Worn out from the holidays? Stuck with gifts you don’t have any use for? Come on out January 8th—unwanted gift in hand—to the Music Hall of Williamsburg for a night of short films by FilmShop members, live music, a photo booth and a massive gift swap… you’re guaranteed to leave with a gift you really want!

Doors open: 8:00 p.m.
Admission: $10
Address: 66 North 6th Street, Williamsburg

Featuring:

“Regifted” Videos by FilmShop Members

Music by:

Xylos

Xylos have made a quick rise up bloggers’ radars and favorite lists, including being chosen as one of the “10 Artists to Know in 2011” by The New York Post and one of L Magazine‘s “8 NYC Bands You Need to Hear.”

Living Days

“Brooklyn’s Living Days and their mesmerizing frontwoman Stephonik Youth channel the lust and danger, and yes, the synths and knack for unforgettable melody that made ‘80s new waves so irresistible and give it a gritty, thoroughly modern makeover.” – Blender.com

Grooves by:

Shantell Martin

Shantell Martin is a sketch projector/VJ and illustrator who has performed and exhibited extensively in Tokyo, London and in cities across the United States.

DJ Jan Woo

DJ Jan Woo is one of Brooklyn’s preeminent up and comers emanating new age boogie and tantric sounds.

JanMixSide-B1 by jawnethon

FilmShop Brooklyn’s fall 2010 season ended with something old and something new. Graham Meriwether screened the first 20 minutes of his documentary “American Meat,” which long-time FilmShoppers have seen in various stages during its production, and Doug Hosdale screened a rough cut of his new short comedy called “The Duel.”

“American Meat” examines the complex economics and ethics of the nation’s meat industry: how it grew into the factory farm system we have today, and how a growing movement of independent farmers are proposing alternative arrangements. Graham has shared all manner of raw footage and rough cuts over the past few years. At the start of the season, in fact, he screened a version of the film’s introduction that lasted almost 40 minutes. FilmShoppers agreed that his newest cut, some 20 minutes shorter, retains the work’s power while helping clarify challenges faced by individual farmers. Indeed, this farmer-centric angle distinguishes “American Meat” from all of the recent food-related documentaries that have premiered in recent years—it’s one film definitely worth watching when it debuts.

Ending on a light-hearted note, Doug Hosdale screened “The Duel.” It follows two history geeks as they re-create famous historic duels to win the lasting affections of a woman, beginning with the famed face-off against Aaron Burr that cost Alexander Hamilton his life. Without giving too much away about the ending, suffice it to say that neither man poses a threat to Takeru Kobayashi or Joey Chestnut. Doug served as director of photography on “The Duel.” Also joining us to hear FilmShop’s comments was Alec Pollak, one of the film’s producers. Interestingly, they began working together on the project—along with writer and co-producer Kris Keeley and director Zorikh Lequidre—after the quartet responded to a meetup.com posting seeking film collaborators.

That’s it for this season of FilmShop but save the date for Saturday, January 8, 2011 when FilmShop presents “Regifted,” a night of short films and music. Works from the Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Hong Kong FilmShop chapters will be shown. Festivities also include a gift swap, photo booth, and live music from Living Days, Xylos, DJ Jan Woo, and VJ Shantell Martin. Doors open 8 p.m. at The Music Hall of Williamsburg, 66 North 6th Street, Brooklyn. Admission is $10 at the door.

Two documentarians presented at FilmShop Brooklyn’s most recent meeting: Marisa Miller Wolfson, looking for the group’s thoughts on a new trailer for her soon-to-be-released film Vegucated, and Liz Nord, seeking feedback on interviews shot for in-production work Battle for Jerusalem.

Marisa’s doc follows three people—a college girl, a 20-something guy, and a single mom of two—as they give up all animal products, from meat to leather clothes, during a six-week period. Will the trio have what it takes to stay vegan, and what will they learn about the treatment of animals and themselves in the process? No plot spoilers here, except to say that each of the three gets sufficiently “vegucated” about veganism.

Marisa, a vegan activist with the group Kind Green Planet, wanted to know if her new trailer has the right stuff to go viral on the Internet… and entice people to see the film. If all this vegan talk whets your appetite for Vegucated, Marisa is currently entering festivals with the completed film. Keep your fingers crossed and wish her luck! In the meantime, look for a fantastic promo on the Web soon.

Liz Nord also has a trailer for her documentary Battle for Jerusalem, but Liz’s promo serves a very different purpose—it’s currently featured on the fundraising site indiegogo.com, where Liz hopes to raise the money necessary to edit a longer trailer that she can show to more donors and thereby raise enough to continue filming. While Liz’s promo on IndieGoGo contains stunning footage of Jerusalem, she instead played loosely edited interview footage of six people and asked FilmShop members which interviewees they found most compelling.

Battle for Jerusalem explores divisions between ultra-orthodox v. more secular Jewish residents of Jerusalem as these groups debate how much influence religion should have over civic life. Among Liz’s interview subjects were two artists, a businessman, a neighborhood activist, a political leader, and a student. To the un-initiated eye, all six were fascinating—but Liz wanted to know which characters were strong enough to appear throughout her entire film. For more about the film, to watch the trailer and to donate, visit Liz’s indiegogo page.

One of the best parts about FilmShop is the variety of projects that members share with the group for feedback. Presentations at our most recent meetings ran the spectrum: two very different music videos; a video art collage; and a series of web commercials for an upstart eyewear company.

FilmShopper Sarah Anderson, along with her brother and assistant director, Josh, directed a video of “The Homo Song” by singer-songwriter Mara Levi.A humorous ode addressed to a girlfriend’s mother, its catchy chorus goes “your daughter is a big homo.” Sarah translated this bubbly energy onto the screen with a bright palate of bold primary colors. She wanted feedback to help tweak the timing of cuts between shots—critical when it comes to working with comedic material.

At the opposite end of the music spectrum—the techno, deep house end to be exact—FilmShopper Daniel Ross screened a video for “The Bends,” a track by the L.A.-based artist drumcell, that he co-directed with friend Bijan Rezvani. The music features a deep groove that sounded “oily” to Daniel’s ear. So he and Bijan convinced their buddy Andrew Spano to roll around in some oil—chocolate syrup, actually—and then applied some psychedelic after effects to degrade the footage. Daniel wanted feedback on whether or not the video’s narrative arc added tension to an otherwise ambient piece of music.

An artist and vj by trade, FilmShopper Jason Tschantre mined a similar visual vein in a video collage that he’s crafting to play as eye candy in music clubs. Using Modul8 software, Jason green-screened footage of a paparazzo photographer—then he layered this image multiple times, fiddling with the colors and contrast, to create a swarm of paparazzi pointing their cameras at… well, exactly what they’ll be filming is to be determined. Jason wanted to create a frame of paparazzi that he can re-use in multiple contexts: maybe they’ll train their cameras at found footage from the Web, such as YouTube videos of the sissy bounce, or maybe they’ll be gazing at live crowd footage an event that Jason is VJing.

Jason Tschantre looks back at his paparazzo

CK Swett is also interested in the gaze: how people look in Warby Parker eyeglasses, and how he can get other people to look at the product, too. CK and some friends recently founded a film production company—so recent that it doesn’t have a name yet—and he shared with FilmShop five sample commercials for their first client. Warby Parker, an online eyewear retailer, wanted their web ads to look as though fans made them—and to encourage their fans to make videos in response. Accordingly, in one of the spots CK and his crew used a cell phone to film a guy and a girl playing guitar, singing a cute, impromptu ode to Warby Parker. Another spot featured a spectacle-sporting 20-something woman describing her aversion to marriage. Will these ads work? As it happens, one FilmShopper broke his glasses during the meeting… and he was very interested in what CK had to show!