Aw, yeah. Gorilla just jumped into the App world. You can find it for free in the iTunes App store, or by clicking HERE.
The idea is simple. The day of the DVD is quickly becoming obsolete, and we think that Apps are the perfect new way to promote and deliver media content (and loads of extra info). Do us a solid, download it for yourself and give us some feedback. We anticipate making a lot more of these in the future.
Ladies and gentleman, we are pleased to announce that Caleb Alexander Slain’s “The Lost & Found Shop” has not only been recognized as a merited film on the acclaimed Doorpost Film Festival’s website but also is leading the pack with 2070+ views — nearly 1,400 views more than any other film on the site!
For those in the dark, Gorilla teamed up with writer/director Slain and producer Jared Rummel (among dozens of others!) to help bring to life the story of a girl searching for a lost memory – a piece of her identity. The production went swimmingly and the response has been overwhelming. If you haven’t had a chance, please go here (www.thedoorpost.com), click on the Identity tab on the left, do a little downward scrolling and find the Lost & Found tab. I trust you won’t regret it.
Thanks to ALL who helped make this film a reality. This is just the first step.
A direct link can be found here: http://www.thedoorpost.com/identity/film/thelostandfoundshop
Last week, Gorilla filmmakers had good reason to rejoice. Our most recent project, produced for Grand Rapids’ own Crowe Horwath, took place at the Miami-Dade Juvenile Assessment Center in Miami, Florida. Although far from a vacation, it turns out that just working in a climate opposite to freezing Michigan is reason to celebrate.
The film will document Crowe’s successful implementation of “Quest,” a powerful software program designed to bring data organization and advanced analytics capabilities to Miami-Dade’s internationally recognized Juvenile System. The tale we’ve captured is somewhat surprising, as it is not a story of data analytics but rather of an organization empowered to influence the lives of the children struggling in their community.
It’s an interesting story to tell, and it reflects our desire to the discover the humanity in all of the projects we undertake – Commercial, Corporate, and Entertainment alike.
An especially big thanks to Derek Street, Tyler Garret and Ryan P. Photography for joining Gorilla on the project and working far beyond expectations.
Great Success! (in my best Borat voice). This year, Gorilla is presenting the Addy’s event by creating the awards reel, an animated showcase of winning print, online, and film/video work. Last night, all of our hard work paid off when Gorilla proudly presented the Awards reel. Creating the reel was a long road marked by no sleep, communist factory worker employment hours, reoccurring states of delirium, and and even less sleep. But it was worth it. And the work presented was fascinated. For the naysayers in West Michigan, creative ideas exist and can compete with the nation’s best.
It’s been an intense couple weeks, and a big reason has been fulfilling our commitment to sponsor the 2010 Addy Awards. Gorilla personally took home four Addy Awards to add to the collection. Even more important though, due to the sponsorship, we had a lot of great exposure throughout the night. For this, a special thanks goes out to Todd Chatman, who really worked hard to help make the Awards Reel the best it could be. Also, huge props to our new friends at VisualHero for some remarkable graphics and design work.
The work has been tireless (literally) as the last couple nights have been sleepless, barring an occasional office couch nap. But the end is in sight. Today the presentation will be delivered for technical review, and then tomorrow night the fun begins.
In the end, who can say what future film making fun will derive from the night’s success but rest assured that it was a great experience for Gorilla. Check out the intro to the Awards Reel we made for last night’s presentation.
The 2010 Addy Awards will be held in downtown GR at The Intersection, with the fun kicking off at 6:00 p.m. Hope we see you there!
Also, if we fall asleep during the awards reel don’t bother to wake us up. We’re gonna need the rest. We’ve seen it about ten thousand times at this point, anyway.
http://www.vimeo.com/9762137
Gorilla is building an iPhone Application! The process is nearly finished, and there was a bit of a learning curve, but the App will be available for free on iTunes and will be used primarily for marketing. Of course, for all you Gorilla fans out there, make sure you grab a copy in passionate support of Grand Rapids Film Production companies!
The App is scheduled to be released at the end of February.
Eric Johnson and Eric Machiela have left the snowy Michigan confines of the Gorilla offices for the warmth of Los Angeles. For a couple of days anyway. They are attending an educational seminar on film financing in Santa Monica with Evan Koons. In speaking to one of the Eric’s last night, they told me “Everything is going good so far, we just raised 4.3 million in the matter of an evening.” Okay, so that’s a lie. The conference is actually designed to help you understand the process of events that need to take place to finance a film.
Gorilla is currently looking to fund their feature film Camp Manna. While the conference isn’t a meal ticket by any means, it will provide a deeper knowledge of how to raise investment capital — and once raised, how to properly manage the investor and his capital. Enjoy the snow, suckers.
With this week’s nominations, Oscar season is officially upon us. Not sure if you saw the telecast of the Oscar Nominations or not but it’s worth watching if you’ve never seen it. And you only need to view one of these ceremonies once because it’s the same every year. Before the telecast, Oscar and his buddies call up two people: an attractive, not going to be nominated this year actress (in this case Anne Hathaway) and an older, “who the heck is this guy” Academy President (in this case Tom Sherak). They smile at hundreds of journalists, blink at their flashing cameras, and read off nominations in an every-other format. Now, they don’t go through all the nominations. And thank goodness! Do the interested parties really care about best achievements in sound mixing? I’ll answer for everyone except our good friends at Sound Post USA…no, we don’t, but we do care that they highlight the big ones (best actor/actress, screenplay, director, best picture, etc).
This year saw some happy nominees! Like Jeremy Renner for Best Actor in “The Hurt Locker” and Gabourey Sidibe for Best Actress in “Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire” (if there was a worst title nominee this would win). It was good to see Carey Mulligan get nominated for “An Education” and Nick Hornby for the adapted screenplay. And I was on pins and needles to see if “Miracle Fish” would get nominated for Best Live Action Short Film! It did!
But regarding the best picture nominations, you may or may not know, faithful reader, that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences decided to expand their viewership base by nominating ten (10) films this year. The thought with this was that they would be able to appease box-office darlings and the audiences who went and saw them. It’s in this format that we were hoping to see the nominations of films like “The Hangover” or “Star Trek” — but they were not to be found! And though nice to see a couple of smaller films given a nod (i.e. “A Serious Man” and “An Education”), it was a bit knee shaking to see “The Blind Side” and “District 9” included on the list of Best Picture nominees. We’re not trying to be haters. One of Gorilla’s finest looking employees (you can guess at who that may be) saw “The Blind Side” and enjoyed it for what it was. But Best Picture? If you do watch the Oscar Noms video, pay special attention to the reaction when they announce “The Blind Side” as a best picture nomination. People love the “little movie” that could. And say what you want about “District 9” but it is not as impressive a movie as “Star Trek.” It’s just not. This is not debatable. Eric Johnson and Caleb Slain have threatened to boycott when they heard that one of the years best films and performances was admittedly snubbed (Sam Rockwell in Moon), but I’m sure they’ll show up just to boo.
Winning an Oscar is considered by many to be the highest glory in film, animation and video production. And as it is, Michigan film production companies are not often invited to the soiree — so what do we do? We create our own high-fiving good time! So, to celebrate, Gorilla Pictures is throwing an Oscar Party at their Grand Rapids offices on the night of its broadcast, Sunday March 7! It’s a bring your own beverage sort of thing, and you are encouraged toshow up at least 15 minutes before hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin take stage, because we will all be competing by guessing and filling out empty ballots. Whoever compiles the most correct guesses is the winner! So brush up on your Short Film Animation knowledge, ladies and gentleman, because that one point could be all the difference between you going home with a Door Prize or going home with a sad face. More will be posted about the Gorilla Oscar Party soon!
http://oscar.go.com/
Sorry Apple. You’re too late. Not with your iPad of course. We’re sure that will of course have a variety of amazing uses (none of which will involve finding clever names for things). No, you’re too late with your latest branding artwork. But thanks though. We’re really psyched that our logo will look like an Apple ripoff from here on out.
It’s not that it’s a bad thing to have your creativity affirmed by the worlds largest inventor of awesome stuff, but nobody wants to look like a poser. So for the record… Ah, whatever.
Maybe we’ll just have to turn Grand Rapids, MI into the Silicone Valley of film production.
As abruptly as conspired, it ended. No trip to Haiti. Poor Tanner Wolfe didn’t even get to make it through customs. Although the merits of the trip will apparently be re-evaluated, the powers that be spied something that raised a red flag in regards to filming their relief effort.
Sometimes you have to respect the call from the top. This is film production. For better and for worse, it’s the life we have chosen.
The world of film production is a crazy thing. One minute you’re sitting in your cozy Grand Rapids, Michigan office counting snowflakes and the next minute you’re getting a call from the good people at Amway Global to pack your camera, sandals, and sunblock for a trip to Haiti (but this is no vacation). And that should mean something right now, because as all of you well know, the damage the earthquake in Haiti has done is beyond comprehension. Gorilla feels very blessed to be asked to go on this trip and help out in any way possible. Eric Johnson and Tanner Wolfe, one of our favorite documentary cinematographers, will be the two Gorilla representatives. They leave tomorrow and will be back on Saturday. We know the trip is short but excitement is high (as well as emotions).
Apologies for the brief blogging but Eric and Tanner have a lot of planning to do. A more comprehensive (and picture-filled!) blog on the Haiti adventure will appear early next week. So check back.
Cameras began rolling today on Gorilla’s latest local Grand Rapids venture: The “Lost and Found Shop” film production. The crew is in pretty good spirits and things are busy so this blog post needs to be short. Big props to Caleb Slain for his hard work, and also to Aaron Smith for his tireless producing hours. And let’s not forget Derek Street and Eric Machiela, who are putting the Master Prime Lenses to work!
Just a quick few pic from last night’s pre-production soiree. The anticipation of producing a project always gets the Gorilla offices hopping. Although we aren’t filming in Grand Rapids, we usually try to keep these meetings close to home.
The first Gorilla production of the year begins this weekend! The Lost and Found Shop, a short film written and (to be) directed by Caleb Alexander Slain, will be filming over the weekend in Spring Lake, Michigan on the RED Cameras and ARRI Master Primes. The production is ambitious (71 shots kind of ambitious), and with 45 people (crew, company, and cast) on set Sunday, we can promise one of two things: A.) Joy, elation and high fives when we get off 40 shots and finish an hour early or B.) Caleb’s body is dumped in Spring Lake and found in the spring thaw along the shore. Let’s hope it’s option A! Because The Lost and Found Shop is slated to be entered in the Doorpost Film Festival and if all goes right in the world of film production, we’ll need Caleb well into the spring. The turnaround on the edit will be quick so check back soon for more information.
And, lastly, for your entertainment: Peter Pan Play
The link has nothing to do with Gorilla’s production company or The Lost and Found Shop. It’s just funny to laugh at high school plays that go horribly wrong. And watch the whole thing. It only gets more delightfully cruel. (My favorite parts — at 0:23 a guy in the audience makes the most underrated statement of the year and 1:17 is just … great.)
Gorilla Enters The Addy’s This Year
I am typically the voice on the other end of the line telling you that everything is going to be fine, despite only getting five shots on the first day of production. I am the one who tells you, while smiling, that the production schedule you have laid out is impossible. At Gorilla, I produce films. However, once in a while, I get to do something different; something that feels like an arts and crafts project. I glue things and burn things and put things in plastic bags. Every once in a while (once a year to be exact), it falls to me, Aaron B. Smith, to get our production work ready for the Addy awards.
This is our second year of submitting work to the Addy’s, but it was a bit different. I had a helper — one Alexa Hook, an illustrious and industrious senior at Calvin College who is currently interning for us. We offered her the internship right away because we had a feeling she would be a good fit at Gorilla. (I also needed immediate help with the madness that is submitting work to the Addy awards.)
We entered thirteen (13) different pieces into the Addy competition this year, a substantial upgrade from the mere three (3) projects we submitted last year. Alexa and I started work on getting our entries ready on a Tuesday afternoon. We did not finish getting them ready until 1 pm, the following Thursday which was the day they were due. Why so long, you ask? Because it is a process. Figuring out which category each project falls under is a spooky hybrid akin to shooting craps and interpreting Ulysses by James Joyce. Also, you need to make two DVD copies of each project. We live in the age of the internet and here we are, still making physical copies of things and still physically moving them from one place to another. These are the kinds of things we usually e-mail, upload, or FTP to our clients. But, I digress.
We completed our task and managed to drop off all the entries in time, despite the snowy roads that had caused Alexa to crash her car the previous day. Upon returning to the office Alexa and I exchanged a feeble hi-five. I stumbled into my office and took a thirty minute cat nap while listening to Zoe Keating. This marked the end of another year of entering the Addy Awards. It’s a bit strange to consider that all the months of work of this Grand Rapids based production company, Gorilla Pictures, can be simmered down to thirteen (13) submissions to the Addy’s. What a year.
Gorilla is not only a collection of some of best, brightest, and most reasonably attractive folks working in the Grand Rapids film production community, but it’s also an assortment of diverse filmmakers with differing cinematic tastes. While I personally lean towards the artistic flare of “G.I. Joe,” the outrageous comedy of “Paul Blart: Mall Cop,” or the classic romanticism of “Miss March,” there are others here who would disagree. Vocally. And that’s what it’s all about; loving film production so much that when you are not making movies your watching them (or animations in Nate Vander Plas’ case). So without further ado, I give you 2009’s top ten films ranked opinionated by Gorilla.
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Amongst the cold, wintery weather that Grand Rapids is best known for, Gorilla Pictures continues its run at world domination. West Michigan film production tends to slow down in these blustery, frost bitten months but our company of fellows is staying busy. Eric Johnson has (finally) begun post-production on “All We Have”, a music video we shot back in the early days of September. (Remember the fall? We had sun then!) The musician is Erin Austin and we produced a video for her great, upcoming album OK Sweetheart. NOTE TO READER: The video on the website is not Gorilla’s work – but you can audibly sample her delightful tones, digest them, and find nourishment. We will be posting our music video to the Gorilla website in the upcoming weeks!
In other news, Eric Machiela continues to learn about the wonder of story and strives for his 10,000 hours (thank you, Malcolm Gladwell) of writing and reading, whilst listening – and then tearing up – to Bruce Springsteen sing about “all things America”. Aaron Smith toils away his hours by getting Gorilla ready for this year’s ADDY Awards, taking place in Grand Rapids. Our production company won a handful of ADDY awards last year (which we’ve neatly framed, I might point out) and our hope is to walk away with two handfuls of awards this year. We need them; our walls are bare. And finally, Scott Brookens creativity has begun spinning around a new, exciting concept, which all of Gorilla will be developing this spring. More on that in the upcoming months.
Also, I want to mention “The Lost & Found Shop”, an upcoming short film written and to be directed by Caleb Alexander Slain. (Three names always does sound more professional, doesn’t it?) Gorilla is serving as the production company and will be facilitating with RED Cameras, ARRI Master Primes, and our understanding of production know-how. We will be filming in and around Grand Rapids, Michigan starting mid-January. It needs to be done by February 1 for entry into the Doorpost Film Festival so post-production will be done in tasteful haste. I believe the West Michigan film community — nay, the world’s film community is in for a treat.
And lastly, we hope you’re getting out to the theater and checking out some films this Holiday Season. We recommend “The Twilight Saga: New Moon.” It will affirm your belief in cinema. (Just in case you can’t sense the sarcasm, I’ll let you know that was a joke. The movie is horrible and deserves to be banned from any country not run by a dictator. Sorry, Zimbabwe.)
Many of our faithful followers know that we have recently acquired six ARRI Master Prime lenses (scroll down to our December 7 posting to read all about the delight that is German engineered glass, neatly perfected). But what you may not know is that Gorilla Pictures has made the ARRI Master Primes available to rent! Click on the RED link to the left and be introduced to the rental rates, both for our RED cameras, our Master Primes, ARRI MB-20 Matte Box, and ARRI FF4 follow focus. If you have any questions you can e-mail Scott Brookens at scottb@gorilla-pictures.com to learn more about daily rates, weekly rates, and maybe (if he’s eaten well that day) some wheelin’ and dealin’.
I believe at this point we are the only Michigan-based production company to have ARRI Master Primes and two (2) RED cameras. What a blessing! This equipment makes us think we know what we’re doing!
If you are hip to the indie movie scene, then you may have heard of a little film that was theatrically released this past summer, THE STONING OF SORAYA M. It was produced by Santa Monica-based Mpower Pictures and stars Shohreh Aghdashloo (you know I had to Google that spelling) and Jim Caviezel. It’s definitely not one for the kiddies but is a powerful movie with important themes, focusing around oppression in Iran and women’s rights (or lack of rights). It’s based on a true story.
We were asked to cut a teaser of sorts for Mpower, which they used as a vehicle for submitting to film festivals and distributors. I like to think that we did something halfway effective because THE STONING became an official selection at the Toronto Film Festival in 2008 and won an Audience Choice Award, runner-up to some joke of a film called “Slumdog Millionaire.” (Whatever happened to that thing?!) See our teaser below and then visit the website here: www.thestoning.com
Thank you, thank you, thank you to all who came out to our Gorilla Holiday Cheer Party! Everyone of you made it a smashing success. Too successful, in fact. I was hoping to slam down a bowl of Aaron Smith’s savory chili every day from now to Christmas but, alas, the crock pot is empty. Overall, hearty laughs were shared, luke warm wings were consumed, and delicious drinks were downed — all in the festive spirit of celebration and camaraderie. For those who couldn’t make it, you were missed. Even the ones who thought it wise to stay away. A special thanks to Brittany Risner who came out early to help set up lights, hang decorations, and cut the cheese. (Another year has brought no more maturity to the blog writers at Gorilla.)
We were blessed to see so many friendly faces come out and remind us of who helps keep this little operation going. I’d say more but the photos below do most of the talking. Look closely! You might see yourself. And when you’ve saturated your brain with these images, go to our Facebook page and see dozens more. It’s a great way to spend 4 minutes.
Have a safe holiday season! We’d say something about “remember the reason for the season” but you’ll get enough of that from your good-willed mothers.
Merry Christmas to all from GORILLA PICTURES!
Madness at Gorilla. Between the carpenters, painters, AT&T goons, and EPS security personnel, it’s getting a little crowded. Under normal working conditions it might be wise to temper this growth (and thereby lower the risk of accidental fatalities by nail-gun), but you can’t stop this train. We have only two days left before the Gorilla party!
And in case you forgot, a party it shall be. We’ll be rocking a delicious Hefeweizen from the Hideout Brewing Company, a nice Malbec (Aaron Smith swears it’s soooo hot right now), and a classy assortment of homemade chili and wings from Buffalo Wild Wings. There will also be door prizes from Netflix and Celebration Cinemas, but to be completely honest we have yet to determine how you can win them. Post your suggestions!
So barring any trips to the emergency room resulting from the inhalation of toxic fumes, falling plasma televisions, or collapsing stepladders, this place should soon be all buttoned up for Thursday night. Hope to see you there.
Aaron Smith may have exceeded the "safe" limit of primer fume inhalation.
Peter Johnson swears he knows what he's doing. Probably should have had him sign a release.
Thanks to Taylor and Justin Stonehouse for the speedy kitchenette buildout. http://jstonehousebuilders.com
Gorilla has completed production on a little commercial spot for Fitzgerald’s Men’s Store. We don’t often showcase smaller projects, but we think this one ended up turning out quite nice. The spot was shot in a day with a crew of five and we were able to turn the post work around fairly quickly thanks to Eric Machiela’s wizardly editing skills and a quick color grade from Chad Terpstra at Cinevera Pictures.
Check it out and let us know what you think!
http://www.vimeo.com/8099704Ed’s Story is a series of five short films that tell pivotal points in Dr. Ed Dobson’s remarkable real-life journey with ALS. The series is based on Ed’s book, “Prayers & Promises”, published by Zondervan. The creative producer is Karl Koelling, who recently brought the project to Gorilla. This project has copious amounts of potential and we’ll be helping out by facilitating with RED cameras and Master Primes.
Film one, “It Ain’t Over”, is currently in pre-production and will be released in early 2010 for broadcast, DVD, and mobile device distribution.
Gorilla proudly welcomes 6 new children into its family: a set of ARRI MASTER PRIME lenses. That was not a typo, dear friend. If you don’t completely understand the beauty, perfection and gloriousness of the Master Prime lens, you’d do well to click this link – http://www.arri.de/camera/lenses/35_format_lenses/master_primes.html – and learn more. This is the kind of stuff that gets camera geeks “school child giddy.”
Eric Machiela braved the threat of swine flu and the germ-crammed conditions of a plane to fly out to Salt Lake City, where he met up with some good people at Ron Hill Imagery – who were looking to sell their set of Master Primes: an 18, 25, 35, 50, 75, and 100 mm. It was bittersweet for them (understandably) and we are thankful to them for their fine handling of the lenses. They’ve left them in mint condition. These lenses are a perfect addition to the RED Cameras, and it goes without saying that they will bring our visuals to a new level. We are fully aware of this responsibility and greatly humbled to be caretakers of such lovely German craftsmanship.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go back to staring at them.
When it rains it pours. In the midst of a maddening week of projects, meetings, and holidays, Gorilla has elected to move to a new production suite down the hall at 1514 Wealthy SE. Since expanding to a duel office setup in September we’ve been looking for an opportunity to move to a larger, more consolidated space where we can all once again be a big dysfunctional happy family. No more of Eric Johnson and Eric Machiela running down the hall every time they need production info. Now they can drive Aaron Smith crazy without leaving the comfort of the office.
But the main benefit of the new space will be to the clients. With a much larger conference area and Edit Suite A, creativity will abound, or perhaps cease to exist due to the addition of some new, comfy leather couches. I dare say Eric Machiela will be hard pressed to go home to sleep at night.
We will continue to update as the space takes shape, and mark your calenders because we plan to show it off when we have our first annual Gorilla Christmas party on December 17th!
Old Edit A
New Edit A
Welcome to the launch of our brand spanking new website! It’s been quite a long time coming. Maybe if we didn’t spend all of our waking hours making sweet films, commercials, and other assorted visual awesomeness we could have made it more of a priority. But C’est la vie, it’s here at last. The new design should enable us to update content on a whim, which hopefully means no more of this waiting around for three years to see anything new from us. Hopefully.
We’re also pretty excited about some of the new developments taking place around here. In the near future we will be posting info regarding a substantial addition to our RED Camera package, our upcoming move down the hall to more client-friendly workspace (still at our 1514 Wealthy location in Grand Rapids), and the release a number of projects including local agency work, a theatrical trailer for Mpower Pictures, and a pet project music video.
Welcome to the new Gorilla.
