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 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.

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.

Episode 2: All’s Fair

First off, the guy from Friday Night Lights is sitting with another guy at Fort Point. Then, they respond to a call at the projects in Bay View. Estimated storytime? 2 minutes. Yep. There are a lot of problems like this one.

They don’t give The White Guy enough lines and time, which is interesting in this series, if you think that most of media gives a lot of time to The White Guys. But the problem is he’s a great actor and it’s kind of wasted, since he has no time to show us he is edgy and crazy. “Don’t kill the white guy,” was perhaps my favorite line in this- when he’s dealing with gang crime over in Bay View.

I really liked that a Caffe Trieste scene was within the first 10 minutes. I don’t really care about the love interest stuff. Can I say that The White Girl looks like a younger Jenna Elfman, and that would be the second time a SF story (Ed TV) featured a Jenna Elfman-ish woman in uniform? Hm. I think I revealed more about myself than any Hollywood plot.

OK this scene has caused the biggest talk amongst neighbors: the hot new guy and The White Girl respond to a call on Maccharini steps (pronounced correctly!) where an old man is halfway up, with a heart attack. Where is he going? The only thing up there is the Green Tortoise hostel, home of crabs and scabies. And young Euro tourists. Anyways, White Girl craftily attempts to give him oxygen and he refuses, he’s really just trying to get some morphine. Those wily EMTs! The funny bit is that the vehicle is parked halfway up. Um, how exactly did it get there? There was a random driving sequence that made no sense. And homeless old drug addict guys do not climb stairs. You’re relatively safe from homeless people on hills. Points to the actors for huffing and puffing their way through the lines. That was real.

Hospital scene, some kind of Grey’s Anatomy. I’ve decided this is St. Francis on Nob Hill. And why, oh why, are there only 5 people who work in this hospital? Having visited the emergency room there (sadly) there was a lot of registration staff, and a few seconds of a doctor, oh, and a lot more EMTs and orderlies.

Just to keep track, 2 calls so far. The next one is a blow-out, a car careens into Embarcadero Street Fair. My question with so much of this is- why make it up? There’s vendors there every day, as well as weird promotions. You don’t have to make it a real fair. Nobody calls it anything, either. It’s just … Embarcadero. I would have preferred the Farmer’s Market myself, but hey.

This happened in another city, and the whole “ripped from the headlines” thing is cute, but in all, at this point watching it the first time, I was done with the violence. It’s just pretty stark and random. I guess they’re trying to get some feeling going for the adrenalin rush and randomness of safety work, but for me as a veiwer, it was stressful. Oh, and note, The White Guy and his partner drove from Washington Square Park to Embarcadero in a realistic story-time (5 mins?).

There are more kids in this show already than per capital in SF. Just sayin’, the kid-acting wasn’t that hot, and the whole subplot of Rabbit and his aversion to kids didn’t work for me. Most of the sentimental subplots aren’t working, not sure why yet. Perhaps because they don’t have enough time or interest to engage? The lines are quick and sappy? The macho stuff doesn’t hold?

The White Guy again got me with a good line- as they’re leaving the Embarcadero Street Fair, his partner says he’s hungry and The White Guy goes, “Noodles?” I have low standards.

My final note that I wrote while watching: “the number of crimes in this show is apocalyptic. Can’t they give some love to Oakland, Richmond or Fremont?”

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