film - News - The Coastal Star2024-03-28T15:33:28Zhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/filmTabloid Tattle: Former National Enquirer staffers tell all in ‘Scandalous’https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/tabloid-tattle-former-national-enquirer-staffers-tell-all-in-scan2019-12-31T18:39:46.000Z2019-12-31T18:39:46.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p style="text-align:center;"><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960916854,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960916854,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960916854?profile=original" /></a></strong><em>Generoso Pope Jr., the paper’s founder, holds a copy of a 1977 issue showing Elvis Presley in his casket. It’s an image from the film</em> Scandalous: the Untold Story of the National Enquirer<em>.</em><strong><br /></strong></p>
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<p><strong>By Mary Thurwachter</strong><br /> <br />Two years ago, a California acupuncturist took her parents, visiting from Florida, along to meet friends for dinner at a trendy L.A. restaurant. The acupuncturist, well-known in Hollywood circles, had a client list that included famous folks such as Kim Kardashian.<br />The TV reality star wasn’t part of this small gathering, but film producer and director Mark Landsman was, and he couldn’t get over the entertaining stories his friend’s father told.<br /> But who was the charming, chatty daddy? Enquiring minds wanted to know.<br /> He was Lantana’s vice mayor, Malcolm Balfour, former articles editor at the National Enquirer. The acupuncturist was his daughter, Antonia.<br /> “Malcolm was regaling us with stories from his former career and had been a reporter from the earliest days of the National Enquirer,” Landsman said. “Naturally my ears perked up because I’m fascinated with that. He told these crazy stories and offered to introduce me to some of his former tabloid trench mates, and it just went from there.”</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960916495,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960916495,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960916495?profile=original" /></a><em>Hypoluxo Island resident and former Enquirer staffer Malcolm Balfour is featured in the film.</em><br /><strong><em>Photos provided by Magnolia Pictures</em></strong></p>
<p style="text-align:left;"><br />What “went from there” was production of a documentary called Scandalous, a look at the history of the National Enquirer, an influential tabloid that covers everything from alien landings and psychic predictions to celebrity breakups and medical oddities. No expense was spared to get a story. Sources were paid handsomely, a practice that continued after the 1988 death of owner Generoso Pope Jr.<br />“The great thing about working for the Enquirer was there was unlimited money to get a story,” said David Wright, an investigative reporter for the tabloid from 1976 to 2010. “If you were on a story and you wanted to hire a boat or plane, or someone to help you climb a mountain, you just did it. But that was starting to dry up in the last year I was there and I was more confined to doing stories on the phone. I like traveling and I like knocking on doors.” <br />The film, which debuted in November at select theaters, including a short run at the Lake Worth Playhouse, examines “how this publication came into being and, on a larger level, looks at the impact it had on journalism and our political landscape,” Landsman said.<br /> He pitched the documentary to people at CNN Films, and they went for it. In August before the Nov. 15 theatrical release, distributor Magnolia Pictures acquired the North American rights to Scandalous.<br /> The movie uses current-day interviews with former staffers and others to examine why the paper has thrived, the effect of its sharp turn into partisan politics, and why a tabloid marketed to “Missy Smith in Kansas City” began acquiring exclusive rights to stories about powerful people and then killing the stories to protect them.<br />From its coverage of Elvis Presley’s death to Monica Lewinsky’s affair with Bill Clinton to O.J. Simpson’s murder trial, the tabloid shook the foundations of American culture and politics, sometimes allegedly using payoffs and blackmail to get its scoops.</p>
<p style="text-align:left;"><strong>Finding a home in Lantana</strong><br /> The National Enquirer moved its headquarters from New York to Lantana in 1971. It remained there until 2000, when it moved to Boca Raton. Pope in 1952 had used money supplied by his godfather, reputed mob boss Frank Costello, to buy and remake the old New York Enquirer from a racing and sporting newspaper into a grocery store tabloid.<br /> While in Lantana, the paper’s headquarters became known for having the “World’s Largest Christmas Tree,” but the holiday display also ended after Pope died. Pope’s widow, Lois Pope, lives in Manalapan and is a well-known philanthropist.<br /> Balfour was working as a bureau chief for Reuters in Miami in 1971 when he got a call from a photographer who persuaded him to take a freelance assignment for the Enquirer. He joined a team of reporters (most, like Balfour, who was born in South Africa, had British accents) in covering the Red Cross Ball at The Breakers in Palm Beach. The ballroom was packed with society’s finest, including members of the Kennedy family.<br /> “I asked Rose Kennedy for a dance, but it only lasted for about three seconds before a Secret Service guy tapped me on the shoulder,” Balfour said. “I noticed that the Marine escorts weren’t able to sit down and eat with other attendees and I didn’t think that seemed right.”<br />Balfour turned this observation into a story about how the Marines, who escorted socialites at the gala, were good enough to die for their country in Vietnam but weren’t good enough to have dinner with the social elite at the ball. The story was a huge hit at the tabloid. <br /> “I was quite a little favorite with Pope from then on,” Balfour said. <br /> Balfour, who worked for Pope from 1971 to 1980, is one of the stars of Scandalous, as are others from South Palm Beach County — including Ocean Ridge Mayor Steve Coz, once the tabloid’s editor and senior vice president; his wife, Val Coz, a real estate agent with Douglas Elliman and former photo editor at the Enquirer; and British investigative reporter Wright, who lives in Atlantis.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960917464,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960917464,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960917464?profile=original" /></a><em>Steve Coz (in chair) and David Perel are former executive editors at the Enquirer. <strong>Photo provided by Magnolia Pictures</strong></em></p>
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<p style="text-align:left;"><strong>Former employees like film</strong><br /> Not surprisingly, Balfour and his tabloid “trench mates” give the film two thumbs up.<br /> “Mark Landsman did a fantastic job capturing the energy of the newsroom, the craziness of the Enquirer during its heyday and the incredible stress everyone was under,” said Steve Coz, who was at the paper from 1981 to 2003. “In Generoso Pope’s Enquirer you had a job for the week and could be fired on any given Friday for any random reason. <br /> “The most important takeaway from the movie for me was the transformation of the Enquirer into a powerful political propaganda machine under the ownership of David Pecker after Pope died.”<br />Coz and his wife left the tabloid in a nasty battle with Pecker over content and the editorial direction of the Enquirer.<br /> Val Coz started working there in 1977 when she was 22. She took it as a temporary job, thinking she’d be there six months and move on. But she remained for 26 years and met her husband there.<br /> “The movie made me happy because it’s a legacy for our kids to understand what we did because they were so little,” she said. “We left in 2003, so they were relatively young. It’s kind of nice because it does explain what happened.”<br /> Wright and Balfour both agreed Scandalous was well done. They were relieved to find that the film made a very clear distinction at the end between the old Enquirer, which was breaking big stories and selling 5 million to 6 million copies a week, and what Wright calls “the pathetic publication it is now.”</p>
<p style="text-align:left;"><strong>Admiring, fearing Pope</strong><br /> Pope’s former employees had both good and bad things to say about working for him.<br />“It was stressful, certainly,” Val Coz said. “I had great admiration for Pope. All the stories are true about him. The one thing I never <a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960917664,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960917664,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-left" alt="7960917664?profile=original" /></a>experienced from him was any kind of misogyny. He was equally mean and horrible to everybody — and equally rewarding if you produced. He didn’t have a thing ‘oh, she’s a girl don’t promote her,’ which was unusual back in those days.” <br /> Wright, who specialized in covering high-profile crimes, said Pope was a terrifying man. <br /> “You never knew when he was going to cast a dark eye on you and fire you,” he said. “But he was a genius in terms of how he set up the Enquirer, not only in the marketing in supermarkets, but he had a knack for getting a terrific mix of stories from show business to how-to stories to medical stories. The paper had something for everyone — and Pope OK’d every story that went in the paper, even the tiny 1-inch stories.”<br /> Wright, who currently writes for a running and health website called TakeTheMagicStep.com, was the kind of ace reporter for the Enquirer who would do whatever it took to get the story. He once posed as a florist’s messenger, delivering roses to Megan Marshack, the staffer who had been with Nelson Rockefeller when he died in her arms. She was holed up in her apartment, trying to avoid reporters.<br />“I nearly had to buy the truck to get the setup right,” Wright recalled.<br /> <a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960917094,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960917094,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-left" alt="7960917094?profile=original" /></a>The stories of which he is most proud, though, are of the JonBenét Ramsey murder. He led a team of Enquirer reporters who spent two years covering the case, and he has a strong suspicion about who killed the young beauty queen.<br /> “I have to think it was the mother, Patsy,” Wright said. “If you look at the ransom note, no kidnapper is going to come in and sit down at the kitchen table without the materials to write a ransom note in the first place, not knowing when the family is coming back. … And then the details of the ransom note had things that only Patsy and her husband would know. We really explored every one of the theories for all intruders. I never believed it could have been an intruder.”<br /> But he can’t imagine what motive Patsy, who died in 2006, could have had.</p>
<p style="text-align:left;"><strong>The good, bad and ugly</strong><br /> One of Steve Coz’s favorite stories, from a journalism standpoint, was publishing the photo of O.J. Simpson wearing Bruno Magli shoes. A bloody shoe print from size 12 Bruno Maglis was found near the bodies of Nicole Brown Simpson, his ex-wife, and her friend Ron Goldman.<br /> O.J. had, during his trial, denied ever wearing “those ugly ass shoes.”<br /> “Unfortunately, we didn’t find it during the criminal trial, but at least they had it (photo of O.J. wearing the shoes) for the civil trial,” Val Coz said of the photo.<br /> “When the Enquirer trained its focus on legitimate news stories versus gossip, there was a cleanness to the Enquirer newsroom and we were quite good at it,” said Steve Coz, a Harvard graduate who has a management and communications company that specializes in media relations and brand growth.<br /> From a gossip standpoint, Steve Coz said, the ongoing saga of Roseanne Barr during the 1990s was his favorite story. “She would call cursing me out one day and then love me the next. At one point she hired thugs who punched me out in my Beverly Hills hotel. Then later she had me co-host her daytime TV show with her. Crazy times.”<br /> There were terrifying times for the Coz family as well. One of them came after Princess Diana’s fatal car accident in 1997. The Enquirer — and Steve Coz as editor — came under fire from George Clooney and other celebs who blamed the tabloid and Coz for her death because of the paparazzi chasing her. But none of them was from the Enquirer.<br /> “Look, celebrities court publicity in the tabloids to start their careers, and then when they become full-fledged stars, they scream that the press is invading their privacy,” Coz said. “I was used to celebs screaming at me on the phone, but when Princess Di died, it got real ugly. She died at the hands of a drunken driver while French paparazzi were following her car. Hollywood celebrities immediately trained the focus on the paparazzi, the tabloids and me. It served their goal — to stop the tabloids from publishing stories that tarnished their public images.”<br /> The Coz family was on edge after Diana’s death and threats from celebrities.<br /> “The Ocean Ridge police chief then, Ed Hillery, put officers on our perimeter, and the Enquirer put security details at our house and on Val, the kids and me,” Steve Coz said. “We had our own three young children plus we were caring for two other kids while their parents were in Ireland. Those parents called when they heard the celebrity threats against me on the BBC. <br /> “It was a trying time for us. It taught us not to sweat the small stuff. That large ficus hedge and fortified fence you see around our property were installed by the Enquirer to safeguard us.”<br /> Another trying time for the Coz family came after photojournalist Bob Stevens was killed in the 2001 anthrax attack on the tabloid’s headquarters in Boca Raton.<br /> “It was terrifying,” Val Coz said. “What people don’t really know is there were several people in the office that were taken ill during the ordeal and hospitalized and have had long-term results. We all had to be on prophylactic antibiotics for six or eight weeks. <br /> “For Steve and me, it was even a little more frightening because our 11-year-old son had been in the office during the incubation time, before we knew about it. He had to go on antibiotics, as well as one of his friends who had been with him. We went in on a Saturday, they were running around the office while we were doing something on our way to a birthday party. Just one of those crazy things, you know.”</p>
<p style="text-align:left;"><strong>When can you see the film?</strong><br /> If you missed the showing at the Lake Worth Playhouse in November, you can see the film on CNN in April. If you don’t want to wait, go to <a href="http://www.scandalousfilm.com">www.scandalousfilm.com</a> and click the button that says “watch at home.” <br />Scandalous is available on many streaming services.</p></div>2019 Season Preview: Filmhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/2019-season-preview-film2019-10-02T17:28:53.000Z2019-10-02T17:28:53.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960895274,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960895274,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960895274?profile=original" /></a><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960895858,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960895858,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960895858?profile=original" /></a></p></div>Highland Beach: Tough new rules in place for filmmakers in townhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/highland-beach-tough-new-rules-in-place-for-filmmakers-in-town2018-02-28T16:59:06.000Z2018-02-28T16:59:06.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><span><b>By Rich Pollack</b></span></p>
<p>Moviemakers and others who want to film in Highland Beach be warned: Town officials and the Palm Beach County Film and Television Commission will work together to welcome you — but there are a lot of rules you’re going to have to follow. </p>
<p>The Town Commission partnered with the county’s film commission last month in an amendment to a 2013 interlocal agreement that provides filmmakers with a “one-stop-shop process” should they consider taking advantage of Highland Beach as a setting during their next project. </p>
<p>In a resolution that passed unanimously, town commissioners agreed to strengthen the previous agreement, which lets the film commission be the first point of contact for those interested in filming in the town and serve as the liaison between the two groups. </p>
<p>The filming company would be required to fill out an application for review by the film commission staff to see if the project is a good fit and meets a dozen requirements set out specifically for Highland Beach.</p>
<p>Film commission staff would then contact the town manager and police chief to review the application and make sure Highland Beach gives the green light for the production to proceed. </p>
<p> County Film Commissioner Chuck Eldred says the rules specified by the town are among the toughest in the county.</p>
<p>“This is one of the most one-sided interlocal agreements about film and television permitting any community can adopt,” he said.</p>
<p>Sparked by complaints last year from residents about the production of a made-for-television movie about the mob and a subsequent party, the agreement with the county sets out 12 provisions. It also gives the town the right to block filming if leaders think the production would be disruptive or not a good fit for the community.</p>
<p>Among the requirements set out in the agreement are:</p>
<p>• Filming can take place only between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m., with no filming on Sundays or town holidays without prior written approval from the town manager. </p>
<p>• A parking plan and off-site parking and a lighting plan, if applicable, must be provided to the town manager for approval. </p>
<p>• At least two days before production begins, filmmakers will have to notify in writing property owners within 500 feet of the production site when filming will start and how long it is expected to last. </p>
<p>• Film crew members cannot trespass on neighboring properties.</p>
<p>• The town manager or film commissioner may require the filming crew to have onsite security in place. </p>
<p>Eldred said as part of the process, the county film commission, an arm of the county’s Tourist Development Council, has authority to pull a filming permit if any of the provisions of the agreement is broken. </p>
<p>Throughout the process, he said, the film commission will do the heavy lifting and work to ensure the best interests of the community come first. The film commission, he said, will continue to work with the town to make any other adjustments needed down the road. </p>
<p>“The interlocal agreement takes the burden of reviewing permits and working closely with the filmmakers off of the town,” Eldred said. “We do all the work.” </p></div>Highland Beach: Film student’s labor of love gets new audience, recognition decades laterhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/highland-beach-film-student-s-labor-of-love-gets-new-audience-rec2016-02-03T20:16:31.000Z2016-02-03T20:16:31.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p style="text-align:center;"><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960631652,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960631652,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="720" alt="7960631652?profile=original" /></a></strong><em>Peter Rodis sits in front of an African painting at his Highland Beach home. A documentary of African-American singer Nina Simone he made as a young man is now incorporated in an Academy Award-nominated documentary. <strong>Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p>
<p><strong>By Rich Pollack</strong><br /><br /> Peter Rodis was a young film-school student at New York University in the late 1960s when he decided to embark on an ambitious project. <br /> Using his own money, Rodis enlisted the help of some classmates and set out to produce a documentary about singer Nina Simone.<br /> “I love music and I always loved Nina Simone,” said Rodis, 74, now a full-time resident of Highland Beach. <br /> Rodis’ film, Nina Simone: To Be Free, first aired on a New York television station in 1970 and became known as one of the most definitive films about the singer’s life. <br /> Now, most of the footage included in that 28-minute film is playing a major role in a new documentary, What Happened, Miss Simone? which last month was one of five documentaries nominated for an Oscar. <br /> “This is a lifelong dream,” he said. “It only took 50 years.” <br /> For Rodis, who spent a year on-and-off with Simone, the use of his material in an Academy Award-nominated film is the result of determination and dedication to help get Simone’s story out to the public. <br /> “I never gave up on Nina or on the project,” he said. <br /> Then a resident of Queens, Rodis was a young real estate broker in his mid-20s when he decided to go back to college. <br /> “I always loved film,” he said. <br /> During his last year in school, he approached Simone’s husband, who was also her manager, about the idea of doing a documentary with the singer, pianist and civil rights activist. <br /> For the project, Rodis interviewed Simone in her Mount Vernon, N.Y., home and also followed her on the road — along with a small crew that included the film’s director, fellow student Joel Gold.<br /> The short documentary includes candid conversations with Simone as well as rehearsals and performances that show the true scope of her talent and her connection with audiences. <br /> During trips with her, Rodis saw firsthand the prejudice the singer encountered when servers at hotels kept walking by without stopping to take an order and when rooms that had been available to white customers were no longer available for the entertainer.<br /> Once it was completed in the early 1970s, the film appeared on New York’s WOR television station and was nominated for an Emmy Award. It was later used in a segment of the Great America Dream Machine, a television program produced by New York’s public broadcasting station WNET from 1971 to 1973.<br /> Rodis’ career in film was somewhat short-lived. He co-produced a feature film that featured Richard Burton and O.J. Simpson and later worked as a production director on several commercials but spent most of his career in real estate.<br /> His film, however, enjoyed resurgence in the mid-2000s following Simone’s death, when Sony Records put out a CD set of recordings and included a DVD of the film. The set received a Grammy Award nomination and Rodis’ documentary received recognition, 35 years after it was made. <br /> Then a couple of years ago, Rodis received a call from Liz Garbus, director of What Happened, Miss Simone? who told him about the project she was working on with Netflix. <br /> “She said, ‘You have the most amazing film with Nina Simone,’ ” Rodis said.<br /> After their conversation, he agreed to let the film be used in the documentary, now available through Netflix. <br /> “A number of people wanted to license the film over the years, but I never allowed it,” Rodis said. “I figured if I ever wanted people to see it, this was the opportunity.” <br /> Rodis, who leads a monthly film discussion group at the Highland Beach Public Library, has already shown and discussed What Happened, Miss Simone? and plans are being made to show it again this month. <br /> Today, Rodis is pleased his footage is being used in an Academy Award-nominated film and is proud of his 28-minute documentary’s newfound exposure. <br /> “It was a matter of love for me,” he said.</p></div>Film screening: The Mar-a-Lago Club, Palm Beach – April 24https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/film-screening-the-mar-a-lago-club-palm-beach-april-242015-06-03T03:11:59.000Z2015-06-03T03:11:59.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960580462,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960580462,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="180" alt="7960580462?profile=original" /></a><em>Lois Pope, the driving force behind the American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial in Washington, D.C., served as host for the premiere of Debt of Honor, a documentary that Pope produced in collaboration with documentarian Ric Burns chronicling the history of disabled veterans in America. It will air at 9 p.m. Nov. 10 on PBS. Guests numbering more than 150 enjoyed cocktails and dinner prior to the screening. ABOVE: Pope and Burns. <strong>Photo provided by Capehart</strong></em></p></div>Speaker Series: Congregation B’nai Israel, Boca Raton – Feb. 25https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/speaker-series-congregation-b-nai-israel-boca-raton-feb-252015-04-01T15:55:33.000Z2015-04-01T15:55:33.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960570084,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960570084,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="360" alt="7960570084?profile=original" /></a><em>A moving and powerful documentary about temple member Michelle Brandfon’s family’s experience highlighted the monthly series. Titled ‘No Place on Earth,’ the film shares the story of Jews ages 2 to 78 who survived the Holocaust by going underground and living in caves in the Ukraine. Brandfon, a descendent of the families portrayed in the film, and the film’s producer, Susan Barnett, participated in a question-and-answer session with the 500 attendees. Sharon Wagman, Congregation B’nai Israel’s executive director, said many tears were shed during the screening. <strong>ABOVE:</strong> Gary Weiner, Wagman, Barnett, Claire and William Kalman, Brandfon and Rabbi Robert Silvers. <strong>Photo provided</strong></em></p></div>Around Town: Cameras roll in Delray Beachhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/around-town-cameras-roll-in-delray-beach2014-09-02T21:42:08.000Z2014-09-02T21:42:08.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p style="text-align:center;"><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960528067,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960528067,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="360" alt="7960528067?profile=original" /></a></strong><em>Michael Pisano of Boca Raton, a sound mixer, listens to a scene between takes as actors prepare for action at the restaurant 3rd and 3rd during the shooting of After Midnight, an independent film being produced in downtown Delray Beach. <strong>Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p>
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<p><strong>By Steven J. Smith</strong><br /><br /> Delray Beach has been selected as the setting and filming has begun for a new independent film called After Midnight, produced by Delray Beach production company Brave Man Media.<br /> Damian Fitzsimmons is directing the film, which is based on a true story, according to production manager Ian LaQua.<br /> “The two writers grew up on Long Island,” LaQua said. “It’s based on events from their childhood to the age of about 22. It’s a kind of timeless coming of age story, with comedy moments and dramatic moments. It’s true to life, about growing up in a small town in America.”<br /> LaQua added the film will primarily shoot at 3rd and 3rd, a restaurant and bar at 301 NE Third Ave. in the heart of the Artist District. <br />Other locations include Delray Beach Memorial Gardens Municipal Cemetery, several residential homes in the West Atlantic Avenue area of Delray Beach and a home owned by the Boynton Beach Community Redevelopment Agency.<br /> Delray native Vance Vlasek plays Liam, one of the movie’s three main characters. A 2010 graduate of Florida Atlantic University, Vlasek, 26, has performed at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami and the Broward Stage Door Theatre in Coral Springs, among other venues. He said the movie will have a real Florida feel to it.<br /> “The movie is about three friends who grow up together in a small town called Seaside,” Vlasek said. “It takes place in 1972. The friends are bumming around, not knowing what to do with their lives. They’re working lousy jobs in a restaurant. Then one of the friends gets an opportunity to open a bar up for young people. It’s a fun and touching story.”<br /> LaQua said Fitzsimmons and former partner Tyler Ford, who now works in Los Angeles and New York, co-founded Brave Man Media six years ago. <br /> “We mainly do commercial work, documentaries and short films,” he said. “This is our first feature film, but we’ve been steadily moving toward this for the last five years.”<br /> After Midnight has a budget of about $500,000 and features a cast of unknown actors culled from south and central Florida talent and modeling agencies, as well as friends or people the producers saw on the street that they liked and auditioned. However, LaQua said the entire cast is very talented.<br /> “We’ve got great principals and a terrific supporting cast,” he said. “We’re really excited to see how it all comes together.”<br /> Vlasek agreed.<br /> “It’s been amazing,” he said. “Everyone is so professional. The director is super knowledgeable. We have a fantastic director of photography. And everyone is so friendly. It’s a great atmosphere, because everybody believes in the movie and wants to get it done. They’re relaxed but focused. The perfect balance.”<br /> The production is scheduled to film in the Delray area until the middle of September and post-production should be finished by the end of January, in time for the producers to start shopping it around the film festival circuit by next summer and fall.<br /> “At the end of the day we’re just happy to be doing a film here in Delray, which most of us call home,” LaQua said. “We’ve been really happy with all the support we’ve had from local governments, local businesses and local talent. We’re really excited about this project.” ;</p></div>Arts: One day was all that was needed for One Yearhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/arts-one-day-was-all-that-was-needed-for-one-year2012-08-01T16:02:52.000Z2012-08-01T16:02:52.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960396269,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960396269,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="360" alt="7960396269?profile=original" /></a><em>Justin Hearn used a DSLR camera to shoot his short film One Year. It was produced in less than a day, as part of a contest called 24HourFilmRace. <strong>Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p>
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<p><strong>By Ron Hayes</strong><br /> <br />On your mark ... Get set ... Make a movie!<br />At exactly 10 p.m. on May 18, the rules appeared on Justin Hearn’s laptop.<br />His mission, should he choose to accept it, was to create a video in less than 24 hours.<br />The video could last no longer than four minutes. It had to be based on the theme of “One.” It had to feature a character listening to music. It had to include the number 1. And it had to be uploaded by 10 p.m. on May 19.<br />In cities all over the world, more than 750 video teams were receiving the same instructions for the “24HourFilmRace,” sponsored by HTC One, the Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer.<br />On June 27, when the winners were announced from the stage of Miami’s Colony Theater, Hearn’s submission, One Year, was named second runner-up in that city’s division, chosen from 25 titles that qualified for screening.<br />It wasn’t the Academy Award for Best Picture, but of those 750 entries, it was the only one shot in Highland Beach. “I shot it at my parents’ house, and on the beach there,” says Hearn, 30, of Delray Beach. And he didn’t need 24 hours.<br />When the instructions appeared on his iPad, Hearn was waiting at the Barnes & Noble booksellers on Glades Road, along with his crew and actors Marc Castellano, Carolina Chang and Adam Goldberg. They tossed around ideas, got a sense of what they might do — and went home.<br />At 9 the next morning, they gathered at his parents’ house.<br />“We finished by noon,” he recalls, “and I edited from 1 to 4 p.m. I couldn’t find the right sound effect for a fist punch, but for a 24-hour piece, I’m pretty satisfied with it.”<br />One Year (<a href="http://hearnstudios.tumblr.com">http://hearnstudios.tumblr.com</a>) is a vaguely surreal, beautifully eerie episode that begins when a young man is awakened by a phone call that seems to imply he has only one year to live. What it lacks in linear narrative it more than makes up for in dreamlike cinematography. The colors are thin, not quite black and white, but not full color, either.<br />“I used a process called bleach-bypass,” Hearn explains. “It’s a software for color grading.”<br />Clearly, this is not a novice filmmaker’s first effort.<br />Hearn grew up in Boca Raton, earned a degree in computer animation at Florida Atlantic University, attended film school at New York University and has taught film and television production at Atlantic High School in Delray Beach.<br />He’s the staff videographer at Lynn University, responsible for producing short films for the school’s website, YouTube and other marketing purposes.<br />“I have pretty much total freedom at Lynn,” he says. “I was able to create a video for our memorial to the students who were lost in the Haiti earthquake, and my next project is to do one on the October presidential debate we’re hosting.<br />He’s also done freelance work for Maxim and Men’s Health magazines, as well as the Billboard Latin Music Awards in Miami. “But my dream is to be a director of photography for independent films,” he says. “I love The Sopranos, The Wire, Mad Men ... I love stories about morally gray characters.”<br />In the meantime, though, he’s now added three minutes, 30 seconds of fiction to his documentary experience.<br />“It was just a fun thing to do,” he says. “It didn’t feel like work, but making a documentary is a lot easier than making an interesting narrative film.”<br />And there’s been one reward beyond his second runner-up finish:<br />“I got asked to do my first wedding.” </p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960396671,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960396671,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="360" alt="7960396671?profile=original" /></a> <em>To see Justin’s video, visit: hearnstudios.tumblr.com</em><br /><br /></p></div>Parker filmed in Ocean Ridgehttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/parker-filmed-in-ocean-ridge2011-09-28T21:00:00.000Z2011-09-28T21:00:00.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><em><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960347686,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960347686,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="373" alt="7960347686?profile=original" /></a></em></p>
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<p><strong>See more photos from the <a href="http://thecoastalstar.ning.com/photo/photo/slideshow?albumId=2331112:Album:53568">Island Drive</a> shoot.</strong></p>
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<p><em>Island Drive in Ocean Ridge became the set for the filming of a major motion picture Oct. 23. Residents (below) followed instructions to stay out of the shots while actors Jennifer Lopez and Jason Statham (left) filmed scenes from Parker, directed by Taylor Hackford. <strong>Photos by Tim Stepien</strong></em></p>
<p><em><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960348657,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960348657,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="576" alt="7960348657?profile=original" /></a><br /></strong></em></p></div>From teaching turtle to film star, in the snap of a flipperhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/from-teaching-turtle-to-film2010-11-03T16:00:00.000Z2010-11-03T16:00:00.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p style="text-align:center;"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960309273,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="" /></p>
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<span style="font-size:11pt;">By Mary Jane Fine</span><br />
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">From the outset, it was clear that FeeBee possessed star quality, a certain <i>je ne sais quoi</i> that set her apart from all the rest. She had vitality, drive, oodles of personality. And not even Dakota Fanning debuted at so tender an age.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Truth be told, though, you’d have to classify her as a prima donna. And a Caretta caretta, world’s largest hard-shell turtle: a loggerhead.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Hers is the beaky face that graces the poster for <i>Turtle: The Incredible Journey</i>, the 81-minute documentary scheduled for a screening and cocktail reception on Tuesday, Nov. 9, at the Crest Theatre in Delray Beach. Proceeds from the event will help the FAU Sea Turtle Research Program buy environmental monitoring devices and an aquatic filtering system and benefit turtles everywhere.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">The film follows the life of a loggerhead from hatchling to maturity. It’s a perilous, quarter-century, cross-the-Atlantic slog packed with more thrill-’em, kill-’em adventure than any 10 episodes of <i>Sea Hunt</i>.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Honesty prompts the movie’s scientific adviser, Dr. Jeannette Wyneken, to offer up a little behind-the-scenes secret: during the 2007 filming, FeeBee had more than a few stand-ins. “It was multiple turtles,” says Wyneken, an associate professor of biological sciences at FAU and one of the world’s leading turtle biologists. “Like Lassie; there were multiple Lassies.”</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Much of the film, in fact, was shot in glass tanks, right here, at FAU’s turtle lab, tucked amid the flora and fauna and nature trails and educational buildings of Boca Raton’s Gumbo Limbo Nature Center.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">When it isn’t playing film set, and even when it is, the lab is the site for multiple projects. Inside, rows of chest-high blue tubs act as a mini-ocean for the turtles, each afloat in its own pastel container. They are, Wyneken says, former Easter baskets — non-toxic plastic, of course — from which her students laboriously yanked off the handles.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">On a recent Saturday afternoon, Wyneken’s associate, Dr. Kate Mansfield, is sitting out back on a concrete walk, hunched over a palm-sized turtle, a tube of silicone adhesive and a solar-powered satellite tag, about the size of pencil-box pencil sharpener, which she is affixing to the top of the turtle’s carapace.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">This turtle is one of a group awaiting release, the next day, into the Atlantic. Each time the tag is above the water line, its antenna will send VHF signals to a NOAA satellite. Collected data gets sent back to the lab. “We pitch ’em in the ocean and wait for them to call home,” Wyneken deadpans.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">A second lab project hopes to gauge turtles’ color sensitivity. It matters. What if, say, a fishing line dangles colorful enticements, intended for fish, but lures an intrigued turtle instead?</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Both movie and lab projects are, ultimately, about understanding conservation: “We can’t protect [turtles] if we don’t know where they are or what they’re doing,” says Wyneken.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Even as a kid, Jeannette Wyneken hung out with turtles. The dime store variety, the sort that usually expired of dehydration under the sofa. But not hers. She had one that lived to be 29.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">FeeBee was about 4 months old when Wyneken turned her over to marine conservationist Dr. Kirt Rusenko, a man who can easily rattle off this year’s nesting numbers: 577 loggerheads (the best in the last 10 years), 131 greens, and 15 leatherbacks.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">It was Rusenko who elevated FeeBee from educational display turtle to film star. “Probably because she was the most aggressive, so she had the most personality,” he says. “She wasn’t easy to handle. She was slapping you with her flippers, peeing on you, trying to bite you.”</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Rusenko’s grad student and employee Cody Mott learned that, up close and painfully. When Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Nick Stringer and his crew shot an in-the-lab<br /> “night” scene, using a black cloth festooned with bio-optic “stars,” it was Cody who entered the tank, held onto FeeBee’s butt and shoved her toward the underwater camera. She turned around, swam the other way and bit Cody on her way back.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">There are easier things than explaining Take Two to a turtle.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Alas, as many a leading lady has learned, the spotlight shines but briefly. FeeBee was 6 years and 4 months old when released, in 2008, into Indian River Lagoon, near Sebastian Inlet. Her battery-powered satellite tag quit a year later, when she was off the coast of Boston, en route most probably toward the Azores and the Canary Islands and West Africa. With luck she’s expected home, to the beach where she was born, in two decades or so, to lay her own clutches of eggs, whereupon the cycle will begin anew. <span><br /></span></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">For now, FeeBee has far less to worry about from film critics than from other potential predators — sharks or killer whales or, most especially, fishermen. Not from audiences.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">“The turtle story is pretty compelling’ Wyneken says. “They are ancient animals who have been around longer than we have. You’re looking not only at where the turtle goes, but how things have changed over time.”</span></p>
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<p style="text-align:center;" class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size:11pt;">Turtle: The Incredible Journey</span></i></p>
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<p style="text-align:center;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Tuesday, Nov. 9</span></p>
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<p style="text-align:center;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Cocktail reception: 6:30 p.m.</span></p>
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<p style="text-align:center;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Crest Theatre, Old School Square, Delray Beach</span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;" class="MsoNormal">Ticket prices start at $100.<br /></p>
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<p style="text-align:center;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">For information, call Avy Weberman 561-297-0007 or email aweberman@fau.edu</span></p></div>Classic film, theater options expanding in Boca Ratonhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/classic-film-theater-options2010-09-30T19:30:00.000Z2010-09-30T19:30:00.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p class="MsoNormal"></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Despite economic challenges, there are are two new venues on Boca Raton’s arts scene. A completely new art film complex is opening at the end of the month at Florida Atlantic University, and Lynn University’s new theater continues to expand its programming in its first full season.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Take the arrival of Living Room Theatres, four 50-seat luxury screening rooms at FAU, slated to open Oct. 29. By day, they will be used for the school’s film study program, but at night and on weekends they will open to the public with state-of-the-art, digitally projected foreign, independent and classic films.</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">“In hard times, people need something to entertain them and take their minds away,” explains Living Room co-owner Diego Rimoch. At a ticket price expected to be $9, $6 for seniors and students, “This is really a premium experience at a bargain price,” he adds.</span></p>
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The ever-buoyant Jan McArt, director of theater program development at Lynn University, concedes that “all arts organizations are feeling a strain andstress.” Still, she is in the early stages of booking the new 750-seat, $14.3million Wold Performing Arts Center, open on campus since March, and is busy“keeping prices very, very reasonable and improving the quality and the<span style="font-size:11pt;">popularity of my attractions.”</span>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">She may be in academia, but she has the instincts of a commercial producer. “I think nonprofit, but I know that the bottom line has to be met.”</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Run without public grants, the facility relies completely on ticket sales for one- and two-night concert events and on private donors. “I’ve been very fortunate in getting some very loyal sponsors who have been with me since the very first show that I did here,” says McArt, the former dinner theater producer turned academic. “There is definitely an atmosphere of the arts out there that is at least holding its own.”</span></p>
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