Bushel and Peck's

Audience Choice Awards Party

Bushel and Pecks

Date:  Saturday, Feb 22, 2014
Time: 9:00 pm, 9:20 pm Awards Presentation

Location: Bushel & Peck’s Local Market

*$2  New Glarus Taps & $3 Glass of House Wine for all Filmmaker Pass Holders*

Join us in the celebration of the audience-chosen award winners from the Wisconsin-Illinois Showdown! BIFF and Bushel & Peck’s provide local and organic hors d’oeuvres and beer/wine deals for all BIFF filmmakers at this Audience Choice Awards Party.

The following awards will be announced to the public and BIFF filmmakers:

  • Best Wisconsin or Illinois Feature Film
  • Best Wisconsin or Illinois Documentary Film
  • Best Wisconsin or Illinois Short
  • Best Wisconsin or Illinois Student Film (Feature-length or Short)

Dozens of films made in Wisconsin or Illinois are showcased during the first weekend (February 14 to 16) of the 2014 Beloit International Film Festival, giving great examples of the high quality artwork made in our region. At each screening, the audience is given individual ballots that are cast towards much-loved films. At the Audience Choice Awards Party just before BIFF + Music starts at 10PM, the winning films are awarded and celebrated.

In appreciation for the filmmakers, BIFF and Bushel & Peck’s is offering $2 Taps (New Glarus Brewery selections) and $3 House Wine.

Frederick & Friends Spotlight

Ericka Fredericks

Sat Feb 15, 2014 –  2:00 pm — Bushel & Peck’s  Tickets

Filmmaker Spotlight:
Ericka Frederick & Friends

Ericka FrederickThis year BIFF is spotlighting award-winning and inspiring filmmakers in the area.

With this Regional Filmmaker Spotlight, we honor the Academy Award nominated Chicago film producer Ericka Frederick and her peer, Iverson White, a filmmaking professor at UW-Milwaukee and respected screenwriter.

Join Ericka as she presents a selection of unique topics in filmmaking.

 

 


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Drywater Productions Spotlight

Drywater Productions

Sun Feb 16, 2014 – 2:00 pm — Domenico’s  Tickets

Filmmaker Spotlight:
Drywater Productions

Filmmaker Attending

This year, BIFF is spotlighting award-winning and inspiring filmmakers in the area. With this Regional Filmmaker Spotlight, we honor the award-winning Stateline filmmakers, Stephen and Cameron Pickering of Drywater Productions.

Stephen and Cameron Pickering is a husband-wife team who started Drywater Productions in 2006 after Stephen graduated from Vancouver Film School in British Columbia, Canada. They create a mixture of short films, documentaries, commercials, corporate videos and web videos for top companies in Wisconsin and nationally. In this spotlight, they will show a selection of their work and discuss how they made their Stateline production company successful, all the while raising three young children.

What does it take to build a video production company without loans, and in this economy? What is it like to work at home with the kids, and how do they balance the corporate videos with the creative videos? Learn how they were able to find their creative niche and finally get the chance to take their company full-time by entering (and winning) commercial competitions with big brands like Microsoft, Orbitz, Hormel, 3M, and Pizza Hut.

Microsoft
Vets Roll
Woodmans
Take-it-from-me-sm
IHOP
Extraction

The award-winning short films and commercials selected for this spotlight include:

Short Films:

  • My Prison Called Life – (2005, Official Selection Beloit International Film Festival 2012, Nominated for Best Wisconsin Film)
    • Charles spends his last day on Death Row. For years, he has written to his son every day. His last wish is for his forgiveness.
  • House Call – (Created for Madison 48 Hour Film Project, 2007)
    • House Call tells the story of June Baker, a woman murdered in her home by a “handyman.”
  • Unknown Spectre – (Winner Madison 48 Hour Film Project – Best Film, Best Use of Genre, Best Graphics, Best Sound Design, Best use of Character, Official Selection Beloit International Film Festival 2011)
    • Detective Jack Spencer is investigating a series of strange disappearances. His search leads him to the offices of John Charles where he is led on a journey to save the world from unearthly villains.
  • The Momento – Official Selection Beloit International Film Festival 2012)
    • A hitchhiker is picked up one dark night by clean-cut middle-aged man named Nathan. This begins a journey where the audience will question whether or not to judge a book by its cover. The Momento was created for the 50 Hour Canned Film Competition in association with the Beloit International Film Festival 2011.
  • The Extraction (Official Selection Beloit International Film Festival 2013)
    • After successfully completing their mission, two soldiers suddenly find themselves trapped behind enemy lines when their chopper is shot down. Having been given their new extraction point, their sole mission is to stay alive. They must now depend on their training, survival skills and faith in one another as they dodge enemy fire trying to get home. This film was written and directed by middle school and high school students from the Drywater Productions School of Film, class 101.
  • Tripping with the Planketts (Winner Madison 48 Hour Film Project – Best Use of Dialogue, Best Use of Character, Best Writing, Best Acting, and Runner Up for Best Film.)
    • When a quirky vacationing couple picks up a stranded pharmaceutical representative their imaginations take them for a ride found only in a good murder mystery novel.
  • Take it From Me (Winner Madison 48 Hour Film Project 2013 – Best Original Music Score)
    • A dramatic short about love, honesty, and forgiveness. When Jeremy, a recovering alcoholic meets Sylvia, a diagnosed kleptomaniac, it’s love at first swipe.

Award-Winning Commercials:

  • “Interrogation” – Hormel Completes
  • “Office Zombies” – Microsoft Windows Phone 7
  • “Love on a Plate” – IHOP
  • “Milkman vs. Egghead” – Got Milk?
  • “Am I still Grounded?” – Megapath
  • “My Woodman’s” – Woodman’s Markets

Documentaries:

  • VetsRoll (Created for VetsRoll.org, Official Selection Beloit International Film Festival 2014)
    • 200 WWII and Korean War Veterans and Rosie the Riveters. 100 Assistants. 10 Badger Buses. 4 days that will change their lives! Follow along as we travel from Beloit, WI to Washington, D.C. as VetsRoll takes these men and women on a trip of a lifetime to visit the memorials that were erected in honor of their service to our country! Learn how much this trip means to them because it gives these men and women the respect they deserve, which they often never got.


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Mediocracy 1-3

Sat Feb 15, 2014 –  12:00 pm — Hendricks Center for the Arts  Tickets

The cast and crew will hold a Q&A session to following the screening.

Community Partner:  Beloit Noon Lion’s Club, UW Rock Theatre Club

Mediocracy 1-3

MediocracyCategory: Comedy, Web Series
Country:  U.S.
Language:  English
Rating:  PG-13
Runtime:  76 min.
Director:  Nikolaus Aldrich
Producer:  Nikolaus Aldrich, Brian Lis

Filmmaker Attending

 

Synopsis:

“Mediocracy” is an up-and-coming comedy series that follows a group of college students as they navigate though average relationships, mediocre jobs, and uneventful events in pursuit of their respective career paths. Join us as BIFF screens all three episodes of the dry-witted fumblings of these characters.

The cast and crew will hold a Q&A session to following the screening.

NOTE:  Synopsis are typically provided directly by the filmmaker themselves. Often English is not their first language. We ask reader’s understanding for less-than-perfect language and grammar Read more

Little Red

Tate Bunker Spotlight

little red

Fri Feb 14, 2014 –  7:30 pm — Bushel & Peck’s
Sat Feb 22, 2014 – 7:30 pm — La Casa Grande

Filmmaker Spotlight:
Tate Bunker

Tate BunkerThis year BIFF is spotlighting award-winning and inspiring filmmakers in the area.  With this Regional Filmmaker Spotlight, we honor the extraordinary talent of  Milwaukee filmmaker Tate Bunker, Winner of “Best Feature Film” at the Berlin Independent Film Festival, “Best Milwaukee Filmmaker” at the Milwaukee Film Festival as well as our very own BIFFY award for “Best Wisconsin Film.”

Join Tate Bunker as he presents a selection of his work.

Following the presentation, Bunker’s former student and BIFF’s Creative Director Kristin Peterson will lead a Q&A between the audience and the filmmaker.

 


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Wisconsin Community Media

WI Community Media Spotlight #1

Sun Feb 16, 2014 –  12:00 pm — Hendricks Center for the Arts  Tickets

Wisconsin Community Media Spotlight 1

Featured Award Winners from the State of Wisconsin Community Media Competition.

JATV Media Services has been a charter member of Wisconsin Community Media (WCM) since 1997. Back then, both entities were first stretching their respective wings and were known by different names, ( JATV 12 – Janesville Access Television and the Wisconsin Association for Public, Educational and Government Access Stations, repectively. ) Our spring conference and workshops became an opportunity to present the best programming from each of the member’s public access stations. These programs underlined the importance of the station’s efforts to showcase their communities.

In 2013, at the WCM Best of the Midwest Video Fest (as it is called now), expanded to include access stations from the upper Midwest. JATV Media Services received 32 awards out of 38 entries, which included 3 Best in Show, and 7 Excellent (think Gold Medal) awards.

A musical theme from JATV Media’s award-winning videos has been selected for WCM Spotlights No.1 & No. 2.

The Blue Olives at the House of Blues in Chicago

March 22, 2013. (35 min.)

This program is an updated version of the The Blue Olives Perform at the House of Blues, Chicago, January 21, 2012, which received an Excellent Award in the Performiong Arts category, as well as an Achievement Award in the Entertainment category. The updated 2013 version includes some comments from the Blue Olives fans as they ride the bus down to Chicago to catch the show. The Blue Olives are an extremely talented, eight piece, rocking, funk band that always puts on a great show. In this performance, they cover some classic tunes by Santana, Motown & Stevie Wonder, and Uriah Heep, as well as perform a couple of their original songs, “Misery” and “Detour.” It’s a feel-great 35 minutes of music.

Studio One Rocks the ‘80s

(67 min)

This program won 2 Achievement Awards in Performing Arts and Entertainment. It was a fundraiser for one of the theater groups in Janesville, Studio One. They created a 1980s-themed costume party and concert in the Janesville Performing Arts Center. Rob Tomaro, Music Director and Conductor for the Beloit Janesville Symphony, traded his baton for an electric guitar, and changed his tuxedo for a sparkly 80s blazer, and rocked out with his band Lucky 7 on the stage. We set up a projector screen on stage and projected images of the 1980s videos and the live performances of the musicians as well. It all created a super amazing time, as the audience rocked out to Dire Straits, Madonna, Joan Jett, the B-52s, Twisted Sister and more.


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Wisconsin Community Media

WI Community Media Spotlight #2

Sun Feb 16, 2014 – 2:00 pm — Hendricks Center for the Arts  Tickets

Wisconsin Community Media Spotlight 2

Featured Award Winners from the State of Wisconsin Community Media Competition.

JATV Media Services has been a charter member of Wisconsin Community Media (WCM) since 1997. Back then, both entities were first stretching their respective wings and were known by different names, ( JATV 12 – Janesville Access Television and the Wisconsin Association for Public, Educational and Government Access Stations, repectively. ) Our spring conference and workshops became an opportunity to present the best programming from each of the member’s public access stations. These programs underlined the importance of the station’s efforts to showcase their communities.

In 2013, at the WCM Best of the Midwest Video Fest (as it is called now), expanded to include access stations from the upper Midwest. JATV Media Services received 32 awards out of 38 entries, which included 3 Best in Show, and 7 Excellent (think Gold Medal) awards.

A musical theme from JATV Media’s award-winning videos has been selected for WCM Spotlights No.1 & No. 2.

Before the Snow

December, 2012 (4 min.)

This short won an Excellent award in the Computer Generated category. Using a Go Pro camera mounted on his car, Duane Brewer drove through Big Hill Park south of Beloit on the Rock River during the first week of December, close to sunset with the sun low in the sky and screaming through the trees. After some manipulation of color and symmetry in the computer and the addition of original music composed and performed by local musician, Dave Turner, the resulting images create a surreal landscape.

Main Street Entertainment Presents the Steve Doiel Trio.

(84 min.)

This program won an Excellent Award and a Best of Show in the Performing Arts category as well as an Achievement Award in the Entertainment category. In the summer time, the City of Janesville Leisure Services Department holds weekly outdoor concerts in the Lower Courthouse Park just off Main Street. The local group, The Steve Doiel Trio’s performance there was recorded in June of 2012. They cover a variety of songs from the Beatles, Patsy Cline, Sam Cook, Norah Jones, Neil Young, The Chordettes, Shocking Blue, and more.