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Thursday, 02 May 2013 10:37

NBFF 2013 / OCC Shorts / Who Framed Roger Rabbit

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nbff 2013Newport Beach Film Festival, 2013

Alive and thriving.  I'm sure that's the message the Newport Beach Film Festival would love to hear shouted from the rooftops of The O.C.  After a few dicey years with administration woes, venue problems, and less-than-wonderful film offerings, I found the festival this year to be robust and packed with films that mean something both critically and commercially.

Having expanded to The Triangle, the renovated Triangle Square in Costa Mesa, the buzz there where I picked up my press pass was incredible.  The festival initially went there out of desperation last year because The Islands Theater in Newport Beach was undergoing a renovation and they needed a venue with a multiplex and some food options that was at least close to Newport Beach.  This year, The Islands is back but The Triangle is also in its glory after several new shops and food places have transformed it into a truly great entertainment destination.

I was only able to attend my first event this year on Sunday and I chose to go to one of my favorite theaters, The Regency Lido, which is a single-venue theater with an actual balcony.  The Lido is such a grand, old girl, the outside looking like a throwback to the days when theaters were edifices and not strip malls, but inside she's spanking new with a new screen, digital sound and digital projection that made the screenings pop.

Beside being my favorite venue to see anything, there were two other reasons I started my festival tour at The Lido:  One, OCC (Orange Coast College) was doing its student films there, followed by the 25th Anniversary of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," and two, Regency theater manager Lorenzo Porricelli.  

Larry is old school.  He makes you feel a part of any event even if if you're just walking around.  When I arrived, he was passing out programs for the showing of the student films like some carny barker.  He personally greeted dozens of people, many of whom he knew and who knew him.  If the NBFF put him in charge of the whole show, this dynamic force of nature would probably  increase attendance by 75% on his own!  

OCC Shorts, 2013

The OCC student shorts get better each year.  The equipment alone that student filmmakers can use is astounding.  Nothing like this digital technology existed ten, even five years ago.  

The awareness of this equipment and the software to run it creates filmmakers from practically the cradle.

Shown were: 

  • Lemonade by Steve Guzman, Will Gabriel, Rachel Gist
  • Froghouse by Gustav Sandegard
  • In For the Kill by Nathan 
  • Shortcut by Gabriela Penunuri, Steve Guzman, Josh Lang
  • Condemned by Josh Lang, Natalia Wong
  • Out of Bounds by Nick Ybarra
  • Uncaged by Juan Alvarez and Matt Rodgers

The Facebook page for this year's group is here: http://www.facebook.com/OCCShorts2013

A nice little video report is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci8Gwe4UmgI

All were terrific.  If I had any criticism of these shorts, it would be the same one I had last year - story.  The technical aspects are fine.  My feeling is the stories needed to be tweaked by a faculty member or professional writer just a bit more.  But that's minor - they are student work and just getting them to the big screen is a massive accomplishment.

Kudos to Bob Lazarus, Scott Broberg and the entire faculty of the Arts Dept at OCC for nurturing this fantastic program.

who framed roger rabbitSomeone Framed Roger 25 Years Ago?  Seems Impossible!

"Who Framed Roger Rabbit" came on after the OCC Shorts.  I could have not been happier.  Or more entertained.  It's still one of the more innovative and joyful films to watch.  Done twenty-five years ago, all with non-digital, traditional animation techniques, the movie soars on the basis of so many factors.  

The send-up of both film noir and the joyful world of animation takes no prisoners as it tears down walls (literally in the film) between the "real world" and the world of "Toons."

If you can see this film on a big screen do it.  It's one of those 'event' films that must be seen big to appreciate.  As mentioned, The Regency Lido with its classic spine and still-intact balcony was the prefect venue.  It's new guts - digital projection, a new screen and a sound system that allowed you to hear every squeak and whimper from the hundreds of Toons that grace the film, was so right for this immaculately-told tale

I'd forgotten how much crossover there was between Warner and Disney and all the animation houses whose characters were represented in the film.  Daffy Duck and Donald Duck have a piano and mayhem duel; Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse meet in a sky falling sequence; Betty Boop (having fallen on hard times) is one of the waitresses in a club; those incredible, early cartoon characters from Tex Avery were everywhere.  So many hundreds of different Toons inhabited the world of Roger Rabbit it's impossible to name them all - but I bet someone has somewhere (Actually, HERE.)  The Academy-award winning short "Logorama" certainly was inspired conceptually by this seminal film to tell its visual story.

What a great concept and truly incredible execution.toons

The producer who was there for the Q&A after the movie (Don Hahn) credits Steven Spielberg for getting the rights and cooperation of the competitors mentioning that probably only someone of Spielberg's stature could have gotten all the animation houses to agree to use of their characters.  Probably so.  Hahn ran the Q&A expertly and had a few great stories of his own.

Also present to delight was the hilarious Charles Fleischer, the voice of Roger Rabbit and several other Toons, Joanna Cassidy, who played Bob Hoskins' character's girlfriend, and two animators who worked on the film using only "pencil and ink."  This is one of the last great animated features to be done by hand.

We all laughed and soared during the movie and afterward with the wonderful Q&A.  It was truly a treat of incomparable magnitude and kudos to the NBFF for getting this great film and the terrific people behind it.

I'm kicking myself, however, for also not attending the event after Roger Rabbit because it featured a truly amazing superstar songwriter.

Richard Sherman with his brother Robert Sherman were responsible for so many of the songs of this era and our youth.  

Here's a (partial) list from Wikipedia:

They also composed the insanely stickable "It's A Small World" that haunts your brain long after you leave the Small World exhibit in the Disney Parks.

OCSWA board member, Larry Porricelli, reports on this event:

NBFF: Disney Rarities by Larry Porricelli

lorenzo porricelliAs if it wasn't enough to see "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" and meet the voice of Roger, and as if it wasn't enough to meet the voice of Goofy, and as if it wasn't enough to see clips from songs and films of stars that didn't make the final cut, including Mel Gibson singing a ballad in the film, "Pocahontas," and as if it wasn't enough to be taken on a Disney screen journey by director Don Hahn, of "Lion King" and so many other films fame, I suppose it wasn't enough.

But Disney brought out the NBFF showstopper to create a moment in film history, so memorable and stunning, the packed house at the Regency Lido Theatre in Newport Beach applauded for what seemed forever, and it still wasn't enough. There wasn't a dry eye in the house at the end of the night because of Disney music legend and winner of two Oscars Richard Sherman's appearance and concert of his greatest works at a piano.

Sherman just didn't play everything from "Chim-chim-cheree" to "Supercalifragalisticexpialadocious" to "A Spoonful of Sugar," and so many more, he shared the story behind each song, and shared conversations about movies and the songs had with Walt Disney and how Disney would inspire each song.

The topper came when he shared that Disney had called him to "fix this mess, and quick," of a song for a show to display kids of the world getting together. When Sherman

listened to what they had, he said it was a mess - kids from different countries singing their national anthems, and no one could understand anything. 

Disney said to him that the world was becoming smaller and we want to show that connection, and that was all Sherman needed, with the result being,"It's a Small World," which he played just as he did for Disney the first time after he wrote it. Then he played it and everyone sang along with it, for who doesn't know that song!

Sherman, who is 84, still works daily for Disney, and was going to Chicago this week to supervise music for a future Broadway musical, "The Jungle Book," from which he played several songs. 

Sherman regaled the audience with many wonderful stories of films and people, and it was a moment in film history, right here in Newport Beach, at the Regency Lido Theatre.

And finally...

Screenwriter/OC Screenwriters member LyLy Nguyen reports from the festival:

lyly nguyenI saw the movie Stuck in Love tonight.  I loved it.  It was funny, witty, heartfelt, characters were well defined and a story about  a family's struggle with love.  

The writer/director, Josh Boone and supporting actress, Liana Liberato were there for the Q & A.  I learned a few interesting bits of information to share with everyone.  This is Josh's first script as writer/director.  50% of the story was from Josh's parent's divorce  I asked Josh if what is his background in writing and how many scripts did he write before this one.  He was vague about any  formal "training" in writing other than that he loves to write.  He wrote 17 scripts before this one.  He spent 5 to 6 months making notes of the story for this script.  When he finally got the story down, writing time was one month.

After writing the script, Josh sent his script to every producer that could send to by emails, etc.  He finally captured Judy Cairo's attention, who agreed to produce the movie.  
 
From when Judy agreed to produce Josh's script to production is one year and one month later.  The movie was shot in 20 days.  
 
It will be released in theatres on June 14.  LINK
 
Thanks, Lyly, for that concise report!
 

I will attending a few more events but this one magical night was really almost enough for me - that's how rich this year's festival is.

 

Read 2476 times Last modified on Wednesday, 05 August 2015 16:17
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Mark Sevi

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