"BEASTS" Receives Rooftop Films Filmmakers Fund Grant!

A great day in Court 13 land! It has come to our attention that the Court's new project "BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD" has been blessed with the generosity of Rooftop Films and bestowed their Filmmakers Fund Eastern Effects Equipment Grant!


What does this mean? It means that during production we will be given use of one whole grip truck's worth of equipment (courtesy of Eastern Effects) for free-- a load off our back, for sure.

Rooftop Films is a longtime friend of Court 13, with this only being the latest case of their benevolence. Rooftop saw "GLORY AT SEA" through hard times, awarding us a life-saving grant when money was short, and they've been kind enough to screen many a Court 13 film on many a New York rooftop--including "EGG," "I GET WET," and "GLORY AT SEA." Check out what they're up to at www.rooftopfilms.com.

If you live in New York, you have no excuse not to go see a compelling, hard-to-see movie on a starlit rooftop in Brooklyn. Plus, it's officially Fall now! Outdoor movie weather!

September Court 13 E-mail Update

Here is an email we sent out to all Court 13 supporters. If you're a regular reader of our blog, most of this will not be news to you.

If you'd like to join our e-mail army, please click
HERE.


Hello Court 13 Faithful!

Well it should be no surprise that more than four months have passed since our last "monthly" Court 13 update (The good news is we didn't clog up your inbox though, right?). But don't confuse our lack of communication with inertia, because its source is in fact the opposite: we've actually been busy as bees down here in New Orleans... and so our silence is even less excusable. Let's just get right to the bullet points:


* Benjamin Harold Zeitlin attended the Sundance Directors/Screenwriters Lab in June, in service of the new project, "BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD." The Directors Lab allowed Benh to work out directing challenges his and Lucy's script presents, and workshop certain scenes with talented actors. Benh was grateful to work with Ms. Paula Jai Parker (whom you might recognize from her turn as Craig's girlfriend in the film "Friday"), and Mr. Eddie Rouse (star of Court friend Zack Godshall's film "Low and Behold," and frequent player in the movies of David Gordon Green). Following the Director’s Lab, he and "Beasts" co-writer Lucy Alibar took part in a 2nd Screenwriters Lab to continue workshopping the script.

* In July, Court 13's Josh Penn and Dan Janvey were 2 of 6 fellows selected for the 2009 Sundance Creative Producers Initiative. The initiative was created to support a new generation of emerging indie producers. While in Utah, they took part in the Producer’s Lab, which is designed to develop a producer's creative instincts and to evolve their communication and problem-solving skills. At the labs their mentors included Paul Mezey ("Maria Full of Grace," "Half Nelson"), Jay Van Hoy ("Old Joy," "Treeless Mountain"), Lynette Howell ("Half Nelson," "Phoebe in Wonderland"), and Mary Jane Skalski ("The Visitor," "The Station Agent"). As fellows they also attended the Creative Producing Summit and received grants for further development and pre-production. The fellowship will continue throughout the year as they will receive ongoing creative and strategic support from industry mentors and the Sundance staff, and will attend the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.

* Spike Jonze tapped Court 13’s Ray Tintori to write/direct an adaptation of Shane Jones debut novel “Light Boxes," which Jonze will produce. The book tells the story of a war waged by a group of balloonists against the seemingly endless month of February. As a side note, Court 13 is officially very excited to see Jonze’s new movie, “Where the Wild Things Are”.

* Work continued full steam ahead on "BEASTS": Benh and Lucy got their creative distributaries flowing by spending a writer's retreat on top of a bait shop, in the very bayous where the film takes place and where we aim to shoot. The final script is in its last stages. Meanwhile we continue to scour every Parish, community center, and school system in the great state of Louisiana, looking for that one girl, one special girl, who can fill the very large (but actually very small) shoes of the main part in the film (If you know any half-black Cajun 8 year-olds who can gut a fish and operate a fanboat, please contact michael@court13.com IMMEDIATELY).

* It was unusually hot in May.

* The Court 13 Acting/Moviemaking Program for Young People, or whatever we're calling it today, concluded with the Premiere of each of the three classes' short films at Colton School. Parents applauded, children blushed, fun was had by all. We have been proudly rolling these movies out on the blog the last couple of weeks; the final one was posted a couple days ago--check it out by clicking here. The kids look forward to appearing in the upcoming feature film.

* Ray Tintori's long-awaited music video for MGMT's "Kids" (filmed at Colton and in New Orleans) was released, and a small blogstorm ensued. Click here to see what all the fuss was about.

* Religious war broke out in the comments section of the "Glory at Sea" YouTube page (page 2 is where the fun is). Everyone is being very amiable and tolerant, as is standard practice for YouTube discourse.

* Court 13 Omnimedia's music video for "Evident Utensil," by Chairlift, was nominated for an MTV Video Music Award, for Best Breakthrough Video. Ray directed, Bob Weisz produced and datamoshed. We expect EVERYONE to tune in to the prestigious ceremony this Sunday, to support your favorite Omnimedia organization.

That's it for right now! Development on the film charges ahead, army and weapons will be assembled in winter, and the big sha-bang will go down in early spring. Stay tuned! You can keep slightly less sporadic tabs on us by visiting our blog at court13news.blogspot.com, and you can catch even more news and silly status updates by facebooking us here.


Thanks for your time, and may you have a good harvest season.



Love,

The Court

MOVIE: "Detention = Doom" - by the Wednesday class

As promised, here's the next kids' film- this one from the Wednesday class. It's a horror/psychological thriller/movie about a talking grasshopper. Sort of.



Starring Antonio, Bryonna, Eddie, Nicholas, Ryan, and Terielle.

Court Beasts Sundance / Sundance Courts "Beasts"

As I type these very words, two of the producers of the upcoming "Beasts of the Southern Wild," Dan Janvey and Josh Penn, are on a mountain in the land of the Utes, gleaning knowledge from the independent film world's best and brightest.

Yes, that's right, we've batted for the cycle: after the invaluable chance to attend both the Sundance Screenwriters Lab and the Directors Lab, Court 13 was also accepted into the Sundance Producers Lab! The press release from Sundance has more info:

The Feature Film Creative Producing Lab, a five-day Lab for narrative feature film producers takes place at the Sundance Resort in Utah from July 20-24, 2009, just prior to the [Creative Producing] Summit. The Lab is designed to develop a producer's creative instincts in all stages of film production and to evolve his/her communication and problem-solving skills. The fellows will also attend the Creative Producing Summit, the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, receive ongoing creative and strategic support throughout the year from industry mentors and the Feature Film Program staff, and also grants for further development and pre-production.

Needless to say, we are very very appreciative and humbled by this opportunity--Benh came back from the Directors Lab gushing with praise for what Sundance has set up on that there mountain. We fully intend to jam all over it.

The C13 Acting and Moviemaking School for Young People

In the tradition of our unique community approach to filmmaking, this spring we have introduced the inaugural class of the Court 13 Acting and Moviemaking School for Young People... aka the Court 13 After School Program, aka COURT THIRTEENIES: THE NEXT GENERATION.

Through grass roots outreach into Orleans and Jefferson Parish schools (not to mention flyers at po' boy shops and radio shout-outs on Q93), Court 13 garnered the interest of over 300 young, aspiring actors who came in to audition. From these we selected just 19 who will not only appear in our upcoming feature film "BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD" (in which kids feature prominently), but who have also been attending weekly acting and moviemaking classes at Colton, taught by Court 13. Not only do they get to flex their acting muscles, but they get to learn first hand what it takes to make movies, so they know what's going on when it's shoot time.


Included are a couple exercises we did with the Tuesday class. In the first, we came up with a line for each child, and practiced the idea of multiple takes by having them act the line out in multiple ways. What's included is each of their best takes. The second exercise gave each of them a chance to direct their own scenes: they would tell the actor what they wanted, decide what would happen in each shot, as well as where to place the camera and when to cut.

The classes will culminate with the creation of short films borne of the kids' own ideas--much like the Zeitlin micro-classic "I GET WET." We hope to premiere these short films in a few weeks at Colton with the friends and family of the kids, and share them with you shortly thereafter!

PHOTOS: Location Scouting

As part of preproduction, the Court makes frequent trips south of New Orleans--not only to scout locations, but to conjure inspiration for our next feature film, "BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD."


Naturally we thought we'd share a few of the pictures we've snapped down there, with this here slideshow. Courtesy of the wild lands of Grand Isle, Mamou, Honey Island, Venice, Abbeville, Atchafaleya, Chauvin, Cypermore Point, Des Allmands, Gibson, Isle de Jean Charles, West Pontchartrain, with special guest, the Boomtown Belle.

Actors Confirmed for Sundance Director's Lab!

As announced in a prior post, Court 13's Benh Zeitlin was fortunate enough to be selected for the Sundance Directors Lab for the upcoming Court project, "BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD." A large part of the lab provides Benh the opportunity to workshop the script with some talented actors ideal for the main parts. The parts to be filled in this case include WINK, a high spirited, semi-devoted father and fully devoted crazy man, who wages war against FEMA, mother nature, and the disease in his body; and BATHSHEBA, a no nonsense pedagogue who rules over her schoolchildren with an iron fist and the stunning form of a lady bullfighter.

Recently, the Court received word that its two top choices to workshop these parts would be able to do so with Benh in Utah. Wink and Bathsheba will be rehearsed by.... (drum roll please) EDDIE ROUSE and PAULA JAI PARKER.

Mr. Rouse's credits include "GEORGE WASHINGTON," "UNDERTOW," Zach Godshall's "LOW AND BEHOLD," and "PINEAPPLE EXPRESS."

Ms. Parker's credits include "FRIDAY," "DON'T BE A MENACE TO SOUTH CENTRAL WHILE DRINKING YOUR JUICE IN THE HOOD," "GET ON THE BUS," and "HUSTLE & FLOW."

Needless to say, the Court is extremely excited and humbled to be able to rehearse the script with such fine thespians. We leave you with a clip of the inestimable Ms. Parker, from the cinematic masterpiece "Friday."

"Of Aurochs and Angels... the Refuge of Art."

The new Court 13 project "BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD" is a tale of many things: fathers and daughters, drunks and cowards, pirated ferry boats, hallowed half-time shows, ramen noodles and gator grits. But on a certain, larger scale, it's also about the beginning of the End. And the agent of the apocalypse in this case is none other than a fearsome, beastly creature called an Aurochs.

Long extinct, the aurochs has thawed from its icy grave thanks to the global thermometer's steady climb, to rise again and wreak havoc on Canada... and then our young protagonist's beloved Southern environs.

Sound far-fetched? The stuff of mere fantasy? I present the following video, from National Geographic. Undead woolly mammals: coming soon to a tundra, or cinema, near you.



You can get the skinny on the whole discovery here, at the National Geographic page: photos, the mammoth lab, and a piece on mammoth cloning.

The real aurochs actually have a well carved out place in cultural history, recorded by everyone from the cavemen at Lascaux to Vladimir Nabokov. In fact, we'll leave with a quote about them from Julius Caesar, describing their ferocity in "Gallic Wars":

"These are a little below the elephant in size, and of the appearance, color, and shape of a bull. Their strength and speed are extraordinary; they spare neither man nor wild beast which they have espied. These the Germans take with much pains in pits and kill them. The young men harden themselves with this exercise, and practice themselves in this sort of hunting, and those who have slain the greatest number of them, having produced the horns in public, to serve as evidence, receive great praise. But not even when taken very young can they be rendered familiar to men and tamed."