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LA Shorts Fest 2013 Jury Announced

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I’m excited to serve as a juror, and feel like I’m in fine company!

From LA Shorts, the 2013 Jury:

JURY

Derek Connolly | Screenwriter
Derek Connolly is currently writing Second Act for Alexander Payne’s company Ad Hominem and Fox Searchlight, which is his first solo project since winning the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay and the Sundance Film Festival Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award for Safety Not Guaranteed.  The film was released by FilmDistrict.   Derek is also co-writing Jurassic Park 4 with Colin Trevorrow for Universal Pictures.   He co-wrote Intelligent Life for Big Beach Films, and also co-wrote Flight of the Navigator and Hank with Colin, both at Disney.  He spent a year writing for Pixar in the Bay Area before moving back to Los Angeles.  Derek grew up in Miami before attending film school at NYU.

Stephen Stanley | Ketchup Enterainment
Stephen Stanley has a broad background in independent film finance and distribution. He is currently Head of Acquisitions at US Distributor Ketchup Entertainment, where he has overseen the development of the company’s initial slate.   Prior to joining Ketchup, he spent five years at The Gersh Agency working within Gersh’s Film Finance and Distribution division, where he assisted in the sale of a diverse array of titles and helped to package and structure multiple features.  Stephen received an MFA in Film and Television Production from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2007. Continue reading “LA Shorts Fest 2013 Jury Announced”

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Variety: ‘Linsanity’ Documentary Gets Distribution (EXCLUSIVE)

From Variety: 

Ketchup Entertainment has acquired Evan Jackson Leong’s “Linsanity” and will release the documentary on Oct. 4.

The Jeremy Lin doc, which premiered at Sundance, will launch in Boston, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco along with 10 to 15 other cities.

Film follows Lin’s life from his childhood in Palo Alto, Calif., to his meteoric ascent to stardom in early 2012 with the New York Knicks in the National Basketball Assn., giving rise to the term “Linsanity.” The film was an official selection at South by Southwest this year and screens Wednesday at the opening night of the Asian American International Film Festival at Asia Society in New York City.

The project was financed by 408 Films, and produced by Christopher Chen/Endgame Entertainment, Brian Yang/408 Films and Allen Lu. “Linsanity” started filming in 2010, while Lin was a relatively unknown basketball player at Harvard University.

Justin Chang of Variety gave the film a positive review:  “An example of long-term documentary filmmaking paying off in ways few could have anticipated, ‘Linsanity’ energetically recounts Jeremy Lin’s astonishing rise to NBA stardom.”

Ketchup Entertainment will partner with ARC Entertainment on the release of the film. Stephen Stanley of Ketchup negotiated the deal with Nick Ogiony and Dan Steinman of CAA, Gregory Schenz at Endgame Entertainment and Helen Dooley at Williams & Connolly.

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Ziggy Marley to introduce MarijuanaMan at ComicCon 2012

From Comics Alliance

Yep. Marijuanaman. Reggae star Ziggy Marley, son of Bob Marley, is part of a joint effort with artist Jim Mahfood to produce a pot-powered superhero coming to stores on – you guessed it – April 20 of 2011. What’s more, Ziggy’s coming to San Diego Comic-Con International for a special poster smoking signing.

Ziggy’s new superhero, Marijuanaman, is from a planet that is in desperate need of THC. Marijuanaman seeks to save Earth’s marijuana fields from destruction by the drug company PharmeXon, and thus saving his home planet from destruction.

To be blunt, Image’s hullabaloo over a certain other celebrity comic left a less-than stellar taste in my mouth at last year’s Comic-Con. I just wasn’t really high on how things turned out. Judging from the involvement of Casey and Mahfood, however, Marley’s “Marijuanaman,” seems like it could produce a much more potent (and enjoyable) reading experience.

Read More: Ziggy Marley to Introduce Marijuanaman at Comic-Con | http://comicsalliance.com/ziggy-marley-marijuanaman-image-comics/?trackback=tsmclip

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Hollywood Reporter: Cannes 2012: Ketchup Entertainment to Launch Domestic Distribution Label (Exclusive)

Click here to see original article at THR:

CANNES — Los Angeles-based film financing and production entity Ketchup Entertainment is launching a new domestic distribution label via ARC Entertainment to handle both its own productions and acquisitions.

Stephen Stanley, from Gersh’s finance and distribution division, has been named head of acquisitions, with an eye to acquiring up to 10 movies in Ketchup’s first year. At least one of those titles will be released in 2012.

Continue reading “Hollywood Reporter: Cannes 2012: Ketchup Entertainment to Launch Domestic Distribution Label (Exclusive)”

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Interview with Connect Savannah About “Push”

From Connect Savannah

STEPHEN STANLEY’S entry in the Savannah Film Festival sounds like it might also be at home as a skit from the Dave Chappelle Show. His lovingly satirical 15-minute homage to the long-form music vids of the early MTV era involves a toy store and a popular late ‘80s R‘n’B group. We spoke to Stanley recently about the film.

What happens in Push?

Stephen Stanley: You have eight ordinary people in a toy store, and suddenly the whole scene morphs into dance video for Salt ‘n’ Pepa’s “Push It.” We set it up so the lyrics would be the actual dialogue of film. There are two characters named Salt and Pepa, and that of course leads into the lyrics. It’s just a fun exercise meant to mimic the long-form videos of the ‘80s, where things suddenly transform from a story into a music video. For me it’s a way to let normal people get to experience this world where things suddenly burst into music.

That constantly happens in classic musicals like West Side Story or The Sound of Music, when all of a sudden they start singing.

Stephen Stanley: We looked at some of those conventions. I love all the grand Hollywood musicals.

Most student films don’t have a cast as large as yours in Push.

Stephen Stanley: All the films I’ve made somehow end up with ensemble casts. Logistically it was hard. You certainly have to run a tight ship to keep that many people in focus. We filmed it all in real time, all in one room. The first ten minutes of the movie starts with two people, and then you end up with eight or nine as more and more people enter the scene as the song gets going. That created some challenges in terms of continuity. Continue reading “Interview with Connect Savannah About “Push””

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Great review of Six Days in the Life of Mims!

From Chris Davis, Memphis Flyer

Thursday, October 28th

Six Days in the Life of Mims

This second feature from Rocketinaditch Productions (Memphians Stephen Stanley and Boris Triko: both wrote and produced, Stanley directed and edited, and Triko was the director of photography) improves on their engaging debut, the political satire Slick Lily Vs. the Grand Canyon, which played Indie Memphis in 2001.

Stanley Johnson is extremely likable as Mims, a Dean Martin-like character who spends his days hanging out with friends and sucking down martinis made by his ever-present butler Starky. Upon learning from street preacher Elijah that the Rapture is coming in five days, Mims and his coterie of eccentrics decide to celebrate with a big party.

Six Days in the Life of Mims has some of the inside jokiness common to low-budget films made among friends, but that spirit of camaraderie is also a strength. The film is odd, funny, and generous in a manner similar to the films of Wes Anderson, with the climactic party scene here (where the Reigning Sound are the band!) rhyming with the one that ends Rushmore. The five-day countdown and clearly drawn cast of sidekicks (each with a distinct problem) give the film a strong structure. Of particular note is Talbot Fields, who is quite funny in a dual role as Elijah and Mims’ hobo friend Bums. (Overheard bar-talk from Bums: “I thought, what did I need with two testicles? So I bought my drink a drink and I got out of there.”)

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Slick Lily named as Honorable Mention in Commercial Appeal’s Best Films of 2001!

From Commercial Appeal critic John Beifuss:

Sunday, in the Fanfare section of The Commercial Appeal, we ran my selection of the Ten Best films of 2001, along with a “Second Ten,” and a few choice “Dogs of the Year.”

The story (to the usual distress of my editors) was pretty long. So long, in fact, that there was no room for my usual list of also-rans – those movies that didn’t make my top 20 but which were worth seeing because of their overall excellence (The House of Mirth), because they exposed audiences to a foreign culture (A Time for Drunken Horses) or because they showed pterodactyls pecking people (Jurassic Park III). So for those readers who keep asking “What about Ali?” and “Did you see Harry Potter?,” here is the rest of the story – a litany of the other worthwhile movies that played on Mid-South cinema screens during 2001:

[…]

Slick Lily vs. The Grand Canyon (this absurdist presidential election satire was my favorite of the year’s locally produced, shot-on-video Indie Memphis features);

[…]

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Festival Preview for Slick Lily Vs The Grand Canyon

From the Commercial Appeal:

A rampaging monster made of kudzu, a martial artist named “Shinto Joe Bob,” a digitally animated chanteuse and the late Gov. George Wallace are among the uniquely Southern characters – both real and imaginary – that movie fans will meet during the fourth annual Indie Memphis Film Festival, which begins today and continues through Sunday at various downtown venues.

Movie buffs aren’t the only ones anticipating this showcase for “The Soul of Southern Film,” which will include independent movies made in the South, about the South or by Southerners.

[…]

Almost half the films on the schedule qualify as “Hometowners,” including such ambitious features as Strange Cargo, a film history-saturated chiller that name-drops Antonioni, Cassavetes and Last House on the Left, and Slick Lily vs. The Grand Canyon, an absurdist political satire in which the candidates for the U.S. presidency are literally symbols – “inanimate objects acting as puppets for the controlling monetary system,” as one character says.

[…]

In any case, while Indie Memphis may not have much money it does have an influence. Several filmmakers said one of their goals was to complete a project in time for this year’s competition. “Having a developing film scene in Memphis really inspired us,” said Stephen Stanley, co-director with Boris Triko of Slick Lily vs. The Grand Canyon. Stanley said Slick Lily cost about $2,350. It was shot with a Sony TRV 900 digital video camera, and edited on a computer. The movie mostly was shot on weekends over three months, with friends as actors. Because much of the movie unfolds in the form of television news reports, the low budget was not much of a detriment to the storytelling. “I would liken (digital video) kind of to what the four-track and electric guitar did for music,” Stanley said. “You could make an album and in our case a movie without the process people had to go through before – without having to jump through all these hoops just to get to make your first one.”