Independent Film & Video Production Services
News of What’s Happening In and Around Seven-Minute Cinemas.
Seven-Minute Cinemas was recently hired by a Los Angeles-based government contractor — Alelo. A very interesting project that utilized video for educating new U.S. military recruits heading for assignments overseas. The work consisted mainly of interviewing military personnel.
Well, that’s all I can tell you for now….
Seriously 😉
THE PROJECT
By Roger Bridges, Director/Producer
MENTOR aka THE GORDON HUNT DOCUMENTARY PROJECT is an exploration into the life and times of little-known director and acting coach Gordon Hunt and his personal influence on countless individuals, including some of the heavyweights of the entertainment industry. The story of Gordon Hunt is a combination of RUDY (Hunt from childhood was always small in stature) and ROCKY, an underdog searching for relevance and meaning in his life. From his mother’s death at age 4 to his struggles along the way with various life trials, Mr. Hunt, at age 84 has persevered and survived, continuing not only to make his mark as an award winning director and respected acting coach, but more importantly continuing to guide and direct the paths of hundreds of would be actors, directors and other professionals in and around the entertainment industry. Oscar-winning actress Helen Hunt, ER’s Anthony Edwards, Breaking Bad’s Jonathan Banks, casting director Jeff Greenberg (Modern Family) and writer/producer Nat Bernstein (Doogie Howser, Ally McBeal) among others share stories of Gordon’s impact on their lives and why they credit him for much of their success inside and outside of “the business”. This story, while illuminating the commitment of one individual to help others despite his own struggles, will encourage and inspire, reminding audiences that no matter the cards we’ve been dealt, every single one of us has the POWER — the POWER to overcome any obstacle, the POWER to achieve our dreams, and the POWER to help others realize their own.
The Reality-TV, mega-production company Magical Elves recently hired Jake Elsas to help shoot their post-Oscars, fashion-expert-studded Celebrity Insiders: The Oscars. Designed for their YouTube Premium Channel “The Stylish,” Celebrity Insiders: The Oscars provides both insight and lots of laughs as five fashion experts dig deep into analyzing celebrity Oscars fashions.
Check out this and other videos on “The Stylish;” Magical Elves is currently using this YouTube Channel to see whether the internet might be a valid, future platform for delivering premium Reality programming.
The Calamities of Jane is now in postproduction! Shot more like a feature-length film than a webseries (all thirteen episodes were shot at once throughout much of 2012), The Calamities of Jane will start presenting its episodes by the spring of 2013.
As Rebecca Klingler states on her Kickstarter fundraising site:
“The Calamities of Jane is a webseries about the life of Jane Singer, a single actress of a certain age who believes her dreams are still worth fighting for. The show combines the flip side of Entourage with the zaniness of I Love Lucy, as Jane flies in the face of common sense and Hollywood nay-sayers. She proves that fortitude is victory, overcoming daunting obstacles daily. Hourly. Including herself. Jane Singer: too nice to succeed; too tenacious to give up.”
Rebecca hired Seven-Minute Cinemas to handle all of production and the beginning stages of postproduction on this hilarious webseries. Check out the Kickstarter site for more details and for the potential release dates!
Actor/Director Scot Carlisle and Jake Elsas (of Seven-Minute Cinemas) have teamed up and officially formed a new production company: ElCar Pictures. In 2010, Scot and Jake worked together on the short film Bittersweet Chocolate, enjoying their experience so much that they decided to become business partners.
Their first project: McQueen’s Machines, an exciting TV series that focuses on Steve McQueen’s passion for machines — cars, motorcycles, and ultimately airplanes. Based on the book by Matt Stone (who — through the course of writing the book — became close friends with Steve’s son, Chad McQueen), the series highlights McQueen’s love for machines, a love that transcended simple enjoyment. Indeed, McQueen very much developed a symbiotic relationship with his beloved machines, both on- and off-screen. And although he passed away in 1980 at the young age of 50, McQueen’s passion lives on… with his fans, family, and an automotive industry that continues to be heavily influenced by the King of Cool.
More to come!
After working together in 2010 on the music video “Favorite Song,” filmmaker Matt Kaiser and Jake Elsas (of Seven-Minute Cinemas) finally completed principle photography on Matt’s autobiographical documentary Adopted. After two years of capturing extremely emotionally charged footage, postproduction has begun; Matt intends to complete cutting visuals by summer 2013.
Adopted as a baby, Matt spent most of his life content — rarely questioning his situation or whether he should connect with his biological parents. Until recently…
In Matt’s words:
“In this documentary we will be taking a close look at how my sister’s adoption affected her life, as well as the lives of her birth mother, and our parents. When looking at my sister’s experience, I will be deciding whether or not I should follow her example, and try to connect with my own birth parents.”
Seven-Minute Cinemas worked with Technical Education Research Centers, Inc. (TERC) on an NSF-funded, video-analysis project that focuses on elementary school educators teaching whole numbers and number operations. TERC is collaborating with the University of Arizona’s Nicole Kersting and her team of mathematics researchers to determine what teachers themselves learn as they teach these subjects.
In 2011, Seven-Minute Cinemas teamed up with Larry Franzen on a video-based, science education research project conducted by Colorado-based Biological Sciences Curriculum Study. The project, Science Teachers Learning from Lesson Analysis (STeLLA), was helmed by Kathy Roth, the director of BSCS’s Center for Professional Development. In Dr. Roth’s words:
“This scale-up study aims to confirm earlier findings that student learning improved when teachers’ professional development experiences included examination of videocases of science teaching that deepened their content and pedagogical content knowledge and improved their teaching practice.”
In 2011, Seven-Minute Cinemas completed shooting classroom videos for this research project involving schools in Princeton, N.J. and Washington D.C.
Mathematica — a research company based in both of those cities — will be using videos to train classroom observers how to evaluate different aspects of teachers’ practices.
Mathematica chose Jake Elsas from Seven-Minute Cinemas — along with fellow producer Larry Franzen — after working with the two on 2009’s very successful Teach For America internal assessment.
As Mathematica Senior Staff Member Claudia Gentile wrote:
“I realize you’re located in LA, but the quality of work you achieved on the TFA video tapes was truly impressive. So, when the need arose for classroom videos, I thought of you.”
In 2010, Jake Elsas completed a stint as Director of Photography on the short movie, Bittersweet Chocolate, co-written and co-produced by Roger Bridges and Scot Carlisle (both of whom also play the lead roles), and directed by Turner Lange (who also cut picture). Bittersweet Chocolate takes a light-hearted jab at race relations and the frustrating (and often cluelessly racist) affectations of the “wannabe.”
For six weeks in 2010, Seven-Minute Cinemas documented “Greenscape,” a Hollywood Fringe Festival production by site-specific theater company Moveable Piece. 7MC also supplies lighting and sound packages for Moveable Piece’s ongoing performances.
Continue reading “Documenting Site-Specific Theater, “Greenscape””
In 2010, Seven-Minute Cinemas produced this music video for Kaiser Cartel‘s “Favorite Song.” Written and directed by Matt Kaiser — band-member Courtney Kaiser’s filmmaker brother — this video incorporates fantasy, stop-motion animation sequences into high-def, live-action footage.
