CLARION CO., Pa. (EYT) – When four area men got together and decided to create a short film, they had no idea where it would lead them.
(Pictured above, left to right and top to bottom: Adrian Weber, Prince Brooks, Colin Giering, and Leo Aiello.)
According to two of the minds behind the project – Prince Brooks and Adrian Weber – it all began about two years ago when they got together with two of their friends, Leo Aiello and Colin Giering, and decided to make a short film.
“We were all newly getting involved in video and photography and wanted to dive into it and collaborate and work on something together,” Weber told exploreClarion.com.
The four young men are graduates of Clarion Area High School.
Brooks, Weber, and Aiello are 2016 high school graduates and are currently attending Clarion University, while Giering graduated in 2016 and currently attends Temple University.
The foursome decided to create a film shot entirely in the Clarion area, with locations downtown and in the Miola and Cook Forest areas. They also used local talent, including their main actor, John Matheny, of Brookville, and Clarion area residents Luke Nellis as “Man #2,” Crowe Thiem as their music producer, and Jasmine Haver as a voice artist on the film.
The project itself, titled “Line 4,” is a short film, running just over thirteen minutes with credits. It is available on YouTube and on Vimeo as part of the June 2019 Lift-Off Sessions Collection.
The film is a drama, but it’s also experimental in nature, Brooks noted.
“It’s open-ended, and when we had a screening, when we first released it at the Small Business Development Center, it was cool to see people draw their own conclusions from it,” Brooks said.
When they first created the film, they created it under the name 32 1/2 Productions, just to make it official.
This year, two years after the initial project, they decided to enter the film into a few festivals and were selected for the Lift-Off Sessions, a festival based at Pinewood Studios in the UK.
Still shot from “Line 4”
The Lift-Off Sessions starts off with a first round that is open to the general public. Those who would like to participate can “rent” the entire collection of 140 films for $15.00 and then get to vote for two films online.
“The first round is kind of a virtual film festival,” Brooks said. “If you get into the top five, then you move on to the next round which judged by real film critics.”
The production teams of those lucky five finalists will receive free Intermediate Lift-Off Network Membership.
The second round, the entries will be scored by Lift-Off’s Internal Judges on multiple aspects. The film with the highest overall score will be declared the winner and will receive an official selection for a live screening at Pinewood Studios next year, as well as a screening at Raleigh Studios, Hollywood, during Los Angeles Lift-Off Film Festival – along with Professional Lift-Off Network Membership for the for the filmmakers and producers involved with the project.
“It enables you to network and to get your name out there. The point is to grow the indie film industry,” Brooks noted. “They know the barriers in the indie film industry and want to help people move forward.”
Still shot from “Line 4”
Weber and Brooks are hoping for a win to help them move forward with future projects.
“We do have other stuff in the works,” Weber noted.
“Line 4” is currently in the top five and actually tied for first place. Now the filmmakers are hoping to push it over the edge.
“We would like to get some local support to help us through this first round,” Brooks added.
Those interested in viewing the films in the June 2019 Lift-Off Sessions Collection and voting can do so via Vimeo.
The cost to rent the collection is $15.00, and the only votes that will be considered are those that vote for a first and a second choice of the films. The voting will end at 10:00 p.m. BST (5:00 p.m. EST) on Sunday, June 30.