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A new backstage movie musical!
Programmed as the
concluding title
wrapping up the 2006
FORX FILM FEST
Empire Arts Center, Grand
Forks ND
WINNER: 3rd Place
“Family Features”
The Cleveland Indie
Gathering
Cleveland OH, Summer
2006
The WORLD PREMIERE
was February 16-19,
2006 at the
Empire
ENCORE EMPIRE SHOWINGS BY POPULAR DEMAND!
Sunday March 26 and Sunday April 2, 2006
Forx Film Fest screening Sunday November 5, 2006
Friday through Sunday August 17-18-19, 2007
Sunday December 2, 2007
The
city’s oldest movie house will soon be a parking ramp
unless
somebody does something quick!
But
nobody is prepared for what happens next!
--
STARRING --
Paul
Kelly, Lori Barrett, Jenny Morris,
Karly
Anderson, Chris Hargreaves, Marjorie Morris,
Gordon
Dexheimer, Betty Gard,
Royce
Blackburn, Louise Pinkerton,
and
special guest star Lee Barnum
An
all-digital independent movie
shot
primarily at
the historic Empire Arts Center
in
downtown
A co-production of the
Empire Arts Center and Akbar Productions
with the cooperation of the
UND Theatre Dept., the UND Music Dept.,
the
and Crimson Creek Collegiate
Players
Written and Produced by
Christopher P. Jacobs, Mark Landa, and Jenny Morris
Directed by Christopher P. Jacobs
Choreographed by Jenny
Morris
Featuring over a dozen popular hit songs and
showtunes from the early 20th century
by Irving Berlin, W. C.
Handy, Pete Wendling, James Monaco and many others
in newly recorded renditions.
Songs include such classic standards as
“The
“For Me and My Gal,” “Take
Your Girlie to the Movies,” and many more!
A percentage of the profits
from the DVD and soundtrack CD will benefit the Empire Arts Center
SYNOPSIS: Times are tough in modern
PITCH: Think Babes in Arms and
A backstage musical comedy-drama!
When a local landmark is threatened,
the town comes together,
puts its best foot forward,
and magic happens -- on and off the stage!
But there is also drama, backstage intrigue, budding romance…
as well as complications and one setback after another!
Can they
overcome everything and save the theatre?
They'll
certainly do their best to try!
NEWS UPDATES
Special encore showing
the weekend of August 17-18-19, 2007 at the Empire Arts Center in Grand Forks.
Music to My Ears won Third Place in the “Family
Features” category at the 2006 Indie Gathering in Cleveland, Ohio. As a special
non-competitive title, it closed out the screenings at the 5th annual Forx Film Fest in Grand
Forks on November 5, 2006, and was a bonus feature after the 6th annual
Forx Film Fest on December 2, 2007.
FINE CUT 3.5 encoded to mpeg on March 11 and
remastered to DVD March 12
(slightly
revised from the version shown at the World Premiere)
DVDs
include motion menus with 39 chapter stops, an 11-minute trailer reel
highlighting six regional movies,
an
extra 2-minute trailer for Music to My Ears, audio commentary by the
writers-producers, and brief cast bios
SOUNDTRACK CD final
revised master completed February 10
CDs include 27 different tracks with 18 different songs
(CLICK HERE for CD cover art and current song
list!)
A
half-hour segment (roughly the second quarter) from the work-in-progress
screened before an appreciative crowd Saturday afternoon November 19th
at the 2005 Forx Film Fest.
A
DVCAM copy of version 2.2 of the completed roughcut (115 minutes, still missing
a few scenes) was screened for the cast and crew and invited guests on December
28 at the Empire, resulting in overwhelmingly positive viewer comment sheets
along with valuable constructive criticism.
The
finished movie’s theatrical gala World Premiere (finecut version 3.2) was 7:15
pm Thursday, February 16, 2006 at the historic Empire Theatre including a live
stage prologue of several songs from the movie, followed by a theatrical run
Friday-Saturday-Sunday, Feb. 17-18-19, 2006. Despite subzero temperatures on
the coldest weekend of the year, nearly 250 people braved the weather to enjoy Music to My Ears and found it well worth
the effort! Some even came back to see it again!
On
Sundays March 26 and April 2, a slightly revised cut (version 3.5) was
presented for the encore screenings at the Empire.
CAPSULE CHRONOLOGY:
First virtually complete but still very rough cut of
the movie (missing a few scenes)
December 5 - Cut 1 approx. 130 minutes
Second Roughcut (still not including scenes 30 and 40C)
December 28 - Cut 2.2 approx. 115 minutes -- Additional scenes shot in January
Third Cut (Finecut)
February 5 cut 3.2 – 119 minutes and 30 seconds
March 12 cut 3.5 – 119 minutes and 29 seconds
Deleted scenes and alternate or full-length versions
of musical numbers that were deleted or heavily edited will be included as
bonus items on an upcoming special 2-disc collectors’ DVD, as well as some
behind-the-scenes footage, selected auditions, and orchestra recording session
footage.
Posters
One-sheet
A -
72dpi (102k) 300dpi
(964k)
One-sheet
B -
(coming soon)
PRODUCTION DATA
Mini-Bios
of Producers and Main Cast
Full Cast and Production Credits
-
including featured numbers and instruments
Song
List (subject to change by final release version)
-
titles, composers, and performers (some with direct links to media
files)
IMAGES
(incomplete)
Production stills and frame grabs
(scenes
1, 7, 14, 15, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 26, 27, 28, 29A,
31,
32, 33, 35, 36, 38, and 40)
(Oceana
Roll, For Me and My Gal,
Take
Your Girlie to the Movies)
(shooting
scenes 1, 21, 33, 35, 38)
MEDIA FILES
Audio clips
-
MP3 SONG EXCERPTS:
"The St. Louis Blues" first
half (1.4 MB)
sung
by Lori Barrett with the MTME Ad Hoc Studio Orchestra
"You Made Me Love You"
duet excerpt (520 KB)
sung
by Paul Kelly and Lori Barrett with the MTME Ad Hoc Studio Orchestra
"You Made Me Love You" in dream
sequence (750KB .wmv movie file)
sung
by Paul Kelly and Lori Barrett with Edward Morris on guitar
"For Me and My Gal" duet
excerpt (283 KB)
sung
by Paul Kelly and Lori Barrett with the MTME Ad Hoc Studio Orchestra
"Ma! He's Making Eyes At Me" (803
KB) verse & two choruses as used in movie
sung
by Jenny Morris and Karly Anderson, Kathy Fielder on piano
"Take
Your Girlie to the Movies" original version (1.2 MB)
historic
1919 recording
Trailers and film
clips
(well, okay, not real film
clips, actually, since we couldn’t afford film and shot everything on digital
video,
editing with Final Cut Pro 5 and
converting to RealPlayer/WindowsMedia formats with Adobe Premiere)
- TV spot 1 (:30) no narration yet (to be added soon)
Windows Media 378 KB (fair
quality)
Windows Media 114 KB (low quality)
- Trailer 1 (teaser)
(1:11)
featuring “The St. Louis Blues” as
a music bed, as played by
the MTME Ad Hoc Studio Orchestra
and sung by Lori Barrett
High-speed connections (medium
quality):
Medium-speed connections
(fair quality):
Really slow dialup
connections (low quality):
- Trailer 2 (2:03)
expanded from
teaser trailer 1, featuring clips from
several dance numbers, all shown
over the music to
“Take Your Girlie to the Movies”
and “The
High-speed connection
(medium quality)
Medium-speed connection
(fair quality)
Quicktime 1.6 MB (stereo)
Windows Media 1.5 MB (mono)
Dialup connections (very
low quality, mono)
- Trailer 3 (2:33)
featuring
some different clips, with cast credits over character closeups,
and a quick medley of segments
from several musical numbers,
mainly “Take Me to the
with snippets from “Ma, He’s
Making Eyes at Me,” “Take Your Girlie
to the Movies,” “On the 5:15,” and
“Maybe That Is Why I’m Lonely”
High-speed connection
(medium quality, stereo)
Medium-speed connection
(fair quality, mono)
Dialup connection (very
low quality, mono)
Windows Media 580 KB (NOTE:
text often unreadable)
- Early roughcut
excerpt from scene 1 song & dance: conclusion of
"I Wouldn't Give 'That' For a
Man Who Couldn't Dance" (1:20)
performed by Karly Anderson and Jenny Morris, with Kathy Fiedler
on piano
Quicktime movie format
only:
MEDIUM QUALITY - stereo (5.8 MB)
LOW QUALITY - mono (430 KB, but requires latest
Quicktime version)
- First cut of
"dream scene" featuring "You Made Me Love You" (4:53)
sung by Paul
Kelly and Lori Barrett, with Edward Morris on guitar
and Suellen Palya on music box
keyboard
Medium quality -
stereo RealPlayer (8 MB)
Fair quality - mono
Windows Media (3.6 MB)
Low quality -
mono Windows Media (750 KB) (3:19 without
dance montage)
Websites for other regionally-made digital movies
-some of them also featuring actors in Music
to My Ears:
Paul Kelly (Bill)
co-stars in The Threat of the Mummy and Working Nights and has
major cameo roles in both Dangers from
Within and Dark Highways; Lori Barrett (Brenda) appears in The
Threat of the Mummy and Vengeance of the Sorceress; Lee Barnum
(Bessie) stars in Miss Mystic; CeAnne Reese (Kayci) co-stars in Dark
Highways and has a bit part in Working Nights; Jenny Morris (Peggy)
and Marjorie Morris (Melanie) both have bit parts in Dark Highways; Mark
Landa (bartender) plays a ruthless henchman in Dangers from Within and appears in both Dark Highways and Working
Nights in the same bit role he plays in Music to My Ears! Michael
Harvey (Hubert Sorensen) has a bit part at the end of Dangers from Within. David
Henry, who has a bit part in Music to My
Ears and narrates the trailer to Miss
Mystic, has the leading male role in Dangers
from Within. Christopher P. Jacobs (theatre critic) also has a cameo in The
Threat of the Mummy and plays supporting roles in Vengeance of the
Sorceress, Dark Highways, and Working Nights.
Miss Mystic Dark Highways Working Nights
Vengeance of the Sorceress The
Threat of the Mummy