Filmmaker Wins Two National Awards

The results are just coming in, and so far, our team has won two 2014 national Telly Awards for films produced through director Scott Takeda's company Takeda Entertainment.

“I’m excited because these Tellys reward storytelling that’s more raw and authentic,” said Takeda. “The first award was for a full-blown documentary series we did for Buick GMC where we followed a successful Chicago-area dealership as it attempted to adopt a new, appointment-based selling culture. For this story, we wanted to capture things as they happened. So we showed how the leaders within the dealership struggled with the changes and revealed their fears about if it would work. This was a nine-month labor of love, and I’m grateful the judges found our story compelling.

“The second award was for a new client CHRISTUS Health – a Catholic-based healthcare system based in Texas. They brought us in to capture their leaders during a pilgrimage where their ministry began in central France. We were interested in capturing real moments, and our cinematographers did a great job of documenting their experiences. After combing through hours of footage and thousands of stills, we created a 90-second promo titled ‘Answering the Call.'”

Congratulations to the entire team.

"If Not Now" Wins Three Awards from Denver 48 Hour Film Project

The judges have spoken and our 48 Hour Film Project team has won three awards from the “Best of Denver.”  Our film took home Best Cinematography for Dave Klein and Best Actress for Kate Cook. Additionally, we have bragging rights as First Runner Up Best Film as the film the judges thought was almost the best in the competition. Congrats to our talented cast, crew, and the other filmmakers.  We had fun!

Set Stills from "If Not Now"

Actors Kate Cook and Rachel Hroncich arrive on location for an early call with long-time screenwriting partner Robert Palmer and director Lori Kay Allred. (July 2014)

We’ve been awake for nearly 72 continuous hours, but we've wrapped our shoot and have entered a rough-cut into Denver's 48 Hour Film Project for the competition. Our competition team BS Filmworks is one of 51 teams who have written-shot-and edited our film within a 48 hour time period between July 31st and August 2nd 2014.

Screenwriters Robert Palmer, Lori Kay Allred and Brock Sherman guide the cast and crew through a table read at the Hanlon Family Ranch in Elizabeth, Colorado. (July 2014)

As part of the competition, all teams drew a genre out of a hat (our team drew "Time Travel."). In addition, all teams were required to include elements in their films.  For 2014, those required elements included props (a map), a character (Anya Sakewski – writer), and a line-of-dialogue (‘I don’t know why I’m here.’)

We are titling our film “If Not Now” and will now start working on further post production for a “directors cut” that we’ll distribute in October. The next step is our 48 Hour Film Project premier in a week, then judging for "Best of Denver." Fingers and toes crossed!

Actor Rachel Hroncich takes direction from director/writer Lori Kay at the Hanlon Family Ranch in Elizabeth, Colorado. (July 2014)

Team Begins Production on 48 Hour Film Project Short Film

Filmmaker Lori Kay Allred oversees the set up of a scene for the 48 Hour Film Project.

This month, our team begins pre-production on a short film for Denver’s 48 Hour Film Project. We will write, shoot, and edit a film in 48 hours as a part of this international script-to-screen competition.

“This will be our sixth film, and our fourth year producing these films in Denver,,” said producer Scott Takeda. “We’ve learned a lot in the previous years, and I’m hoping we’ll be able to put these best practices into place.”

Recent national-Emmy winner Lori Kay Allred will direct the film this year in addition to her duties as producer. Our long-time screenwriter Rob Palmer returns. The competition kicks off August 1st when 55 teams throughout Denver will be given a required object, line-of-dialogue, and a character to include in the film. Teams will also draw a genre out of a hat.

In previous years, our team has been nominated for Best Film four times, including last year. In 2010’s Albuquerque contest, we won Best Special Effects. In 2011, we took home the Best Actor and Special Effects in Albuquerque, and the Audience Favorite and Best Use of Line in the Denver contest.

6/15/14 UPDATE – Mike Ostroski (AMC’s ‘Breaking Bad’ and TNT’s ‘Legends’) has signed on to be a lead actor in our film. We are super excited to have Mike as part of our cast. He recently shot a recurring guest starring role in the new Nickelodean series ‘Henry Danger.’

6/19/14 UPDATE – Rachel Hroncich (CBS’ ‘Criminal Minds’) has also signed to be a lead actor in our film. Rachel brings great comedic timing to her roles and is a long-time collaborator with this creative team having starred in our 2010 short film ‘Game Over’ and costarred in our 2011 film ‘The Rapture.’ We’ve also come to agreement with cinematographer Dave Klein to shoot our film.

7/13/14 UPDATE – Kate Cook (Nickelodeon's ‘Henry Danger’) joins the cast as a supporting actor. Producers are excited that she brings an energetic energy to the cast. She recently signed with the LA agency Linda McAlister Talent, and shot a short film in LA called ‘Bad Service’ with director Hannah Macpherson.

7/20/14 UPDATE – Producers are thrilled that Slade Williamson has agreed to record sound our film. Slade is a longtime member of our creative team and one of the more experienced sound specialists in the area. He recently shot a series of corporate films for Buick GMC with Takeda Entertainment.

7/22/14 UPDATE – Scott Takeda (‘Dallas Buyers Club’ and ‘Gone Girl’) has joined the cast as a supporting actor. He recently guest starred in ABC’s ‘Nashville,’ Lifetime’s ‘Drop Dead Diva,’ and AMC’s ‘Halt and Catch Fire.’

7/29/14 UPDATE – Actor Catherine McGuire (‘Those Who Can’t’) rounds out our cast as a supporting actor. She brings a tough-minded authority to her roles. Catherine was part of our 2013 team as a supporting actor and recently filmed an Amazon Studios pilot for the Nix Brothers called ‘Those Who Can’t’ starring Nikki Glaser and the Growlix comedy trio.

"The Dysfunctional Dynamics" Starts Festival Run

Our film “Dysfunctional Dynamics” begins its festival run this month. It premiered at the Denver 48 Hour Film Project showcase in late August where it was one of ten nominated for "Best Film" at the "Best of Denver" finals in September. It also won Honorable Mention for "Audience Favorite."  

"Our director Brock Sherman did a nice job of crafting a story that catered to the audience." said producer Lori Kay Allred. "Our team also won Audience Favorite two years ago with another entry, so I'm happy that our stories affect audiences. And it's nice to be one of the runner-ups this year.

"Now that we've gotten some sleep, we've cut a "directors cut" that I think is a stronger film that we were able to submit under the tight deadlines of the competition. I'm looking forward to seeing how it does on the festivals.

Our first stop is actually in town at the 3rd Annual Film Festival of Colorado. This year, more the festival received more than 330 entries from around the world including Australia and the UK.

"We like this festival because the programmers are very selective," said Allred. "And I'm excited because our film will be showing in the highly desirable slot on Friday night. Personally I'm looking forward to seeing how the audience reacts to our longer, more refined cut."