And now for something completely different…

As sad as it is to see summer go, at least the sweet glory of the football season is upon us. And much to the chagrin of some here at Gorilla Pictures (ahem, Aaron Smith), Eric Johnson and Eric Machiela have a huge hankerin’ for Fantasy Football. They do their research, they study the players, they talk about who they like and dislike, and perhaps most nerdily, they listen to an ESPN podcast called Fantasy Focus Football, co-hosted by Matthew Berry and Nate Ravitz and produced by Jason Soderberg.

Each year, the Fantasy Focus Football team hosts something which is known as the Man’s League, a 16-team league designed for only the most manly of Fantasy Football junkies. (Side note: This year it is called the Caveman’s League because it is being sponsored by Geico and so (Cheap plug!) go to www.geico.com and see about saving up to 15% on car insurance!) Getting into the league is competitive and nearly impossible. But this year they were determined.

So using company resources, they decided to use their skills and create a music video for the Fantasy Focus Football show based on their theme song (written and performed by international recording superstar Eric Hutchinson) which plays at the start of each show. They designed storyboards, had them drafted up, and sent them to the team at ESPN, who surprisingly decided that this would be a good idea! Nerds rejoice!

They invited Gorilla onto the two-time award winning podcast yesterday morning and we thought we would share it with you. No idea how many of you out there play Fantasy Football but for us (ashamedly) this is a big deal! See the link to the podcast below. They start interviewing us at approximately 22 mins into the podcast. And check back on the blog soon for the official Fantasy Focus Football music video!

http://espn.go.com/espnradio/player?rd=1#/podcenter/?id=5523103&autoplay=1&callsign=ESPNRADIO

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.

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!

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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[NATE VANDER PLAS]

5. Up 4. Coraline 3. The Informant! 2. Where the Wild Things Are 1. Avatar

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[SCOTT BROOKENS]

10. Away We Go/Where the Wild Things Are (draw) 9. State of Play 8.Up in the Air 7. Star Trek 6. Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince 5. District 9 4. 500 Days of Summer 3. Up 2. Inglorious Bastards 1. Avatar

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[AARON B. SMITH]

5. Avatar (begrudgingly) 4. The Hangover  3. District 9  2. Where the Wild Things Are 1. Inglorious Basterds

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[ERIC JOHNSON]

10. Avatar 9. Drag Me To Hell 8. Zombieland 7. Adventureland 6. Star Trek 5. An Education 4. Moon 3. Up 2. Inglorious Bastards 1. Hurtlocker

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[ERIC MACHIELA]

10. Zombieland 9. Adventureland 8. Drag Me To Hell  7. A Serious Man 6. Avatar 5. Inglorious Bastards 4. Star Trek 3. Up 2. Up in the Air 1. Hurtlocker

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Agree? Disagree? Post your own list and opinions below!

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.)

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!

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!

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