Last night, August 4th, the award ceremony for the Nashville 48 hour film project was held at the Belcourt Theater.  This is the 3rd year Fighting with Forks has submitted a film, and we had expectations of at least winning the Fantasy genre, which is the genre we drew.  As the awards progressed, a few of us (namely me) were a little discouraged that we only got 1st Runner Up in the genre of Fantasy, but I was excited that Ellen Tift got Best Supporting Actress.

Let me stop and say this: There were some brilliant films this year.  The day after the screening, I raved about 3 or 4 of the films in our group that completely floored me.  Although I thought we had made a good film, I thought many of these other films were at least as good or maybe better than ours.  When some of those films weren’t winning some of the prizes, I was a little shocked, but I understood that I hadn’t seen 3/4 of the films.

At the end of the awards, they presented 4 films. Honorable Mention, 2nd Runner Up, 1st Runner Up, and Best Overall Film.  By this time in the ceremony, I was excited for the other teams, but, even without seeing the other Fantasy film that beat us, I was still dissapointed.  I really didn’t expect anything, and my main focus was figuring out what I was going to have for a snack when I got home.

There was a pause, and the announcers said “And now the winner of Best Film,” and they pointed to the screen.  And on the screen, larger than life, was the name of our film and our team name, Fighting with Forks. Shock.  It was so surreal, that I just sat there in shock, thinking, ‘wait, someone screwed up here.’  But our whole team that was present (Ellen Tift, Jamie Roberts, John Marshall, Charlie Rauh, and myself) Jumped up and started screaming.  I’m trying to decide if we were more shocked or the rest of the audience.

Let me explain: In previous years, you would see a team win tons of stuff, and then when they won Best Film, you weren’t surprised.  We had only won a few awards, one of them being a made up award for Best Death Slide, so it was a complete shock.  I felt like we were at the Acadamy Awards, and when they announce Best Film, it’s a film that wasn’t even nominated.

Regardless, we were elated, and I’m still on a crazy high from the evening events.  We are completely honored and humbled at this award, and we thank the Nashville Film community for pushing us to do better and better.  And for making great films.

What does this mean? Our film is going to show in the Nashville Film Festival, plus our film goes on to compete against all the other Best Film winners of other cities.  Maybe more?  Who knows?

And most of all, thanks to the Fighting with Forks team.  You kids kicked ass.

The 48 film project is upon us again. Tonight, a large group of people will be joining me to help generate an idea for a film based on a genre randomly drawn, a character, a prop, and a line of dialog. We have 48 hours to write, film, edit, and finish said film, complete with original music.

Check out our Vimeo page for past films.

My goal is to twitter about the goings-on as much as possible here. I’ll probably be pretty consumed, though.

We have many hopes and aspirations, but mainly, we just want to have fun, which we always do.  I don’t plan on sleeping for a few days.  Several of us will recap our experience via our blogs, so look for that, if you’re interested.

This year, as in previous years, i’ll be one of the writers, one of 2 producers, and the director.  This is my favorite time of summer.

Artist Reception in Downtown Nashville
We love our art and artists and want to share them with you!

You’re Invited To An
A R T I S T / R E C E P T I O N
Historic Stahlman Building In Downtown Nashville
Thursday, June 18th 5:00 – 7:00 PM

Artist Reception for Beth Inglish, Motke Dapp, and Will Wilson.
See original works by all three artists including paintings and photographs.
For more information on these artists, please visit the following websites:

http://www.binglishart.com/
http://www.motkedapp.com/
http://www.willwilson.com/

Hosted By:
Management Solutions Group
211 Union Street, Suite 102 Nashville, TN 37201
RSVP at 615-320-0039 or by emailing Rachel@msgnashville.com

Map and Directions at www.binglishart.com/exhibits.html

Hello.

If you’ve visted motke.net, you may have noticed that I have been busy.  Yep.

1. I’m about 65,000 words into my novel.  Excitement abounds.  This is my 2nd novel (the first one, which I wrote twice, isn’t very good, but you have to start somewhere, right?).  I wrote the first one in 4 months, then rewrote it in 8 months.  I’ve been working on this one for a year and a half now.  It’s been much more grueling, but better because of it, at least I think so.

2. I put a 140 character story on Twitter every day.  You should follow if you’re not already.

3. I’m not painting as much right now, but i’m sure I will pick it up again soon.  I just need some new reasons to paint.  Painting can get expensive if you have no art show or whatever to show said art.  I do have several pieces for sale, and I’m still doing commissions if you’re interested.

If you like fish sticks, then know that you’re not alone.  Thousands of people like them.

After years of having a mediocre, quickly thrown together website, I have finally dedicated some time to a new website.

Meet : http://www.motke.net

I’m painting a bunch of stuff now, so I hope to add new paintings soon.  Some of these are for sale, if you’re interested.  I’m going to try to post the dimensions on the site for each painting, but if you have questions, feel free to contact me.

Just got back from the first Saturday art crawl/gallery crawl that happens in Nashville every, well, every first Saturday of every month.  I have a few things to say on this:

1. It was nice to see those of you that I know.  Keep up the good work.

2. I visited a few galleries that I had never been to.  There are some cool galleries in Nashville.

3. I didn’t realize that the Arcade has a 2nd floor.

4. Eastern Block, who played in the Arcade, sounded great.  Good work.

5. Listen carefully: Harry had some pieces for sale at Estel Gallery (which is very cool, btw). A few of them were $12,000.  Do you hear me?  $12K.  Have you seen his work?  I saw some good stuff tonight, but nothing was worth that kind of change, let alone Harry’s stuff.  I wonder if he was laughing while he put the price on those pieces.  Madness.

Ok.  That’s all I have for tonight.  My new website is up, but still needs a few finishing touches.  I’ll make a bunch of noise about it on Monday or something.

Hugs.

Ok.  So I’m busy.

I’m about 30k words into the newest novel.  It’s very different than the others.

I’m painting quite a bit.  I need to post some photos here.

We’re still working on the Whiskerino Documentary.  Fighting with Forks website here.  Whiskerino documentary teaser trailer here.

Also working on some other things.

That’s all for now.

Today is the East Nashville Tomato Fest, which includes many many things, such as an art show, music from 10am to 10pm, food, vendors, and many other things.

I have some pieces in the art show.  At least a piece.  They got so many large pieces this year that they couldn’t hang them all.  Fair enough.  The art will be hanging for several weeks, so if you can’t make it this weekend, you can still see (and buy) the art.

And now, a poem by motke dapp:

blushing flesh
sun-ripened and seed-filled
plucked from a vine
in my backyard

sliced
diced
combined with
olive oil
red wine vinegar
salt
pepper

temperature sensitive tooth
welcomes the concoction
the blend of flavors
the burst of goodness

a small bug
watches

along with the world

Here is the Fighting with Forks 48 hour film from 2008.

2008 Fighting with Forks 48 hour film project.

48 hour film project: Where you write, shoot, edit, and finish a film, start to finish, in 48 hours.

The opening music to Jon Brion’s brilliant soundtrack to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind pulled me from my sleep at 5am Friday morning, reminding me that my car-driving services we needed (wife to the airport). I’m reminded at this point that I won’t be sleeping much over the next several days.

Sleep, a summery:

5am, Friday morning, wake up.
4:45am, Saturday morning, go to sleep.
6:45am, Saturday morning, wake up.
6isham, Sunday morning, doze off.
6:30isham, Sunday morning, wake up, realizing that i’ve missed a few minutes of editing, while Bobby and Mark continue to review and change and add.
10:45pm, Sunday night, go to sleep.

In summery: 2 1/2ish hours of sleep in a 66 hour time period. I wish my body could handle that more often. I think I’d get a lot done. Of course, I was useless for much of that time. Paul made me buy Monster, which maybe helped. I’ll tell you later.

In this post, you will hear things like:

“Our team was incredibly awesome. I would dare say magical.”
or
“Making a film in 48 hours is so much easier when you have such amazing people to work with. What a fun weekend.”
and
“Our cast and crew has to be among the best of all 48 hour teams. Everyone worked hard, they were professional, and together, we made great art.”
you may even hear
“I don’t know how Paul could keep eating those little pastries in plastic wrapping, but he did.”

We are unable to post the film online for the viewing public until the awards ceremony. That means i can’t tell you where to see it right now. I can tell you that the movie looks great. Due to time constraints (the movie could be no more than 7 min long), the story moves a little quick and, if you don’t pay attention, you could miss something that would make the end seem a touch confusing. Apart from that, I would say we killed it and had a good time doing so.

Our location had a swimming pool. Built in. Did we write that into the script? Yes. Was it a great choice? No question.

Bobby, our DP and Editor, along with one of the founding members of Fighting with Forks, our technical producer, and big fan of canned tuna, had a goal of finishing the film by 5pm, Sunday evening. The film had to be in the hands of the 48 hour people by 7pm. Due to a glitch, which there is almost ALWAYS one, we got the film in at 6:57pm. I did drive the speed limit to the shop, mostly. If i had known it was going to be THAT close, i may have gone a touch faster. I hear that Mark said a prayer.

Everything, from music to acting to behind the scenes crewing to lighting/sounding to writing to everything elseing, was more than anyone could ever hope for.

Mark and I co-directed this year, which really worked out well, I think. I also think we spend too much time together, but there’s nothing i can really do about that.

Read Bobby’s take on the weekend here.

If you have a take or have posted a blog entry, post in the comments.

If you like pie, post in the comments.

One more thing: I’d do it again next weekend.

Next project: Tomato Fest.