One
of the unique things about the Great Lakes Film Association is its home, Erie,
Pennsylvania. Our forty-mile slice of Lake Erie waterfront bears no
resemblance to the major urban centers of Pittsburgh or Philadelphia, being
entirely low-rise and extremely leafy; indeed you hardly realize you are
downtown until you find yourself in the shady park-like town square, on 6th
Street between the main thoroughfares of Peach and State streets. There are
several places of cultural interest in the city, all within walking distance
of our festival, several museums devoted to history, art and science; among
these, the Erie Maritime Museum has a fascinating display on the geological
and ecological development of the Great Lakes and also focuses on warships of
different periods; the elegant US Brig Niagara is usually moored outside and
is part of the museum.
Undoubtedly,
Erie's main attraction is the elongated comma-shaped peninsula of Presque Isle
State Park, which bends east from its narrow neck three miles west of downtown
until it almost touches the city's northernmost tip. The park is maintained as
a nature preserve and has wide sandy beaches good for swimming, backed by
thick woods offering a series of trails.
Erie
is perfect with all of it’s historic and picturesque locations, it is also
ideal for filming, able to give the real look of any location around the world
at a much lower budget cost for the struggling filmmaker.
If
there is anything as universal as the ageless storytelling of motion pictures,
it’s the music that makes up life’s soundtrack..
From founding the Great Lakes Music Video Festival to simply working with independent musicians helping to advance music as an art, the association has worked with many local, national, and international musicians over the years. Matty B. & The Dirty Pickles; Phantasm; Trevor Huster; Karen Jeffries; Starfish; Lake Trout; Bedouin Soundclash; DJ Boogs; Hello Kitty Death Squad; DJ The Real Truth; Digital Database; The Dogs; The Killerinas; Duppy Conqueror; Chaka; One World Tribe; Hayden Sayers Band; Greg Ropp; The Void; 5 Empty Chambers; Telefonics: Canadian Friday: Mans Room Band; Black Rose Diary; Coffin Bangers; East Ave.; snmnmnm; Johnson Big Band: Joe Pops Weirdo Theater; GG Allin’s band, The Murder Junkies; Big Mac Blues Band; Rodger Montgomery Blues Band; Blue Fire; Orphean Son; Face Down In High Water; The Bryan Burton Band; The Trashed; Darth Johnzo; Singing For Supper; The Earthquakers; Dj Dollar Bill; Professor Small; Final Rest; Terry English of” Night Shift”; Sonic Medusa; The Sound City Saints; The Cryers; TERRY SYLVESTER formerly of "THE HOLLIES"; IAN MITCHELL of "THE BAY CITY ROLLERS"; The Laundromat ; Mala Sangre ; Brain Dead Happy ; Argent Heart; Pete Best, original drummer for The Beatles; Who Bleeds 1st ; Pangaea; Anti Atom; Ramming Speed; The Coffin Riders; Local 80; Otis Freak Tent; Dave Owns; Mystic Flotation Device; Midnight Jacks and Bad Habits to name only a few of the performers that we have worked with.
The
Great Lakes Film Association works to facilitate the works of established
artists and to bring to light the talents of those artists who have yet to
be discovered. Every art organization has their own goals and purposes in
mind and must work toward those goals and purposes. Each and every
organization operates independently of the others.
One
of the goals this association is to pull together all of the arts
organizations in the Erie area for the greater good of the arts community.
We
at the Great Lakes Film Association believe the members of the arts
community should work as a family. When one organization has a performance
or show, we all should pull our resources and help to promote that show,
collectively, and finally creating not an arts industry, or even an arts
community, but an arts FAMILY.
The
arts are here to open minds to what can be achieved in a short time period
and with even a small or 0 budget. The arts are not just for the wealthy,
red carpet type of people, but also for the guy that lives next door to
you with a wife and 5 kids and wakes up every morning to head off to the
shop, plant, or the restaurant or store. These are the people that we try
to introduce to the arts in general.
The
Great Lakes Film Association has a strong commitment to our community. It
is our belief that no organization can prosper without the contribution of
the community, and likewise, no community can grow without the
participation of organizations and business within.
It
is in this spirit that the Great Lakes Film Association has, and shall
always participate in events that better the culture, and the arts
community of our region. Presenting film exhibitions, each year we take
part in local arts and music festivals such as ”Celebrate Erie” and
“Blue Cat Stew.”
Throughout
the year we also host benefit fundraisers for such organizations as the
Hospice of Metropolitan Erie; Gifts for Kids; Tickets for Kids and Unity
in Edinboro church.
In
2007, Great Lakes Film Association bond together with Gorman Media, The
Roadhouse Theatre, and Local Filmmakers for "Films for Food", 24
hours of local films. Raising over $2,000 worth of food for the Second Harvest
Food Bank.
The
Great Lakes Film Association takes great pride and pleasure in being able
to participate and host these community events and fundraisers,
contributing to these organizations, and all those people that are
benefited.
With
minor exceptions, Erie's theaters virtually ignore foreign, independent
and Documentary films despite the fact that there is a large art and
cultural community in Erie County. The Great Lakes Film Association will
continue to fill that void. Offering alternative cinema allowing the
public a chance to see these movies locally, keeping the crowd that
normally travels to Pittsburgh and Cleveland here at home.
In
the coming years we will further pursue our mission in several ways which
include, expanding our educational outreach to include, establishing the
first film arts educational program in our area, organizing a grant
endowment program for not only the cinematic arts but for all forms of
art, negotiate additional film distribution packages for film makers, and
launch a genre-specific international Student Film Festival.
Again,
with extremely rare exceptions, not one theater or college in the local
Erie area offers the public screenings of classic movies, and none of them
have ever presented an entire night dedicated to one particular genre of
film or an evening featuring the work of one particular filmmaker or star.
The Great Lakes Film Association will endeavor to make this a thing of the
past, presenting classic and forgotten films of all genres to the people
of this area.
While
focusing on education in the cinematic arts, the Great Lakes Film and Arts
Institute will also instruct individuals in arts of all kinds such as
music, painting, sculpture, and arts of an abstract nature. In doing this
we will overall enhance the arts climate in general in this region.
Our
agenda would include weekly workshops instructed by such film industry
professionals as world famous make-up artist Tom Savini; director Bobby
Logan, most famous for the Naked Gun Films; director Oscar Daniels,
who’s credits include Among Thieves; Academy Award-winning make-up
effects wizard Stan Winston; Stuart Freeborn, known for his excellent
make-up artistry on the first Star Wars trilogy, 2001: A Space Odyssey and
Superman, and Sarah Monzani, who over the last 20 years, has captivated
audiences with looks that she has created for dozens of acclaimed
Hollywood films, including The Next Best Thing, Angela's Ashes, Alien,
Midnight Express, interview with a Vampire, and Quest for Fire. She has
also teamed up with Max Factor.
The
classes offered at the Great Lakes Film and Arts Institute will not be
limited to directing and make-up but will encompass all areas of
filmmaking. Which would include editing, cinematography, lighting,
pre-production, postproduction, sound, visual effects, FX effects,
screenwriting, animation, film interpretation, theology, casting, and of
course not forgetting acting itself. The post-production facilities would
be intended to fully train students in editing and sound in both
traditional and non-linear editing systems and equipment, and eventually
separating the concentrations with the latter incorporating sound design,
sound effects creation and sound recording.
Ultimately
we are working to establish the first and only independent film and
entertainment complex of its kind in Northwest Pennsylvania. It would be
at this venue that that the Great Lakes Film Association would host all of
our annual events including our proposed educational programs, fund
raisers, and administrative offices. This complex would also bring to this
region the first complete, state of the art sound stage facilities which
would be available to all independent film makers. This facility would
house a state-of-the-art training sound stage film and video production
complex that embraces a variety of filmmaking functions in a totally
integrated and dynamic setting. This facility will bring in business and
finances for all.
The
62,036-square-foot film and video complex will house various production,
post-production and exhibition activities, and would serve as a "back
lot environment" where exterior scenes with a variety of looks can be
filmed. The village would include several key buildings that are fashioned
in a range of architectural styles and facades from Main Street, USA to
the Chicago "El." One of the key objectives of the complex is to
build facilities that have a range of scale from the large block sound
stage buildings to smaller structures, such as a brick classroom building.
Included in this complex would be a 4,000 square feet, specialized,
state-of-the-art music recording stage, large enough to accommodate an
entire 100-piece symphony orchestra, designed to record live music for
inclusion in film productions.
Electrical
and other utility outlets would be staged throughout the film and video
complex so that filmmakers can easily support their equipment without
running long lines of cable. The entire inner compound is designed so that
exterior filming can take place undisturbed, with access to the facilities
available around the perimeter of the filming area.
Three
sound stages varying in size from 8,000 square feet to 4,000 square feet
to 2,500 square feet would provide professional production environments
for film and video projects. The main stage shall boast a
36-feet-to-the-grid workspace, and an overhead lighting grid.
Production
volumes in the film and video industry for production companies have
exceeded $60 million over the past year. A $20-million increase in
production is expected as a result of growing demand in the independent
film industry. Each large film production requires a ‘cast of hundreds'.
Every
$10 million in annual production volume generates about 110 film industry
jobs. For a typical production, about 30 per cent of the budget is spent
on services such as hotels, food, vehicle rentals, construction materials,
equipment rental and insurance. For example, based on a $25 million
production, budgets would fund 4,400 hotel rooms, 63,000 catered meals,
$310,000 in vehicle rentals and $1.25 million in equipment rentals.
It
is in all these ways and more that we hope to continue advancing and
enhancing independent film in both our region, and through out the world.
