Aug 05
Jun 24
After several shows where I was behind the scenes I am now also visible in front of the camera. Liana Lehua and I introduce new products we use in our daily production environment. Here is the first episode.
Our website is here and you can get the newest episodes via iTunes here.
May 19
The film school I graduated from, San Francisco School of Digital Filmmaking, has released a documentary that looks behind the scenes of a feature film production I worked on.
Making Filmmakers from MAKE MOVIES on Vimeo.
Apr 18
Click here to subscribe to this blog as a audio podcast. As I update the blog new podcast episodes get published by odiogo.com
Apr 01
Three of my short films are now on vimeo in much better quality than on YouTube. A good summary of the advantages of both platforms is here.
Feb 28
I started working for Podango Productions recently. Over the last several months I got to know Scott Bourne and his team very well. I started out as a foreign correspondent for the Apple Phone Show, Podango’s most widely know podcast. Sometimes my web tips ended up on Girls Gone Geek, another hit show by Podango. Now I joined full time and help produce all these shows and a new one I am very excited about: The Game Council. Oh, and another one that I work on is the iLifeZone.
Subscribe to all shows I am contributing to and am working on via iTunes:
- Apple Phone Show
- iLifeZone
- Girls Gone Geek
- The Game Council
Check out shows # 28 and 31 of the “Apple Phone Show” to hear me on air. And the upcoming episode #3 of “The Game Council”.
Nov 02
Around June photos, behind the scenes videos are now on
- flickr
- YouTube
- Myspace
- Facebook
- and brand new, on sevenload, a mainly European video and photo sharing site.
Oct 17
I co-directed the first six episodes of the new Cinewave podcast for independent filmmakers. No surprise: we used “Around June” as the first movie to cover. We started an interactive trailer competition. James Savoca is the host of the podcast, Staci DeGagne edited it and Maria-Bernal Silvia, Victoria Ponce and Dave Keenan were our crew for the shoot. More information at James director’s blog.
You can watch all episodes here:
Here is the text of our official press release:
“Around June” Movie Trailer Contest Invites Aspiring Filmmakers to Cut the TrailerSAN FRANCISCO, CA (October 15) – An online editing contest to cut the winning movie trailer for the upcoming feature film, “Around June,” launched on October 15th on the CineWave station at Podango (http://cinewave.podango.com).During his weekly CineWave online video show, director James Savoca will introduce themes from his movie, “Around June,” over the course of seven weekly shows, offer tips on how to cut a great trailer, and invite the participation of film editors and enthusiasts.“We’re launching the “Around June” movie trailer contest to involve aspiring filmmakers in our motion picture and create buzz in advance of festival screenings,” noted director James Savoca.
Web-based contestants will be provided with downloadable clips from the film and access to online editing tools. To qualify, movie trailer submissions must be between 60 and 90 seconds in length. Music should be original scored music that you own the copyright for or cleared for use by the copyright owner. The submission deadline is November 22, 2007. Based on the votes by judges and viewers, the winning trailer will be announced in a CineWave podcast on December 3, 2007 and included in the “Around June” DVD. The winning entrant will receive an iPhone.
Entrants should upload movie trailers to YouTube and send an email with a link to the video to Around.June@gmail.com In your email please provide full contact information with your email, your website/blog and snail mail address.
Production Team
Writers/Directors: James Savoca, Achim Voermanek
Producers: Scott Bourne (Podango Productions)
Ex. Producers: Jeremiah Birnbaum, Stephen Kopels (San Francisco School of Digital Filmmaking)
Editor: Staci Degagne
About CineWave
CineWave is a video podcast station covering emerging trends in the marketing and producing of independent films. Featuring new voices in independent cinema, CineWave provides a platform for young filmmakers to promote their movies and discuss their filmmaking technologies.
About Podango
Podango is the online video and audio network that enables publishers and advertisers to “get heard” by today’s hard-to-reach, niche audiences. Featuring such hit shows as The Apple Phone Show, Podango hosts over 1,000 programs — including a number routinely found among the top twenty-five podcast shows on iTunes — on a wide variety of interests and topics. Through the company’s hosting and syndication services, corporate, professional and independent publishers deliver episodic video and audio programs, and targeted ads to highly qualified audiences. Podango also owns and operates its own a state-of-the-art production studio in the Bay Area. For more information please visit: http://www.podango.com.
Sep 17
Check out my new Blurb book with “Behind the Scenes” photos of Around June. These photos were shot by many people during the shoot (Oscar Guerrero among them, the actor for the role of Juan-Diego) and I created a selection for the book. Check it out by clicking on the link inside the little box below.
Aug 28
Still more work to do on “Around June”, so how about a blog entry with a status update. We have been on the “post-production” since February. This term makes it sound like “pre-production”, “production” and now “post-production” are three very separate phases of creating a movie. But all three phases are very much intertwined, important decisions from the preproduction help us now finish the movie. One example is the sound work we do with Jay Shilliday at Slate Run Pro. All work that Darcell Walker, the sound recordist, did during the preproduction and the shoot helps Jay now to get the best possible sound mix done using the original sounds from the locations, new foley sounds, the new music recorded by Didier Lean Rachou and the ADR recorded by Brad Henke. The same for coloring, where Gary Coates work as a color grader at Video Arts builds on work that the Director of Photography (DP), Peter Hawkins, and James Savoca, the writer/director, did earlier.
Jul 19
It was a great experience to shoot “Running for Life” with my fellow co-students at San Francisco School of Digital Filmmaking about Robert Benavidez, whom I met during my two marathon training cycles with the San Francisco AIDS Marathon program. He is really an inspiring person and I tried to tell his personal story of living with HIV and being an athlete in my documentary. Well, some aspects of it, since the movie is only 7 minutes long.
But the San Francisco Frozen Film Festival selection committee liked it and admitted it in its lineup. It was shown on July, 15, 2007 at 6 pm at the Roxie Theatre. Exactly a month after my first festival screening, I got my second one!
May 10
Yes, my first narrative short movie was accepted at a local film festival here in San Francisco!It’s called The San Francisco Black Film Festival and the movie was shown on June, 15 at 3.15 pm at the Theater Artaud.
This was my first time at a film festival with one of my own films. It felt great! Seeing the movie on a big screen with a live audience and getting some feedback afterwards from people in the hallway.
Mar 23
The feature film “Around June” is now in post-production and I was hired as a post production supervisor. The work involves supporting the director, James Savoca, who is editing the movie and his two assistant editors. In addition I coordinate with Andy Rozal, the web designer, Victoria Ponce, who is doing the making of documentary, Charlie Canfield, the animator, Jay Shilliday, the sound designer, Gary Coates, the colorist, the post production team at VideoArts, Didier Lean Rachou, the composer, and the title animators at Expression College for the Digital Arts.
Feb 28
At San Francisco School of Digital Filmmaking I did a commercial and a website for “German Beer”. The video is now up on YouTube. The website with the punch line is at http://www.loveinaboat.com. Have fun with it.
Feb 16
During prepoduction I kept on asking James Savoca, the director, about a role as an extra in “Around June”. And I got a role! So far for being persistent. I played an “immigration officer” in a scene that was shot as the very last scene of the film. It was a great experience and I got some acting tips along the way from Jeff Handy who was the other “immigration officer”. And a nice compliment at the end from Peter Hawkins, the DP of the film. Let’s see whether the scene will make it into the final movie and I don’t end up on the cutting room floor. Or the digital equivalent of that.
Jan 07
I worked on the independent feature film “Around June”. It is directed by one of the teachers from my school, James Savoca. I worked for two weeks as a 2nd AD (Second Assistant Director) working for the first AD, Paolo Lembo.
One week was work during the pre-production and one week was during the producion. Later I worked a week as a grip for Ernie Kunze.
Dec 15
I had the chance to act in two commercials of co-students at San Francisco School of Digital Filmmaking. One is for Mountain Dew directed by David Keenan. Watch it on Current TV. The other is for a new car that will revolutionize the convertible market and the van market at the same time. This one is by Nathaniel Nicks and can be found on YouTube.
Oct 24
The Independent Film Channel (IFC) has a great video “laboratory”. Here are the links to the movies “The Blue Brick” , “Keeping Memory Alive” , and “Running For Life” on the IFC Media Lab website. Please, if you have some time, go there, watch the movie and if you like it, let them know with your rating.
Oct 24
If you want, you want watch “Running For Life” and “Keeping Memory Alive” on Current TV’s website. Both movies are now available for viewing and feedback on http://www.current.tv/studio/people/voermanek
Aug 16
This documentary portraits Helen Farkas, a 84 year old survivor of the Nazi Holocaust. She has been talking to school children in the Bay Area for over 30 years about her life’s experience.
This movie is about strenght. A strenght that has allowed us younger generations to grow up learning in freedom. But it’s also about forgiveness. As a German born filmmaker I experienced this myself during the shoot of this movie with Helen Farkas.
