Gloria Writes: Join “Into The West”, Lord of the Rings Fellowship of Utah, for their second annual charity gala event with dinner, entertainment, silent auction, prizes and a night of fellowship and merry making!! This year’s recipient is Camp Hobe,R17; a summer camp for children who have cancer. The event will be held Saturday, September 17th starting at 6:30 pm in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Tickets for this ‘not to be missed event’ are $30.00. Checks/money orders should be made out to “INTO THE WEST” and sent to:
“INTO THE WEST” C/O Scott Bishop, Treasurer P.O. Box 708171 Sandy, Utah 84070-8171
Please include your email address or mailing address so your tickets can be sent to you. Address and directions to the event will be sent prior to the event. With your check and email address, please indicate your dinner choice for each person attending. If you have questions, or would like to donate items for the silent auction, you can reach us through our website at www.intothewest.org
Meal choices are: (choose one) Red Meat off the Bone Beef Brisket Coney Roasted Herb Chicken Sam’s Garden Patch – Vegan/Vegetarian Casserole
NET PROCEEDS TO BENEFIT CAMP HOBER17;
A co-ed residential summer camp for cancer patients & their siblings Campers are 4 to 19 years old
Three sessions available: Kids camp (6-12 yrs), Teen camp (12-19 yrs), and Day Camp (4-7 yrs)
Program is held at the Elks Camp Wapiti site in Tooele, Utah Serve Utah & the Intermountain area (Wyoming, Idaho, Nevada) All staff members are volunteers Governed by a Board of Directors Funded entirely through private and corporate donations Accredited by the American Camping Association
Camp Hobe’s onsite infirmary is staffed by oncology-trained pediatric nurses & a pediatric physician. They provide medications and routine care during the camp session.
Camp Hobe offers campers the opportunity to rediscover self-confidence and build meaningful friendships with peers. They do this through play, creative arts, challenge by choice, inclusive programming, and structured sharing of loss and grief.
Ian Collier from The Tolkien Society writes: I thought you’d like the latest news on Tolkien 2005, so here it is. I’m really looking forward to all the great papers and panels, especially Verlyn Flieger reading from her new book, and getting my hands on the new one from Alan Lee. Day tickets are available for those people who haven’t signed up already but are tempted to come along by this.
Tolkien 2005: The Ring Goes Ever On, 11th – 15th August
Five years in the planning and it’s here at last. This week sees the start of a 5 day conference to mark the 50th anniversary of the complete publication of JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. To celebrate this the Tolkien Society and Partner Organisations are holding a conference at Aston University, Birmingham, England.
Guests include renowned academics, artists and authors:
Rhona Beare, Julian Bradfield, Patrick Curry, Colin Duriez, Anke Katrin Eissmann, Verlyn Flieger, Christopher Garbowski, John Garth, John Howe, Tim Kirk, Alan Lee, Ted Nasmith, Michael Scott Rohan, Tom Shippey, Brian Sibley, Viv Wilkes. (All guests are attending subject to work commitments.)
Day tickets available for Friday, Saturday and Sunday at £30.
The event features:
A civic reception hosted by the Lord Mayor and Birmingham City Council to welcome the conference, the Tolkien Society and participating societies to Birmingham and to celebrate Birmingham’s links with J.R.R. Tolkien.
World Exclusive: Verlyn Flieger will read from her new critical edition of Tolkien’s “Smith of Wootton Major” due to be published by Harper Collins in September 2005
Author & artist autograph sessions – including Alan Lee signing his brand new “The Lord of the Rings Sketchbook” at the second of three exclusive pre-publication signings this summer.
Over 165 programme items: papers; panel discussions; seminars and workshops spread across 5 streams.
“Farmer Giles of Ham” staged by Birmingham’s own Shire Productions 2 hours of Brian Sibley’s 13 hour radio adaptation of The Lord of the Rings
Coach tours of Tolkien’s Birmingham and Oxford
Art Show with displays form Alan Lee, Ted Nasmith, Anke Eissman, Tim Kirk and a host of others.
Partner Societies: The Tolkien Society; The Mythopoeic Society (USA); Elanor (Belgium); Deutsche Tolkien Gesellschaft (Germany); Arthedain (Norway); Sociedad Tolkiendili de México (Mexico); Sociedade de Tolkien Brasileira (Brazil); Società Tolkieniana Svizzera & Eldalië (Switzerland); Sociedad Tolkien Española (Spain); The Polish Tolkien Society; Forodrim (Stockholm, Sweden); The Greek Tolkien Society; Skies of Rohan (Idaho & Montana, USA); Proudneck (Italy); Keskmaa Ordu (Estonia); Unquendor (Netherlands); Tol Harndor (Australia); Magyar Tolkien Társaság (Hungary); Conselho Branco Sociedade Tolkien (Brazil); The Cambridge Tolkien Society (UK); The Charles Williams Society; Heren Istarion (New York, USA); Taruithorn: the Oxford Tolkien Society (UK); ,sterreichischen Tolkien Gesellschaft (Austria); The Geroge MacDonald Society; Beyond Bree (MENSA, USA); Società Tolkieniana Italiana (Italy); Walking Tree Publishers.
From our good friend Bruce Hopkins: “1nite” wins at the NZ Screen Directors Guild Film and Television Awards 2005
One of NZ’s most highly regarded films is now available for you to own. Go to Bruce Hopkins and Amarbir Singhs web site indipact.com or realgroovy.co.nz, check it out and buy your own copy of the DVD, with interviews by Bruce Hopkins, director Amarbir Singh and award winning DOP/Editor Cristobal Araus Lobos,…you know you want to!!!
An award winning digital feature, 1nite is the debut film from director Amarbir Singh and features a cast comprising some of New Zealand’s finest actors including the bloke on a horse called Charlie, who helped save Middle Earth from the evil one, Bruce Hopkins ( aka Gamling ).
In July 2005 1nite was selected as one of two finalists (along with the superb documentary from Florian Habicht, “ Kaikohe Demolition”) for the best digital feature at the NZ Film Awards. DOP/Editor Cristobal Araus Lobos won the award for best technical contribution to a digital feature at the same presentation, so, for a debut feature film shot solely with a miniDV camera ( no other equipment!!! ) and a budget of $400, 1nite is proof that it’s talent that maketh the movie!
1nite had its world premier in 2004 at the Auckland International Film Festival, receiving rave reviews which resulted in the two screenings being sold out, and Q & A sessions that the director of the film festival described as the best attended and most engaging of the festival.
Peter Calder in the New Zealand Herald newspaper said: “Stylistically, it recalls early Jim Jarmusch or Paul Auster’s Smoke. But the Bombay-born Singh, who arrived here only seven years ago, has an immigrant’s watchful alertness to the particularities of his new home, he and (the cameraman) Cristobal Araus Lobos, a Chilean émigré, put a distinctively local stamp on the genre, …an accomplished and entertaining film.”
In the film festival programme, director Bill Gosden, said: “The semi-improvised nature of the project favours conflict over resolution and gives the talented cast ample opportunity for charged performances.”
Gosden went on to say that Lobos’ camera work “dogs the characters, staying in close, in agile verite style”.
The cast includes Bruce Hopkins ( Lord of the Rings, Jubilee, Savage Honeymoon, Macbeth ), Rajiv Varma ( Price of Milk, Toy Love and the sell out stage show “From India With Love “, Jon Brazier ( Scarfies ), Karlos Drinkwater ( best actor at the drifting clouds film festival ”When The Jars Are Done”, stage production “Whale Rider” ), Anna Hewlett ( Macbeth ), Lauren Jackson ( Alex, Perfect Creatures).
Amarbir says he chose the digital medium as a vehicle to best tell the story.
“The digital style in this film brings out a voyeuristic realism to the characters, often digital as compared with film is seen as a compromise but this was the opposite – I wanted to use digital because the feel needed to have that rawness that comes from the street.”
Amarbir wanted to create a pared back sense of realism and so worked closely with the actors to semi improvise the whole script.
He wanted to involve the viewer in the actors’ emotions and in order to do this used no props or any formal script.
Using a hand-held digital camera and improvised dialogue, the film captures the exciting dynamic of the street with the 24-hour timeline creating an urgency as the plot evolves.
Shot in and around Auckland’s Karangahape Road, the storyline centres around a young immigrant Sikh taxi driver (Rajiv Varma) who struggles to sustain his optimistic view of the opportunities New Zealand provides. Two old friends (Bruce Hopkins and Nial Greenstock) get drunk together and uncover bitter feelings and rivalries. A good samaritan (Karlos Drinkwater) recovering from a recent breakup helps out a crippled ex-cop (Jon Brazier). A prostitute’s (Anna Hewlitt) bad night is made that much more difficult by her obsessively watchful boyfriend (David Van Horn).
To any film maker looking for inspiration 1nite is a fine example of what can be achieved without access to major resources. Using only a Canon XL1 digital camera (no lighting or sound gear), a crew of 2 and coming in on a budget of $400.00, 1nite utilizes the talent of the actors and the crew to create an engaging piece of work.
From CinemaTech: I arrived at the LA Convention Center this afternoon just in time to find a seat in the back of the hall for George Lucas’ opening keynote at SIGGRAPH 2005. (No special seating for media or bloggers – boo hoo.) Lucas is introduced as “the father of digital cinema” and then a short film on his career lauds him as “a tireless champion of digital projection… (Lucas) talks a bit about Peter Jackson’s visual effects shop, Weta Digital, which he visited recently. “Weta is like ILM was 20 years ago.” He invited Jackson to come see ILM now, and see if that’s really the direction he wants Weta to go. Referring to ILM, he says: “A big corporation has its downside. Companies are kind of like sharks. If they don’t swim, they die. You either have to grow and get bigger and bigger, or you begin to collapse. I think ILM, we’ve all agreed, has reached a level that we want to stick with. We don’t want to get any bigger. We’re the oldest, we’re the largest, we’re the most advanced. And that’s a fun position to be in.” He says if a studio or someone else wanted to build a bigger shop, ILM wouldn’t necessarily try to compete. [More]
David Stewart from Interaction writes: Just a note to remind you that Alan Lee will be a special guest at Interaction the World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow. The Convention runs from August 4 to 8 and Mr Lee will be present from the Friday to the Sunday of that weekend. To coincide with his appearance, Harper Collins have very kindly made available copies of his new book A Lord of the Rings Sketchbook in advance of its official publication date and Mr Lee will be signing copies on Friday August 5. [More]
Mr Lee’s schedule in full (subject to change at the last minute)
Friday 4:00pm Harper Collins Pre-launch of Alan Lee’s The Lord of the Rings Sketchbook Saturday 11:00am Future Art Media Saturday 1:00pm Alan Lee Interview Saturday 3:30pm What It Means to be a Concept Artist for a Movie (1.5 hrs) Sunday 1:00pm Collaborating Magic Sunday 3:30pm Alan Lee Slideshow (1.5 hrs)
Sarah writes: To support the release of Alan Lee’s brand new project, The Lord of the Rings Sketchbook, Alan will be signing copies at these exclusive pre-publication events in August event though the book is not officially go on sale nationwide until 5th September. Firstly visitors to Worlcon in Glasgow this year will be able to meet Alan from 4-6pm on Friday 5th August at Hall 5 in the Scottish Exhibition Centre. This will be the first ever opportunity to get a copy of the book which will be on sale from 2.30 outside the hall on Friday.
Alan will also be at Tolkien 2005 at Aston University from 11-12.30 on Saturday 13th August and finally he will attend the Fellowship Festival after last year’s successful event at Wembley, the event is over 3 days (27th – 29th August) and Alan will be there for two of those days (27th and 28th).
