Soon after Dave Rada and I became friends on facebook I learned that he had a passion for film and I asked him to tell me about his latest project:

Horror of Our Love: A Short Film
I (Dave) produced/directed/wrote and was the monster in the short film. The short film is inspired by the song Horror of Our Love by the band LUDO, they are a great bunch of guys and it’s such an amazing song. Filled with romance, horror, and comedy. I think the song goes hand in hand with the film. It’s also cool to help such a great band reach their audience in a really fun way, and we also really appreciate all their support for the film as well…

We filmed it in January, in San Jose using an all San Jose Crew…Loved filming there because the S.J. locales fit the romantic feeling of the song so well, rather than gritty L.A.!! We got to shoot at John D. Morgan Park at night, something I have always wanted to do, and we only freaked out a few of the neighbors, ha! It’s a good thing we let San Jose PD and Campbell PD know we were filming and had friend and local Detective Todd Trayer on set!! He said there were a few nervous phone calls, but nothing too bad..Whew! .

Phil Grasso was my excellent Director of Photography, Kate Melia played “Girl” and I have known her since high school. She was phenomenal to truly understand the film’s balance of romance, horror, and comedy. It was great to work with my crew, they seemed a bit hungrier and fought along side me hard, NOT against me to make the best film we could.

Since completing the short we have been accepted to film festivals all over the country.
Most Recently the Dances With Films Festival going on in L.A, in June. This is a really great film festival and we are honored to attend….

Dave Rada - Audience Choice Award

Note: ‘Horror of Our Love’ – Won the Dances With Films Audience Choice Award in L.A. !!!

If you would like to see this award wining film it is part of:

A Nightmare To Remember International Horror Film Festival
June 26th
$10
7 – 10 PM
Opera Plaza Cinema Theater
601 Van Ness Ave
San Francisco, California 94102
(415) 267-4893

LUDO:  the Horror of Our Love song on YouTube

LUDO: the site

Elftwin Films

AMC theaters will help to entertain the kids this summer with some great family films. Each Tuesday morning admission is only $1.00 at most Bay Area AMC theaters!

Doors open at 9:30 AM and shows begin at 10:00 AM. Advance tickets for each week’s movie will be on sale about one week prior to the scheduled show date. All admission and concession proceeds will benefit two AMC charities, “Variety – The Children’s Charity” and the “Will Rogers Institute.”

The movies …

June 15 – Shrek The Third (PG)

June 22 – Imagine That (PG)

June 29 – Monsters vs. Aliens (PG)

July 6 – Madagascar (PG)

July 13 – Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (PG)

July 20 – Hotel for Dogs (PG)

July 27 – Kung Fu Panda (PG)

August 3 – The Spiderwick Chronicles (PG)

August 10 – surprise mystery title

San Francisco Theaters:

* Metreon 16
101 Fourth Street, San Francisco 94103
415-369-6201

* Van Ness 14
1000 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco 94109
415-674-4630

AMC Summer Movie Camp 2010
Tuesdays, June 15 through August 10
10:00 AM (doors open 9:30 AM)
Tickets $1.00

Also: Theaters in the South Bay

"Double Exposure" from a painting by Homer Ansley

Shot in San Francisco

Curator Pete Gowdy* and Oddball Films* will share vintage 16mm films shot in San Francisco:

San Francisco Queen of the West ~ 1947
Kodachrome Tour of the City ~ 1947
San Francisco Ageless Cable Cars ~ 1950
Kodachrome documentary cable car
Blackie, Wonder Horse, Swims Golden Gate ~ 1938 B+W
1970’s News Outtakes ~ Outrageous nightclub scenes and Mission District Lowriders
Film shot on location at Playland At The Beach
Jefferson Airplane ~Tony Bennett & Judy Garland ~ Drag Legend Charles Pierce ~ Carol Doda

Date: Friday, May 7, 2010 at 8:30PM
Venue: Oddball Films, 275 Capp Street, San Francisco
Admission: $10.00

> RSVP Only to: 415-558-8117

* Pete Gowdy (aka DJ Chas Gaudi) is host of San Francisco’s Shellac Shack, a weekly 78 rpm listening party and a DJ specializing in vintage sounds: soul, jazz, country, punk and new wave. A graduate of the Vassar College Film Program, he is an associate producer of Marc Huestis Presents, the long-running movie legend tributes at the Castro Theatre.

* Oddballball Films is the film component of Oddball Film+Video, a stock footage company providing offbeat and unusual film footage for feature films like Milk, documentaries like The Summer of Love, television programs like Mythbusters, clips for Boing Boing and web projects around the world.
Our films are almost exclusively drawn from our collection of over 50,000 16mm prints of animation, commercials, educationals, feature films, movie trailers, medical, industrial military, news out-takes and every genre in between. We’re actively working to present rarely screened genres of cinema as well as avant-garde and ethno-cultural documentaries, which expand the boundaries of cinema. Oddball Films is the largest film archive in Northern California and one of the most unusual private collections in the US. We invite you to join us in our weekly offerings of offbeat cinema.

Benjamin Bratt Maverick Spirit Award

It was a thrill to be front row when Cinequest presented Benjamin Bratt with the Maverick Spirit Award. We, the audience, were also entertained with a screening of “La Mission”. Benjamin and his brother worked together on “La Mission”. The film, set in the San Francisco Mission district, tells a story of intolerance and the love of family.

La Mission will be showing at the Kabuki April 16th

Tickets and Info.

Trailer “La Mission”

facebook La MISSION

Also check out the Metreon for show times.

Benjamin Bratt

Benjamin Bratt was born in San Francisco. He attended Lowell High School. He then spent some time at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, but he left to star in the television series Juarez. Bratt is best known for his work on Law & Order.

Benjamin and his brother, Peter worked together on “La Mission” a film which tells a story of intolerance and love of family in the San Francisco Mission district.

On March 4th Peter Bratt will introduce “La Mission” to the Cinequest Film Festival audience. After the film Benjamin Bratt will follow with a 30 minute conversation at which time he will be presented with the Maverick Spirt Award.

Cool cars, San Francisco, and Benjamin Bratt – well worth the to drive to San Jose.

Cinequest Film Festival

Maverick Spirt Event – Peter and Benjamin Bratt

Screening of “La Mission”

California Theatre – 271 South Market Street – San Jose, CA 95113

Thursday, March 4, 2010 @ 7:00pm

Price $15

1969 was a huge year in the history of the U.S., as the free-love hippie movement soured and turned bad. Sunday marks the 40th anniversary of the the concert at Altamont Speedway in Costra Costa County (map) where the Rolling Stones hired the Hells Angels to protect the stage and they wound up killing some poor bastard as cameras rolled for the film that would become Gimme Shelter.

Wikipedia has some interesting background on the incident, and Rolling Stone has a nearly contemporaneous report, including a detailed narration of what the film shows of the killing. An Oakland Tribune story reminds us that the biker who stabbed the concert-goer was acquitted by a jury, which ruled he acted in self defense.

The film “Ready, Set, Bag!” (formerly titled “Paper or Plastic?“) will be shown tonight at the Roxie Theatre in a benefit for the San Francisco Food Bank, the city’s non-profit group that helps feed thousands of families every week using groceries and produce donated by stores and growers. The program starts at 7:00 pm.

The film follows the finalists in the National Grocers Association Best Bagger Championship, which is exactly what it sounds like, I guess. Also on the program is a short, Leonardo, by Pixar animator Jim Capobianco.

Speaking of the Food Bank, VISA is doubling donations to the group right now. So go to their website and give ’em some money. The Food Bank is a great community organization.

The Trauma miniseries, featuring the safety service personal – EMTs namely, and their experience of catastrophies (of which there are approx. 5 a day!)– is still going on in our fair city. It’s filming on my block in North Beach, and taking up a precious block of non-street cleaning parking. Neighborly tensions are high.

On my way back from a run I noticed about 5 really attractive people sitting outside Kennedy’s. Not to harsh on Kennedy’s, but these people were Tall and Skinny. I thought it was appropriate that they were dressed in brown and black.

“They call us down and then we have to wait 7 hours. It’s like this each time.” And a lot more grumbling from the extras and staff. Note: a little bird told me they’re not getting carried over into another session, so feelings may be low.

Some neighbors have been complaining, and from what they’ve seen on TV, it hasn’t lived up to the hype. Most of us are just shocked at the money that Hollywood is paying in location fees. For some reason I think it’s 10K/day per spot, but not including the cost of cops, actors, etc. of course.

But anyways, what do you *think* about the miniseries? Well I’ve watched it far too many times, and here are my thoughts.

(more…)

Wish I’d been paying attention to this before it happened so I could have gone, but the account by Bob Calhoun on the Open Salon site of the showing of Night of the Living Dead on the scoreboard at AT&T Park last Friday is still totally worth reading. Check out the appearance of Judith O’Dea, the film’s dumb blonde, who was interviewed at the event.

The film of the Michael Lewis book Moneyball, which is about the machinations of Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane, has been cancelled just days before shooting was to begin. The New York Times reported that the cancellation is a sign of a new level of nervousness in Hollywood; in this case even the casting of Brad Pitt to play the baseball brainiac, much less the fact that over $10 million had been spent on development, location scouting, costumes and other preparations, was not enough to keep the project going.

Previously: Book on A’s GM to lens; Brad Pitt will play Billy Beane