Hot Cocoa

2009-02-15T17:51:00.000-08:00

Grand Ledge Sun Short Film Festival

2009-02-11T13:07:00.000-08:00

Hot Cocoa will be showing at the Grand Ledge Short Film Festival! Details follow:

Grand Ledge Sun Short Film Festival:

February 15th @ 2PM

Join us for the first ever Grand Ledge Film Festival. THIS IS A FREE EVENT. Please bring your family and friends and join us for an afternoon of great films.

Create and Original Film and email

Grandledgesun@hotmail.com to submit or message us to snail mail it, or just drop it by the theater during a show time.

All films should be about 15 minutes or less, and will be pre-screened.

BE CREATIVE

****FILM DEADLINE HAS BEEN EXTENDED UNTIL FEBRUARY 8TH*****

"Kody Vs. Chuck" by Aaron Harris (GL)- A stop motion film about a boy and a toy truck

"White Tiger Bites Hot Potato" by Steve Scarborough (GL)- A documentary on a trip to China

"Beagle Broadcast - 2/6/09" by Beagle Middle School Students (GL)- An example of Beagle Middle School's student-run news show

"Baby Time" by Sean Hages (Hamtramck) - Baby Time was screened at the 2008 Detroit Docs Film Festival and received the Founders Award. It features 2 expecting parents journey through he labor and deliver of their first child.

"Caution Under Technology" by Courtney Spivak (Detriot)- Caution Under Technology is an experimental film that explores the conflict and struggle between nature and technology through the use of surreal, occasionally abstract imagery and jarring sounds. A lone figure goes on a journey through landscapes that are man-made, natural and somewhere in between.

"Hot Cocoa" by Duane Fahey (GL)- ((Film description coming soon!!))

"Memory Be Green" by Angel Wilson and Maggie Weisenburg (Lansing)- A love story told through dance

"Nevermore" by Rachel Diamond (Lansing)- A tragic love story

"My Little Cult" (Title in Progress) by Nick Soria (GL)- A film centered around a girl who mistakenly joins a cult centered around My Little Ponies.

"Sock Puppet Safari" by Taryn Shick (Madison Heights, formerly GL) - A funny adventure involving two sock puppets Jungle safari.

Sundance e-mail

2005-12-02T13:49:00.000-08:00

Duane Fahey

RE: 9919 - Hot Cocoa

Dear Duane

Thank you for submitting your film to the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. Regretfully, I must inform you that it was not selected by our committee. We appreciate having had the opportunity to view your work, and want you to know that the decision was a difficult one, as we saw many more worthy films than we had space for.

I would like to wish you the best of luck with this project and your forthcoming work. I hope that you will give the festival the same consideration in the future.

Sincerely,

Geoffrey Gilmore
Director, Sundance Film Festival

Started This Web Site

2005-09-06T18:12:00.000-07:00

This is a still captured from the very end of the interview portion of the film. This sepia version was used for the initial DVD photo, when the DVD menu is still loading. This photo was also used for the paper on the DVD cover, for the DVD that was sent to Sundance.

Registration

2005-08-24T10:00:00.000-07:00

At this point, I actually committed. I registered with Sundance, filling out online forms for submission of this short. I also purchased hotcocoamovie.com and the web space. One of the questions on the form was a web site address, so this all happened about the same time.

New G5 iMac and Final Cut Express

2005-07-05T18:00:00.000-07:00

I decided to actually make the short, so I decided that a G5 with a bigger hard disk was in order. And I decided to buy Final Cut Express HD. I thought about Final Cut Pro, but decided to learn the express version, and perhaps upgrade to Pro later, if I ever make another movie.

Left Waterfront Film Festival

2005-06-12T17:00:00.000-07:00

I think I've been to the Waterfront Film Festival 3 times now. When leaving this one, a few shorts convinced me that maybe my idea of using the Hot Cocoa footage was not too far fetched. I found myself enjoying simple shorts, that were quick and funny.

Bought my first iMac

2002-11-05T13:00:00.000-08:00

I don't remember for sure if this had Mac OSX, but I think it did, and was dual boot with Mac OS9. With this computer, I first experimented with iMovie and iDVD, bringing in old footage with a Dazzle thing, to convert the VCR output to Firewire. I then created a few DVDs for family, of old footage.

Shot Footage

1992-12-28T15:00:00.000-08:00

I don't remember the exact date and time, but I was living in Milwaukee, and I was home for Christmas. I shot some footage of Joshua and Paul playing in the snow. Later, as we were having Hot Cocoa, I set the camcorder down on top of a piece of tupperware that held the powdered cocoa.

I found that by setting the camera down, and simply twisting it now and then, aiming at the 2 boys, they tended to forget that it was on, and simply talk to me.

I think there was about 25 minutes of footage, much of it out of focus and so-on. It was a cheap VHS-C camcorder.