The Indie Gathering News

The Indie Gathering International Film Festival is still accepting film and script submissions for the 2013 festival, and the regular deadline is quickly approaching. May 1st marks the last day to get your films and scripts in at the standard rate. Go to www.theindiegathering.com for more information, or find us on Withoutabox!

We are the Alternative for Independent, Underground and Experimental Film and Video. The "Indie" Gathering Film Festival exists to showcase the independent filmmaker. Our mission is to inspire and encourage film makers through a competitive showcase. Filmmakers participate in their screenings and after the films speak with audience members who seek a closer look into the creative process.

At the 2012 festival, we played over 100 films from around the world! The 2013 festival will be held on August 16th, 17th and 18th, and no matter who you are, we have a place for you!

*Filmmakers, consider submitting to our film competition. We accept Micro Films, Music Videos, Short Films, Pilots, Web Series and Features. We have separate awards for student film makers, and we offer awards for best overall short and best overall feature (in addition to awards in each category). We also have the viewers choice award for the film with the best audience response. Feature film awards also include: Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress. The top 5 feature films from the 2013 festival will also be offered a distribution deal by one of our partner companies.

*Screenwriters, consider submitting a script into one of our many short or feature screenplay categories. Script awards include best overall short, best overall feature, and awards in each category. The top feature script in each category will also be placed on InkTip.

Our film scoring competition is also now open, and we have special FX makeup, acting and stunt competitions at the festival. Find out more at www.theindiegathering.com.

*Special awards have been sponsored for the 2013 festival, including screenwriting software from Nuvotech for the top scripts, editing and post-production software from MDI Film for the top films, and editing services with MDI Film for the top short script. For more information, visit the competition pages on our website.

With the new year, the early bird deadline passed for The 2013 Indie Gathering International Film Festival, but there is still plenty of time to submit your film or script! Regular submissions are now open until May 1st, and we have some exciting new awards that will be offered at the 2013 fest! In addition to the standard awards in each category, our sponsors are now offering additional awards.

Nuvotech is a software and Web 2.0 services company based in London, England. It was founded in 1999 by produced screenwriter Dan Bronzite to publish innovative software and services for the creative industry. Its most recognized brands are Movie Outline, a cross-platform screenplay development application, and Hollywood Script Express, a script copying and delivery service in Los Angeles. They are now offering the following awards:

Nuvotech will be giving the Best Feature Script, Best Short Script and Best TV Pilot or Web Series Script a copy of their new program, Movie Outline 3. Movie Outline® was created by a produced writer to take the complexity out of the screenwriting process. Its design is based on the principle of step-outlining which allows you to plan your cinematic structure, develop characters and format your screenplay scene by scene, providing all the tools all you need to develop your idea into a professional screenplay. Valued at $199.95.

The MDI Team is an independent film and video production company created for businesses and Indie filmmakers who wish to impact their messaging with innovative concepts and stunning visuals – without breaking the budget. Media Design Imaging and Johnny Wu are sponsoring the following awards at the festival:

- Best Overall Short Film Winner will receive Red Giant Software’s PluralEyes 3.1.1 plug ins (for use with Avid, After Effects, Premiere or FCP.) A $199 valued plug-in for the most used editing software.
PluralEyes 3 revolutionizes post-production and speeds your sync in seconds rather than days. The new PluralEyes for Mac is a standalone application with a new timeline, visual feedback, and ‘test & tweak’ features for quality control. PluralEyes 3 is up to 20x faster than PluralEyes 2, and can easily prepare an audio/video sync for any NLE. For a faster, less tedious and more accurate workflow, use PluralEyes 3 to put the focus back onto creative storytelling.

- Best Overall Feature Film Winner will receive Red Giant Software’s Effect Suite 11 (for use with Avid, After Effects, Premiere or FCP.) The suite include the following plug-ins: Holomatrix, Image Lounge, Knoll Light Factory, Composite Wizard, Warp, ToonIt, Psunami, Text Anarchy, PlaneSpace, Knoll Light Factory for Photoshop. A $899 valued plug-in.
Over 70 professional tools in one dynamic package. Effects Suite gives you creative freedom and your work a truly professional appeal. From the realistic lens flares of Knoll Light Factory 3 to a believable cartoon look with ToonIt!, these are everyday tools for distinctive visual effects. Effects Suite software has been used in recent feature films like Avatar and Super 8, and the package includes tools that have served the visual effects community for years.

- Best Overall Short Script Winner. Winner will be able to edit his/her short film at Johnny Wu’s MDI studio with access to all MDI’s editing suite and post production application suite, plugins, sound fx and ADR/Voiceover recording and mixing capability. Winner must supply footage and editor. Award winning filmmaker Johnny Wu will provide onsite supervision and support in helping writer have the best looking short film. Not valid after 2014. A total value of $3500+. www.mdifilm.com

And as mentioned before, we are working with FlipSide TV, who will offer distribution deals to the top five feature films. Flipside TV provides independent and alternative programming. They offer originally produced movies and shows as well as premium programming.

For more information on the festival, or to submit your project, visit www.theindiegathering.com, or find us on Withoutabox.

Nuvotech has also offered a copy of Movie Outline 3 for the top script winners in each genre category for The International Horror Hotel Festival and Convention. Film and script submissions will be open until March. For more information or to submit your project to that festival, visit www.horrorhotel.net.

The Shifty Planet of Dr. Strange Named Best Student Short at the 2012 Indie Gathering International Film Festival

The Shifty Planet of Dr. Strange has been selected to screen at
the 2012 Indie Gathering International Film Festival, which runs from August 17-19th, 2012 in Hudson, Ohio. It was named Best Student Short at the festival, and will play at 3:20 pm in Screening Room A of the Clarion Inn and Conference Center on Saturday, August 18th. The
short film was recently given an Award of Merit from the Accolade Film Competition, has screened at the Bare Bones International Film Festival and Myrtle Beach International Film Festival, and will screen at the Action on Film International Film Festival and HollyShorts Film Festival in August.

Loosely inspired by the Wikileaks scandal of Julian Assange, The Shifty Planet of Dr. Strange is a dark comedy about the strange life of conspiracy theorist Edward Kelly, who, through an ironic chain of events, inadvertently becomes a cultural phenomenon when he releases top secret government documents to the press.

“I am deeply honored that The Shifty Planet of Dr. Strange won Best Student Short. I am so pleased that it is a film that the judges have deemed worth showing, and that audiences have enjoyed watching so far. I hope that, as they laugh and cringe, they become a little bit more thoughtful about the lines that separate news from entertainment, and fantasy from reality,” says director Ross Louis Klein. Ross can be reached for interviews at TheShiftyPlanet@gmail.com.

The Shifty Planet of Dr. Strange began as a short story by Samantha Vail, a good friend of the director at Emerson College. Ross decided to adapt it into a film for his thesis project at Emerson, and began preproduction on the film in January 2011. The film was shot for $3,500 during March and April of 2011, had a cast and crew of more than forty people, and shot at over a dozen locations, including a police station, hospital, and library in Boston and New York. Ross
now resides in Los Angeles, and is currently developing a number of projects for the future.

The Alternative for Underground, Independent and Experimental Film and Video, The “Indie” Gathering Film Festival exists to showcase the independent filmmaker. Their mission is to encourage film makers though a competitive showcase of independent features, documentaries,
shorts, music videos and trailers. Filmmakers participate in their screenings and after the films speak with audience members who seek a closer look into the creative process.

Trailer and more information on the web at: TheShiftyPlanet.com
For additional press information, contact: TheShiftyPlanet@gmail.com
facebook.com/TheShiftyPlanet
RossLouisKlein.com
theindiegathering.com

The Miracles on Honey Bee Hill

Programming Descriptors – FORM: Narrative Fiction, Short
GENRES: Alternative, Comedy/drama, Romance, Children Live Action, Human Rights, Spoof/Satire, Dramedy, Spiritual, Social Issue
NICHES: Gay/Lesbian, Mature/Adult

Synopses -
A young female pines for true love, but when she finds her 'special someone' her zealously religious church family becomes enraged over it, and attempts to drive her from the congregation. It literally takes a visit from God for the pious group to accept and understand the power of compassion, forgiveness, tolerance, and love.

Director’s Statement -
I wanted to add my voice to the on-going national conversation of the issue of marriage equality -- one I consider the Civil Rights issue of our time. But I wanted to present the movie in a funny, charming way, without heavy-handed preaching or political ideology ...which is how I hit upon the idea of expressing the film as a fairy tale and using children to play the parts. I wanted to drain the element of sex from the situation, and make it an honest love story. I think our superb cast and skilled technical folks succeeded in making a terrific little entertainment that, I hope, will make audiences laugh and cry, think and feel.

More than anything else, I want this movie to be seen in order to create dialogue and conversation on this explosive issue. The great TV/film writer Rod Serling once said: “Art should menace the public's conscience.” While I'm not declaring MIRACLES “art,” I do think the film pokes at one's conscience, and prompts thinking and discussion, without a doubt.

My friend Erie Chapman once wrote, “If you want mere obedience, shout out rules. If you want to live Love, live Love’s example—and tell stories that prove it.” That’s what I tried to do with this film. This is a love story told in a very unique way that may, if test audiences are any indication, give some viewers unexpected revelations.

"WINNER - Best Romantic Comedy - Short Film," 16th Annual International Indie Gathering Film/Music Festival: August 17-19, 2012, Cleveland/Hudson, OH. The Miracles on Honey Bee Hill will screen Sunday, August 19th at 12:30pm in Screening Room A.

THE INDIE GATHERING FILM FESTIVAL PRESENTS THE OHIO PREMIERE OF THE FEATURE FILM, TRAILER PARK JESUS, ON SATURDAY, AUGUST 18th AT 10PM

The Synopsis: Inspired by a true misadventure. A college student bargains his way home with a sheet of acid, when he becomes stranded at a trailer park in rural Mississippi.

About the Film
TRAILER PARK JESUS is based on the Director's experience in Mississippi, in the summer of 1990. Jessie deals with a bad breakup, by purchasing a sheet of acid to share with his friends back home in
Missouri. He hopes this will erase the bad memory of his college girlfriend leaving him in the middle of sex.

Departing New Orleans, Jessie detours onto Route 61, seeking a change of routine from the monotony of the Interstate. Unexpectedly, his engine fails at a forgotten trailer park in Cleveland, Mississippi.
Fearful he's about to be harmed by bikers, Jessie exchanges hits of L.S.D. for safe passage home.

During the ebb and flow of the day, Jessie experiences the extraordinary in the pedestrian, whilst resurrecting the lives of many.

TRAILER PARK JESUS (2011) (79 minutes)
Produced and Directed by Sean Gerowin. Editor: Jerry McLaughlin. Director of Photography: Rob Davis.

The Production

The film was filmed in New Orleans and Port Allen, Louisiana for a budget of $30,000. Primarily shot on Canon 5D and 7D Digital SLR Camera. For two weeks our cast and crew resided in a trailer park in
Port Allen, Louisiana.

Gerowin states, “Currently, we are demonstrating the cinematic wonders, which we can produce on a micro budget. We are focusing on film festivals, with the overarching goal of building a fan base, to
lead us to wider distribution and future financing.”