The Acorn Penny | A short film of hope by Tiffany Ann Laufer

The Acorn Penny to screen at the Charlotte Film Festival September 2010

2010-06-26T08:55:00.000-07:00

Sept 20 - 26, 2010 The Acorn Penny has gotten into the Charlotte Film Festival. Screening date to be decided. We are excited to think our short film will now play in Charlotte as well as having won 1st place in Asheville's Twin Rivers Media Festival. Very exciting!

It's a wrap for second Amelia Island Film Festival

2010-03-10T05:57:00.000-08:00

by Michelle Eggers

The second annual Amelia Island Film Festival drew to a close Sunday after showing more than 70 films over three days at four locations in Fernandina Beach. The infant fest garnered submissions from across the globe with an array of genres ranging from comedy to drama to horror.

Most of the films were shorts - under a half-hour. Whether short or long, each film was chosen for the impact of its message.

Organizers said they were happy to have been able to pick from such a large selection of films that were submitted.

Some films hit home, like Jacksonville Beach resident Josh Hansbrough's "One Village Same Ocean," a 45-minute documentary exposing the negative impact of cruise ships on Mayport's waters.

Other films were more pressing, like Tiffany Laufer's short film titled "The Acorn Penny," which guides viewers through the metaphorical journey of a young African refugee and her magical acorn. Laufer said she originally hoped to produce a feature-length film on genocide in the Congo, but because of the immediacy of the issue, created a short instead.

"This message is too important to wait," Laufer said, "I knew that I needed to get it out to people as quickly as possible."

Visiting filmmakers were happy as well with Fernandina Beach as a location for the film festival.

Filmmaker Brett Carlson, whose comic short "Take My Wife" won the AIFF Best Comedy Sid Sax Memorial Award, traveled from Los Angeles to attend the event and has fond childhood memories of Amelia Island.

"I remember the family spending a few weekends here as a kid," Carlson said, "and I loved it."

Carlson's mother and executive producer of the film, Dimity Carlson, expressed equal excitement. "The whole community has been so welcoming and supportive of the filmmakers, she said, adding "This has been an excellent film festival."

Such praises are good news to festival organizers, who hope to expand in the future by appealing to broader markets and attracting more filmmakers to Fernandina Beach.

"This festival stands out. It's not just regional," says local author and film festival board member Nadine Vaughn. "We're looking to grow."

Don't fret if you missed the films, all films showcased in the festival are available at the Nassau County Library.

IMDB page now up and running

2009-11-10T12:03:00.000-08:00

We have put up our IMDB page with all our credits and poster image. We will be updating the page with more photos soon. It takes awhile to work with imdb though they are getting better as they grow. Our next goal - TWITTER! With the film festivals approaching in January we are aiming to keep in touch on all levels with our support groups in each city. Yeah technology!

Oprah Picks 'Say You're One of Them'

2009-09-21T06:54:00.000-07:00

Just read this - wow!

Charlotte Abbott -- Publishers Weekly, 9/18/2009 10:01:00 AM

Broadcasting live from Central Park under sunny blue skies, Oprah Winfrey announced that Say You’re One of Them by Nigeran author Uwem Akpan is the first story collection to be featured in her book club. Each of the five stories in the collection “left me gasping,” Winfrey said, in explaining why she chose the book. read on

The Official Film Festival Poster

2009-09-21T06:49:00.000-07:00

Behind the Scenes | Creative House Studios Greenscreen

2009-07-27T08:10:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Peter Samson at Creative House Studios for putting together this great behind the scenes video highlighting our shoot and their great studio. Check it out here.

Giving Cleveland and Ohio a Chance | The Acorn Penny

2009-07-08T07:23:00.000-07:00

June 15th we began filming the short film The Acorn Penny here in Cleveland Ohio. It's a short film about a young girl searching for her future - in following an unlikely guide she finds herself taken back in time, brought back to reality and then presented her future - all in an afternoon.

We found that Cleveland holds a myriad of beautiful locations some readily apparent and others hidden to only locals. Even though Ohio has no competitive film tax incentives we believe Ohio (and my hometown Cleveland) deserves a chance whether or not the politicians in Columbus understand our livelihood or not. Filmmaking is hard to understand as a craft because there are so many people involved in the process and until you work on a film set you won't fully comprehend how much goes into it.

There are talented crews here in town but unfortunately many of them have left for Los Angeles, New York and recently Michigan and Pittsburgh all due to other states voting in film production tax incentives. Just last month I worked on a show where I had met a new production assistant and in talking I said 'What's next for you?' I was curious, he seemed motivated and ready to learn - he replied 'Oh, I'm moving to LA. ' How could I blame him? I couldn't for in the end I'll probably have to move back there as well. At least not for a few more months. We'll see.

Picture by: Tom Gavan

Understanding our Storyboards

2009-07-01T06:42:00.000-07:00

Just finished shooting and now for editing. Our storyboards were blown up onto show card and then placed on a Cstand so we could put them close to our camera and slowly check off each shot as we finished them. Next time I should find a professional storyboard artist for some of my stick figures were hard to decipher on set.

More picts to follow!

DAY 1: SHOOTING has begun

2009-06-17T10:17:00.000-07:00

R-L: TJ Hellmuth (DP), Mark Conchie (Camera PA), Tiff Laufer (Director), Tom Gavan (Dolly Grip) & Jada Young (Actress) Photo ©2009 William C. Laufer

We've just finished our first offical day of shooting - we were lucky to have the Cleveland Museum of Natural History in our backyard to provide the amazingly beautiful and historic backdrop for our film. We started in the Kirtland Hall of Prehistoric Life and then moved into a smaller gallery from there. It seemed like a quick day, literally flying by. It's quite a dance once you start shooting - trying to balance actors, camera movement, script and story ideas all into one shot.
I storyboarded the sequence but even then once you get onto set there are adjustments and modifications that continue to work their way into the shot, hopefully it only improves the shot and adds more life to it. We have a great crew so I know we'll be able to get our shots and make our days once we resume shooting. Yeah!

Our first shot was of this amazingly beautiful Tyrannosaurus Rex, here is some information on her from CMNH's website:

"Paleontologists have discovered and excavated only about 20 T. rexes, all of them from North America in Texas, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Alberta and Saskatchewan. Rancher Kathy Wankel discovered the original specimen of this T. rex in 1988 in the badlands of eastern Montana while out on a walk.

She brought the find to the attention of Jack Horner, curator of paleontology at the Museum of the Rockies (MOR) in Bozeman, Montana. He led a crew that excavated the site in 1989 and 1990.

The bones of this specimen were prepared between 1991 and 1993 and are now on display at MOR. The original mount is nearly 90 percent complete and includes the first intact forelimb of a T. rex ever found."

Amazing play about the DRC Crisis - RUINED

2009-06-17T10:11:00.000-07:00

RUINED, the Tony award winning play.

From their website:

A world-premiere co-production with the Goodman Theatre.
Previews begin January 21, 2009
· STAGE I ·

From Lynn Nottage, the Obie Award-winning author of such plays as Fabulation and Intimate Apparel, comes this haunting, probing work about the resilience of the human spirit during times of war. Set in a small mining town in Democratic Republic of Congo, this powerful play follows Mama Nadi, a shrewd businesswoman in a land torn apart by civil war. But is she protecting or profiting by the women she shelters? How far will she go to survive? Can a price be placed on a human life? Directing is Kate Whoriskey, who staged Ms. Nottage’s Fabulation at Playwrights Horizons.

Fascinating look into a certain life | Fighting Congo's Poachers

2009-04-03T08:34:00.000-07:00

Jonas Eriksson, a son of Swedish missionaries, grew up in Congo (DRC). He spent his childhood in remote parts of the Congo before studying biology. Jonas specialised in analysing bonobo DNA; while collecting the samples he traversed large parts of the Central Congolese rainforest - mostly on foot or by bicycle. Meanwhile Jonas has focused on conservations issues, mainly patrolling the Salonga National park to keep out poachers. This video is part of a feature that appeared in Nature (Vol.447, 7 June 2007, pp. 635-636).

civil war in Africa

2009-03-23T11:12:00.000-07:00

(YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP/Getty Images)

Pregnant women are reflected in a puddle as they stand in line to receive birth kits from a local NGO at a camp for Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in Kibati, north of the provincial capital city of Goma, on November 12, 2008. With a “schizophrenic” mandate and a lack of troops and logistics, UN peacekeepers in Democratic Republic of Congo are being accused of powerlessness in the face of conflict, diplomats and analysts say. Despite the presence of 5,800 peacekeepers in Nord-Kivu province, rebels led by Laurent Nkunda have come as close as 15 kilometres (10 miles) to the provincial capital Goma.

Inspiration in film

2009-02-12T09:12:00.000-08:00

In looking at other films for inspiration, my favorite film recently has been Trois couleurs: Bleu (1993) Written by: Krzysztof Kieslowski and Krzysztof Piesiewicz and directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski.

In this film I loved the sense of internal isolation, of being inside the mind of our protagonist. In the beginning of the film there is little dialogue - mostly people are 'talking to' our lead character while she slowly put the pieces together that were her life. In 'The Acorn Penny' I am most excited about showing rather than telling in the strictest of the sense.

'Sweet Sixteen' Directed by Ken Loach, Written by Paul Laverty

To me this film is brilliant. I think what I am responding to so strongly is Ken Loach's use of realism, to include his actors. Probably, this is the missing piece in so many films, the reality of living, that acting is just that. I have never considered myself an elaborate critic but in going to film school I mostly attained production skills and disecting films is new to me in many ways.

Amélie Directed by: Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet; Written by Jean-Pierre Jeunet & Guillaume Laurant

When I was living in LA I went and saw this film three times in the theater. I remember leaving the theater reaffirming my utter and total love of french filmmakers. It was a perfect balance of so many themes, storylines, interests, colors...the list goes on and on. As for inspiring 'The Acorn Penny' I hope to bring a sense of hope and the idea that if you try and make things change, you go out on a limb and sacrifice comfort and security that the universe, the world opens in unseen ways to your benefit - whether or not that benefit is an open heart, a new friend, a different view of the world or person, that somehow we grow.

The Acorn Basket

2009-02-09T09:14:00.000-08:00

Amazing to find an acorn basket in my wanderings around Bar Harbor at the Abbe Museum.

Working on an image

2009-01-26T15:23:00.000-08:00

Where does story start?

2009-01-21T15:09:00.000-08:00

The most important part of telling a story is to decide where to begin.
Where does the first step take place? Remember when you were a kid and you made stories up? Can you remember them? If you're lucky maybe your Dad or Mom kept them in a drawer for you to find one day. Find them - look and see, where did you begin.