In an attempt to begin establishing a film industry in Linn County, a local film company has created a short film to compete in the Seventh Annual 48-Hour National Film Challenge competition.
LB Productions, which is owned and operated by business partners and companions Scott A. Smith and Debbie Jensen, who was a longtime Sweet Home resident, began the two-day process of filming on Oct. 23, using talent from Sweet Home and Linn County.
Smith and Jensen returned to Brownsville from California about eight months ago and started cleaning up Smith’s family property, with the idea of using it for weddings and film production.
For the month preceding the production, Smith and Jensen were busy planning the film, securing equipment, sending out casting calls and finding locations, Jensen said. They had no idea what they would be filming though.
That part of the contest isn’t revealed until time the start of the 48-hour period, which was Oct. 23 this year. That was when LB Productions was able to look up which of 14 genres it could use for the eight-minute film. In addition, teams were given a character, a prop and a line of dialogue they had to work into the film. When the time came, LB had 48 hours to write, shoot and edit an eight-minute film.
The top 15 films are screened at filmchallenge.org, and audiences are allowed to vote. The grand prize winner and the audience-selected winner screen at the 48FP Filmapalooza in April 2010.
That’s where filmmakers pick up agents and sell movies, Jensen said.
Last year’s winner was by a McMinnville man working in Portland. This year’s event had 187 entries. The films are judged on creativity, merit, directing and concept.
After a casting call, which included a search for crew and writers, LB had 63 people turn out, ranging in age from 6 months to 80 years.
Every inch of Smith and Jensen’s home was full as the moviemakers got to work, Jensen said. Smith logged on and learned what genre they would be working with: a comedy or a suspense-thriller. They also learned they had to include the line, “That’s what you call teamwork;” a lab technician character; and a bumper sticker.
In keeping with the times, they developed a suspense-thriller about a so-called H2D2 virus titled “Affecting the Lives of Millions.” The whole community is being inoculated against the virus, but people keep getting sick and dying.
After staying awake for most of two days, LB managed to complete the movie and mail it just eight minutes before the deadline, following a frantic rush to the Post Office.
The partners plan to enter a similar documentary contest in the spring and then next year’s 48-hour challenge, but entering contests isn’t their main goal.
LB’s goal is to develop a film industry in Linn County.
To that end, they are working with Central Linn School District in hopes of creating a film class, and they hope to work with other people in the area who want to create short low-budget guerrilla movies, Smith said. Funding may even be available for projects through the state Lottery.
As their business develops, they anticipate using a variety of outside resources, such as the Lottery, Smith said. As it grows, the business can start relying more on local resources.
The contest films, which require volunteer efforts, help develop the local talent pool, including everything from actors to crew, creating a work force trained for entertainment jobs that they hope come of their efforts.
“No it doesn’t happen over-night,” he said.
“It’s a lot of work,” Jensen said.
But that’s their goal.
Smith grew up in Brownsville and moved to Los Angeles in 1976 following a connection through a friend into the film industry.
He held a variety of jobs in production since then, working with everyone from Dinah Shore to Bob Hope and Sammy Davis Jr., he said. He’s worked on films that were low-budget and on some high-budget productions, from “Piranha” and “KISS Meets the Phantom” to “Demolition Man,” “Get Shorty,” “Independence Day” and “Robin Hood: Men in Tights.”
His work has included everything from holding cue cards to driving and putting slides together for rear projection screens on the “Legends in Concert” multimedia show in the Northwest and then Brazil. He also worked as a sound mixer and a coordinator’s assistant, packing art for shipping to Japan, where cartoons were made and sent back. He also worked for MTV and VH1 and did audio for “Candid Camera” and many other hidden-camera shows.
His new company is a full television-video production company established in 2001. For more information or to get involved in future contest, visit http://www.lbprodus.net or email [email protected]
Crew from Sweet Home included Teri Spier, associate producer; Chrism M. Jensen, cameraman; Karee McCollum, makeup artist and hairstylist; Jennifer Reddell, associate producer and talent; and Jerome Goleman, boom man, grip and writer.
Cast included Lydean Smith, Dixie; Jamie Smith, Dixie’s daughter; Joleene Smith, extra; Colton Mulvaney, extra; Jennifer Reddell, doctor and teenager in graveyard; Nichole Ailshire, Dixie’s daughter and teenager in graveyard; Dean Jones, City Hall scene; Hannah Goldene-Jones, playground scene; Michelle Davis, extra; Melissa Kast, extra; Leann Victor, mom in doctor’s office, playground scene; Ashley Victor, daughter in doctor’s office; Ryan Victor, playground scene; Manuel Victor Jr., Dixie’s baby, playground scene; Lucas Victor, playground scene; and Kira Long, doctor’s office scene, extra.