ELEMENT COLLABORATES WITH 8 BEACON PARTNERS TO CREATE COMCAST SPOTS FEATURING DAVID ORTIZ AND BRIDGET MOYNAHAN

Element Productions, one of Boston’s premier commercial production companies, collaborates with 8 Beacon Partners to create two :30 TV spots for Comcast featuring David Ortiz and Bridget Moynahan.

Directed and shot by Rudi Schwab, the commercials titled “I Have Comcast” reveal sides of the designated hitter and actress most people never see. Ortiz is depicted as a race car driver, golfer, hip-hop fan and chef, while Moynahan reveals that she is also a daughter, travel bug, shop-a-holic and lover of football.

Both spots end with the tag line “Connecting is believing.” Spots began airing in the New England area in May.

“We very much enjoyed working with Rudi and everyone else at Element,” said Peter Pappas, 8 Beacon Partners Founder and Creative Director. “His enthusiasm and creativity really helped us take the concepts to a higher level.”

Element Productions was established in 1998 and is a full-service production house creating television programming, commercials, music videos, corporate films, and interactive CD’s. Utilizing an award-winning staff of producers and directors as well as established relationships in the advertising community, Element has a proven track record for providing clients with a balance between creative quality, production value and customer service.

The production consisted of 28 members of the Element crew headed up by Executive Producer Eran Lobel., three members from 8 Beacon Partners including Art Director Kyrre Carlsen and Producer Alyson Singer. The editing was done at Paul’s Place by Paul Gattuso. Finish Editorial’s Dave Pickett presided over Film Transfer and Tim Kane On-line. Berman-Branco Music’s Steve Berman and Matt Branco get the credits for Audio Composition. Soundtrack provided the Audio Mix, Howard Carle. And Comcast was served by Mark O’Day, Director, Consumer Marketing and Creative Services Manager, Terri Harris.

To see the commercials and the full list of credits please visit www.element.cc.

Steve Wasserman, Los Angeles Times Book Review Editor, Joins Kneerim & Williams at Fish & Richardson as a Director In Charge of its New York Office

Co-chairs Jill Kneerim and John Taylor (“Ike”) Williams announced Steve Wasserman, editor of the Los Angeles Times Book Review since 1996, has been named a Director of Kneerim & Williams at Fish & Richardson P.C. effective May 16. He will also serve as head of the agency's New York office. The agency, which represents a range of major authors including Brad Meltzer (TV sseries “Jack & Bobby’), Stephen Greenblatt, Joseph Ellis (TV documentary “Founding Brothers”), and E.O. Wilson, is part of one of the nation's leading intellectual property law firms.

"Steve Wasserman combines a wealth of experience with a vast knowledge of the journalistic, literary, and publishing communities," said John Taylor ("Ike") Williams, co-chair of Fish & Richardson's Media and Entertainment practice. "In his new role as literary agent, Steve brings a strong sense of commitment and a thorough understanding of the interests and needs of authors, readers, publishers, and editors."

"We're delighted that Steve is joining us," added Jill Kneerim, the agency's co-director. "He's at home in the publishing world on both coasts and is well known to both writers and publishers." Wasserman will be joining two other agents, Brettne Bloom and Elisabeth Weed, in Fish & Richardson's New York office.

During Wasserman's tenure at the Los Angeles Times, he was responsible for the paper's book coverage and brought its Sunday Book Review to new heights of distinction and excellence. The section, under his leadership, won widespread acclaim. Jacques Barzun said that it had become America's "best weekly book review in all respects - choice of books and reviewers, quality of writing, length and aptness of substance." Jacob Weisberg, editor of Slate magazine, called it perhaps the finest such section published by an American newspaper today.

"I look forward to meeting the challenge and opportunity afforded me in my new post to introduce yet more readers to the world of books," Wasserman said.

Kneerim & Williams at Fish & Richardson is a full-service literary and dramatic rights agency established in 1990, with agents in Boston, New York, and Los Angeles. Other clients represented by the firm include Robert Pinsky, Edward M. Hallowell, David Donald, Howard Gardner, and Dr. Susan Love.

Boston’s South End film production company B Roll Films has been invited to screen its short documentary GRAY MEMORIAL at the 2005 Filmstock Film Festival this June in Luton, England. The film is a tribute to the late writer and performer Spalding Gray, probably best known for his collaboration with Jonathan Demme on the film version of Gray’s SWIMMING TO CAMBODIA. B Roll Films principals Ken Kinna and Greg Shea will travel to Luton to attend the festival.

This annual festival of films from around the world has featured the works of directors Jim Sheridan (IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, MY LEFT FOOT) and Mike Hodges (GET CARTER and FLASH GORDON. )

Kinna and Shea formed the company just over a year ago and this is their first festival appearance of one of their films. GRAY MEMORIAL was shot on digital video and super 8 film and took nearly six months to edit in their South End headquarters. The film has the blessings of Kathleen Russo, Gray’s companion and mother of their sons Forrest and Theo, who appear in the film.

GRAY MEMORIAL will screen during the second week of Filmstock at The Hat Factory, the main theater for the festival.

B Roll Films has produced several other films during the first year of its existence: INCURSIONS IN CHUNK, a film about poet DeWayne Dickerson, and BOYS WILL NEVER KNOW, a look into personal relationships, and La Sol De La Conjure, a music video for the Ben Blanchard Band.

In post production at B Roll Films is a short film about the Biolab Boston University has proposed for the South End. Kinna and Shea are about to begin post production on a feature film they are producing about the Democratic and Republican National Conventions which took place in Boston and New York City in 2004. Working title for the film is “8 Days of Democracy.”

MARTHA”S VINEYARD AFRICAN-AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL AUGUST 11-14, 2005, CALL FOR ENTRIES

The 3rd Annual Martha’s Vineyard African-American Film Festival (MVAAFF), a celebration that showcases the work of independent and established filmmakers, will take place August 11 - 14, 2005 in Oak Bluff and Vineyard Haven, which is located on Martha’s Vineyard. The festival is now announcing a call for entries for its film competition. The festival is accepting features, shorts and documentaries for the festival. Entry forms are available by logging on to www.mvaaff.com.

Conceived four years ago on a balmy July night, the festival has grown into a large annual event that brings filmmakers, studio executives, festival scouts and filmgoers to the island. The festival continues to become an increasingly important part of the arts scene on the Vineyard.

Last year’s festival drew more than 450 participants from as far away as Europe, New Orleans, Detroit, and Los Angles among other cities. The activities also included panel discussions by actors Vanessa Williams of SOUL FOOD and Vondie Curtis Hall, director of REDEMPTION starring Jamie Foxx and Lynn Whitfield.

Centered in a very comfortable surrounding and mellow vibe, the organizers of the MVAAFF, Floyd and Stephanie Rance said each year is getting better and better and we are expecting more than 1000 participants.

Martha_s Vineyard plays home to current and past residents such as Spike Lee, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Paul Robeson, and the late Harlem Renaissance writer Dorothy West. For more information, log onto www.mvaaff.com or email mvfilmfestival@yahoo.com.

So you want to act in film but you’ve never been in front of the camera. Maybe you have some theatre experience, maybe some technical expertise but no real training as a film actor. You will need a course. Peter Berkrot, who began his film career at 19 in CADDYSHACK, has created a series of exercises designed to give you the tools that will help you to live on film. He delves into memory work, non-verbal scenes and close-ups, making choices, exploring subtext and embracing specificity; the student actor will learn how to translate thought into action and to maintain the moment-to-moment truth required to bring inner life and honesty to the screen.

Now you can. Inside every successful actor is a great director just waiting to get out. In this class, students will work on scenes and monologues in groups and in pairs on scenes from theatre and film. Peter Berkrot, who’s directing credits include everything from Shakespeare to a live version of “The Breakfast Club” will encourage actors to guide fellow students to deeper levels of truth and personal expression. Together we will explore scenes for clues and internal beats, work on intimacy and connection between actors and develop methods of making strong personal choices. Scenes will be shot on digital video for review and immediate feedback.

Open to ages 15 through adult. Younger actors with experience may attend with permission of instructor. Class meets on Thursday evenings from 7:00 – 9:30 for five weeks beginning July 7th.

Filmmaker Dave Lewis' directorial debut SPAGETTI AND MATZO BALLS premiered at the end of April at the Arlington's Regent Theatre. Almost 500 people attended the short shot on 35mm. A comedy about Joshua, a boy in a religious Jewish family who has unusually strong inclinations toward an Italian heritage, the film uses strong suggestive humor with emotional depth to convey the message that perhaps one can't escape his true nature.

Originally conceived by Dave Lewis and Co-Producer J. P. Ouellette, it’s a concept piece, a back story designed to interest investors in a feature production titled “Mob Yoga,” a script that Dave is completing. The two said the film slowly morphed into a hilarious stand-alone short that will be making the film festival rounds soon. Both Dave and J.P. said parts of the film will be cut into a concept piece to show Dave's range of directing ability, but the short had so much promise they decided to write more story around it to make it into a proper short, and based on the audiences reaction that night, it works.


The after party for the premiere screening of SPAGHETTI AND MATZO BALLS, hosted at the Cambridge home of filmmaker Dave Lewis and his lovely wife Maxi. Party goers from left: Robin Chan, Sergio Viana, Maxi, Loyve Lucena. An IMAGINE photo by Erika Hahn.	Filmmaker Dave Lewis (in hat) and Co-Producer J. P. Ouellette, (third from left,) with cast and crew of their new short SPAGHETTI AND MATZO BALLS take questions from the audience at the film's premiere at The Regent Theatre. An IMAGINE photo by Erika Hahn.

The short features local cast and crew, many of whom turned out with their family and friends to see the finished project. Dave and J.P. held an audience Q and A session after the film with the cast and crew on stage. Dave said to get the period cars in the film he literally went up to car owners on the street in Boston and Cambridge and asked them if they wanted their car to be in a film.

J.P. said he was thrilled to hear the large audience responsive laughter. "Laughter is one of the hardest things to make people do, and judging by the audience’s reactions, I'd say we succeeded," he added.

Dave said he was thrilled that people came up to him afterwards to ask him for a DVD copy of the short. "That was very reassuring to us as filmmakers," Dave said. While cast and crew will get advance DVD copies, he said the short will make the festival circuit.

Currently the two companies, Maven Productions and Yankee Classic Pictures, are in consultation with Los Angeles investors for the two million dollar financing of “Mob Yoga,” a story about Joshua as a grown-up, who becomes an adult mobster running a franchise yoga business and all the hi-jinks that entails.

After the premier Dave Lewis and his lovely wife Maxi invited cast and crew to his house for a rousing after-party. The party featured live performances by Jewish and Italian musicians, and a catered spread of Italian and Jewish gourmet delicacies like lasagna, matzo balls, antipasto, gefilte fish, cannolis, and more.

Now in its sixth year, Grand Opening’s “You Oughta Be in Pictures” recently played to two sell out crowds at the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline, Massachusetts.

The screening event is a mix of amateur adult videos made by mostly local people with a desire to see themselves on the big screen. Although the event isn’t for everyone, those who attended found the content very entertaining and applauded the participants for both their creativity and bravery.

The shorts included artistically creative pieces involving a subtle strip tease (CRYSTAL COWBOY) and fun with sucrose based products (SUGAR); hardcore pieces involving transsexuals with inflatable sheep (DELICIOUS 2) and the crowd favorite EQUINE FANTASY 3; and odd little pieces like Kevin Anderton’s blow up doll farce LATEX. Grand Opening’s proprietor, Kim Airs, and her staff organized the event. Kim emcees with a wit that is both warmly funny and inviting and her staff’s dedication and hard work are evident in the ease in which they seemingly pull the event off. Several media outlets provided coverage, including The Boston Herald, The Weekly Dig, and Playboy TV.