Base14

“The Girl and the Fox” continues its film festival tour with its most prominent festival showing to date: The Palm Springs International Shortfest. This festival is renowned worldwide for the extraordinary community of filmmakers it attracts and for the quality and scope of its programming.

The 2011 ShortFest will present more than 300 short films from over 40 countries, with TGTF being one of them! The event also features the ShortFest Film Market, which will make available over 2,700 films to film buyers, industry representatives and the press. Here’s the specific showtime for those of you out in Southern California:

“The Girl and the Fox” Palm Springs Screening
Saturday, June 25 – 4:00 pm – Camelot Theatres
(A part of the ‘Animal Attraction’ program)

So maybe dreams do come true… if you’re willing to work hard enough to realize them. That’s what I learned this week after three and a half years of dedication to my personal dream and long-term goal: to become a semifinalist in the Student Academy Awards. And “The Girl and the Fox” just did it.

On Wednesday afternoon, I learned that our film has been chosen as a Region II semifinalist in this year’s Student Academy Awards. That means that “The Girl and the Fox,” along with eleven other Region II films, will be recognized this Thursday, April 28th, at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago. This marks the first opportunity for me to see the final cut of the film up on the big screen, so naturally I’m jumping on a plane early Thursday morning and jetting up to the Heartland for the big event. If you’re going to be in the greater Chicago metropolitan area on Thursday night, consider coming on out for the show! It will be a fabulous collection of top-notch student work and best of all, it’s absolutely free!

Once the films have screened in Chicago, they will be shipped out west to The Academy for the final round of judging. We’ll find out if we made the finals in mid-May. Wish us luck!

This past weekend was AMAZING. As you all know, The Girl and The Fox had been nominated for a College Television Award in Animation and the big event was set for Saturday night in Hollywood. So I packed my bags and flew to Los Angeles, really having no idea what the day may have in store. I met up with TGTF producer Nicholas Allred and we strolled over to the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel where the award show was being held. To our surprise, not only did TGTF place second in Animation, but we also won the Geena Davis award for Diversity and Gender Equality in Children’s Media. Simply put, it means we were recognized for balancing our portrayal of male and female roles, and rejecting common gender stereotypes in storytelling.

The director of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media later asked me why I chose the characters and story that I did. These were my thoughts:

“I always have enjoyed exploring adult issues through the eyes of children. Our protagonist, Ilona, is a nine-year-old girl who lives with her parents and siblings in a cold, lush forested region. While she takes after her mother in appearance, Ilona also inherited her father’s fervor and tenacity. Having been brought up as the daughter of fur trappers, she is unafraid to face the dangers of the wilderness alone. Choosing a female as my protagonist allowed me to effectively show how children are influenced by the roles of their parents, and how as we grow, we learn to find balance between who our parents are and who we are as individuals. Ilona dresses like her father because she admires him and wants to hunt like him, but her journey causes her to realize she has a unique role in the world defined by her own insights and experiences.”

Considering the significance of both awards, this is certainly the biggest honor that a Base14 project has received to date! It’s really terrific to be given such recognition for as much hard work. Special thanks goes to the entire crew of “The Girl and the Fox” for really making all of this possible. We look forward to more festivals and contests yet to come!

Well the time has arrived to announce the official world premiere of “The Girl and the Fox,” since as it is only two weeks away! Already we have been accepted to a few festivals, but it turns out that the Citrus Cel Animation Film Festival will be the first one out of the gates. A big event for animation enthusiasts across the South,  the Citrus Cel Animation Film Festival will be held in Jacksonville, Florida, April 8th through the 10th.

“The Girl and the Fox” will be showing as part of the Tangerine Dreams showcase, which features animation that deals with the fantastic and supernatural, and will take place Saturday, April 9th at 4:00pm in the 5 Points Theatre in Jacksonville. I would be there to see the premiere in person if I wasn’t already spending that weekend in Los Angeles for the College Television Awards! But if you’ll be in or around Florida that weekend, be sure to stop by and support a great animation event!

To go along with the announcement, I’ve relaunched the Base14 Tour Page, which will track and display every festival that “The Girl and the Fox” visits. I’ll be updating it regularly as more festivals get back to us, so be sure to watch for a screening near you sometime in the next year!

So I know it’s been a while since you’ve heard from the animation side of Base14, and all my sincerest thanks to my sister Alysha for keeping fresh posts rolling out in our absence. But the reason we’ve been so silent is also because we’ve been so busy. And all that effort has finally paid off! I am hereby proud to officially announce that “The Girl and the Fox” is a finalist in the 32nd College Television Awards, sponsored by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation.

This is actually a pretty big deal. On April 8th, myself and producer Nick Allred will be flying out to Los Angeles for the Gala award show to held on the evening of April 9th. There, we’ll get to find out if we placed first, second or third and claim our prizes. In addition to the award show there’s a reception where we get to mingle with other award-winners and industry professionals. It should be pretty amazing.

We’ve been fervently sending out “The Girl and the Fox” to other contests and festivals every chance we can get, and have already gotten a few acceptance letters. I’ll be back soon to announce the official world premiere of the film along with other international screenings that have already been confirmed.

And we’re not taking a break when this is over, either. Base14 is already about halfway through production of our next animated film which, as usual, pushes our art and technology farther than ever before. We’ll have more on that the closer we get to completion. But rest assured it’s gonna be big, too.

So stay tuned! This is going to be an important year for Base14!

As stated in a previous post, I am also serving as a blogger for the Voices of the Fest website for the 2010 Savannah Film Festival. We’re in the third day of the festival now and so far it’s been a huge delight talking to filmmakers, sending out tweets about events and writing articles about the day’s highlights. This was essentially my entire plan for this year’s festival, to act as a media representative who is both a student and a featured filmmaker alumnus. So imagine my surprise yesterday when I learned I would have to step up and play filmmaker again this year, at least for one day.

You have all followed the long development of “The Girl and the Fox” over the past year as we’ve worked tirelessly to get it ready for a festival run. And, to be honest, it’s still not ready. The SCADanimate screening was immensely helpful in showing us what the strengths and weaknesses were of the film in its current form, and I’m taking full advantage of that knowledge by working out a list of corrections and adjustments to the visuals, music and sound of the film before we start spending good money sending it to film festivals. This included the Savannah Film Festival! The plan was to hold on until the call for 2011 entries comes in Spring, and then TGTF can be a competition film next year. But The festival also has a block of non-competition films, strictly work of SCAD students, and apparently “The Girl and the Fox” has wound up in there this year.

So with that, I’d like to announce the second public screening of “The Girl and the Fox,” hopefully this time the Fall 2010 cut, with revised soundtrack and some visual adjustments. It will be happening as follows:

Savannah Film Fest 2010 SCAD Student Showcase (Featuring “The Girl and the Fox”)
- Tuesday, Nov 2nd at 11:30am – Lucas Theatre

I am told there will be an opportunity to have question and answer after the screening, so certainly if you’re in Savannah and want to see me say a few words about the film that consumed the last 14 months of my life, please stop on by! If you’re farther away, though, hold on to that ticket money. “The Girl and the Fox” will be coming to a festival near you eventually!

As you all may be aware of by now, I love film festivals. I love the films, the people, the excitement… the prizes. There’s just so much to enjoy. So, it was an interesting dilemma I found myself in when I realized the Savannah Film Festival was coming up this Fall, and I don’t have any films in it! Last year we saw my film “Duck Heart Teslacoil” entertain the masses as part of the SFF student block, but this year “The Girl and the Fox” wasn’t ready before the submission deadline, leaving me with no all-access director’s pass. Refusing to give up the high life I enjoyed last year, I applied to serve as a student blogger for the Savannah Film Festival website, which would include another shiny all-access media pass for the entire week.

And bingo! I got the gig (hopefully thanks in part to my large amount of experience blogging here at Base14.) So for the next month, I’ll be churning out blog posts not only for Base14 but also the “Voices of the Fest” section of the SFF website. Go ahead and check out my first post published today!

I’ve also opened up my personal Twitter account with plans to use it as a stream of updates for my blog presence at the festival. This way people can know where I am and what I’m doing instantaneously throughout the week. So join up and follow along as I take you on a private tour of the entire festival! Should one helluva ride!