, came to be set in the small southern Oregon town of Ashland.
Selick said, “I began writing my screenplay for “Coraline” years ago at my home in Northern California.
Marrying game-engine technology to virtual production techniques cracks open an expansive new world of creative filmmaking and business opportunities.
Virtual production, utilizing Unreal Engine, a video game rendering technology, and immersive LED screens, will be the new driver for innovation in cinematic storytelling enabling a creative flexibility previously unimaginable.
The first production to truly take advantage of this revolution, and helped create it, was The Mandalorian, on Disney+.
And now this technology is in Portland.
This innovative workflow was used to film more than half of “The Mandalorian” Seasons 1 and 2, enabling the filmmakers to:
greatly reduce on-location shoots
capture a significant amount of complex VFX shots with accurate lighting and reflections in-camera
simultaneously integrate and manipulate live-action and computer-generated assets
actors work in an actual virtual environment–combining advantages of location shooting with CGI imagination.
Season 3 of “Shrill” will start shooting this fall in the greater Portland area. This successful Hulu comedy series is based on the book “Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman” by Lindy West, who also co-created the show along with Aidy Bryant and Ali Rushfield. Continue reading... “S3 of “Shrill” – Underway This Fall”
The limited-run narrative podcast series Short of Breath is a small-scale socioeconomic thriller focusing on problems relevant to contemporary working-class American life. While rooted in real human interactions, the series has the tenor, structure, and tempo of a melodrama and thriller.
Set in the days leading up to the election of Donald Trump, Short of Breath follows Olissa, a single mother in her early 30s who loses her factory job in the series’ first scene. It’s terrible luck and even worse timing. Continue reading... “New Portland-Set Narrative Podcast Series”
We look forward to kicking off our most unconventional festival yet on October 8 and thank you for coming along on this journey to foster connection through the power of film. While the BendFilm Festival will look different from past years, we continue to believe strongly in the power of film to entertain, illuminate, build empathy and spark crucial conversations.
Over the course of the Festival, we encourage you to get lost in a film you may not otherwise see, and call a friend to discuss the themes and issues you discover.
Oregon’s open spaces and outdoor pursuits are for all Americans and visitors, yet there is a well-documented inequity in America that is deeply rooted in our shared cultural history, and as a whole, our outdoor spaces are not equally utilized for a multitude of historical, social and cultural reasons. Continue reading... “Outdoor Adventure Film Grant 2021 – Winner Announced!”
The Ashland Independent Film Festival is expanding Varsity World Film Week, its annual fall festival of new international films, into a two-week “Varsity World Film Weeks – Virtual Edition.” The festival will run online from Oct. 2 through Oct. 15 via the organization’s website:ashlandfilm.org, and is co-sponsored with Coming Attractions Theatres. Thirteen film selections can be viewed throughout the United States, while two films (The End of Love and Kuessipan) are available only to Oregon viewers.
Erica Thompson, Executive Director of AIFF, released a statement addressing the organization’s response to the recent tragic fires in Ashland and neighboring towns: “We have questioned just how relevant a film festival is in a difficult time for our community that has endured such significant loss.Continue reading... “Ashland Independent Film Festival: Varsity World Film Week”
October 8-10 will bring screenings of over 100 short horror, dark sci fi, dark animation and horror comedy films at the Sunshine Mill Winery and Drive-Up Theater as part of the Oregon Scream Week.
This is a live outdoor screening you can enjoy from the comfort of your own vehicle. Masks are required if you enter the Winery building and bathrooms. Tickets are only $30 per car per session. Please bring friends and family. There are yummy food and drink options that will be available to order as well.
