David Roehm's Blog

PMA Field Trip

davidroehm — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 01:48:44 +0000

Had a great time on the Philadelphia Museum of Art field trip yesterday.

We did the Renaissance to Modern art tour.

Great stairs

So far so good

davidroehm — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 03:26:58 +0000

You know its going to be a great year when it flies by so quickly. I wanted to write before now – especially having linked this to the recently reworked chARTer school page – but we have been too busy doing things to stop and write about it. I figure to get started maybe I can post a few photos and words about a cool thing we did so far; knowing I’ll forget a few.

In June we said goodbye to our 09 graduates – we sure do miss most of them. Soon we will post the entire graduation video on my media links page.
In July we went back to Tennessee and Texas and worked on 3 projects with OFG Productions and Capricious Systems….. “Shoot Out of Luck” in Austin, “Free Kairo” in Nashville and “StradaVita” in Dallas.
In August we took a road trip to Georgia with MOMS Rescue , ARF, Rescue Ink [National Geographic Channel]and other groups to empty a shelter and find homes for 130+ cats and dogs – one which ended up at my house. We are cutting a documentary of the trip. There is a short video in our media section about the trip now.
In September, school began classes and we met the students, old and new and assigned our CEO team their duty roster .
We also began to put together our CT News team and began producing shows for the school.
This semester we have also begun a elective taught by myself and Mr. Erickson “The History of Film”, where classic and historical films are shown on the big screen. This has been challenging and enlightening to all, including myself. This elective is designed to evolve into a college credited course.
In October we wrapped a large outside client project for “Pond Pros”.
In October I was also lucky enough to be a guest of student Spencer David and his father at the Steven Spielberg Liberty Medal of Freedom award ceremony hosted by President Clinton and others.

This week, looking back and taking a breather, I am reminded how much we do each day in our department and look forward to all we have coming up; like this week with a visit to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In November we plan on returning to Ocean Way Studios in Nashville to produce music videos for country artist Jennifer Dixon and to the American Museum of the Moving Image in New York.

In December we are planning to go back to Texas to film Willie Nelson in concert, in the studio and on the ranch with his friends and family.

January I am trying to arrange a trip to Sundance in Park City Utah and in the spring, a location scouting trip to Barcelona.

We will round out the year as we always do with a film festival of this year’s top student films. We hope to see you all there.

In the meantime, I have to get back to work. I’ll try to write more often.

Best regards,

Dave Roehm

CT central

Spielberg Liberty Medal

On location

"Metropolis" in our black box theatre

News cover set

Graduates 09

Shoot Out of Luck

Free Kairo

StradaVita

Dog reception at airport

Chattooga puppy

Duke Harley - my rescue

Batso from Rescue Ink

Master Control

Animation/IT CEO Oliver Pleydle

Jr. CEO Luke Culleny

Back to class

CEO Corey Branigan

Vice CEO Richard Githens

Summer update

davidroehm — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 05:45:38 +0000

Summer 2009

Friend us on our new department Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/chARTerTECH-Films/92973078605?ref=ts

Austin film shoot

We began the summer with a trip to Texas to work on the film “Tales Out of Luck – Shootout” on Willie Nelson’s ranch in Austin. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0837131/

Recently graduate Shane Torres came along to work on the film before leaving for college. Photos from the trip and the film can be found in this album.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2530744&id=8839064&l=406cb560f3

“StradaVita” film shoot

Students helped with the final scenes for “StradaVita” aka “Mortal Sin”.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0474819/

Photos from that shoot can be found in this album…

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2529946&id=8839064&l=423f2ce30a

“Georgia Puppy Run”

chARTer~TECH Films together with Ningun Films OFG Productions, and others are proud to be a part of this huge animal rescue operation in August. A caravan 0f 100+ cars, motorcycles, RVs and small planes will be participating.We will be producing a documentary of the trip and the wonderful people and organizations associated with it. Students will participate in this caravan and film the events surrounding it.

http://www.animalrescueflights.org/georgiapuppycaravan/

Livestrong Philly Challenge

On August 23^rd I will be taking the Livestrong Challenge at Montgomery College. The LIVESTRONG Challenge is the LAF’s signature fundraising event. Whether you walk, run, ride, volunteer or donate, your participation is one more powerful weapon in the fight against cancer. Join the Fight. Take the Challenge. Register today for the 2009 LIVESTRONG Challenge Philly. Or make a donation to my page and I will ride for you. I am riding 45 miles.
http://philly09.livestrong.org/ningun

Coming this fall

NJ Film Commission

Our department will be developing a website of locations and production support for filmmakers who wish to film in New Jersey. Our goal is to work closely with many communities, businesses and officials from both the film commission and state government.

Screen Actor’s Guild

I have been in talks with officers from the SAG Philadelphia office as well as the Philadelphia Film Office about how we can interact as a school and young filmmakers with the union and local filmmakers. We will be inviting professional actors and film crew members to the classroom to work with us.

This winter

I plan on involving students in the various professional projects I am currently producing in NJ, Pa, NM, LA and TX. This is in addition to school showcases, website material, student portfolios and student films large and small. School trips will include state to state trips to work on these projects as well as our normal trips to NYC. Each year I plan on visiting producers locations in Barcelona but have not been able to fit it in. I hope this fall/winter we can get that done as well.

Field Day

davidroehm — Fri, 15 May 2009 03:21:45 +0000

Performing Arts and Technology High School at chARTer~TECH had a fun filled field day today where races and other games incorporated academics and the arts represented by our curriculum. A great time was had by faculty and students alike. The TV/film department filmed the event and will post a video of highlights here in the future.

Philadelphia Questions

davidroehm — Wed, 13 May 2009 04:05:43 +0000

Field trip to Philadelphia on Tuesday went better than planned as students interviewed people on the street at 6 different locations in another installment of “Questions” which we like to do every year. This year’s version will be posted as soon as the editors get their hands on the footage. Students did a great job as usual representing the school, our department and themselves as professional technicians and journalists in training.

A Conversation on Relevance

davidroehm — Tue, 12 May 2009 03:52:20 +0000

This past Saturday I went to the Cooper Union Great Hall in NYC for “A Conversation on relevance” with Michael Imperioli, Philip Glass, Gelek Rimpoche and Francesco Clemente in order to bring creativity and being in the moment back to the classroom.

http://www.studiodante.com/home/

The Harvest

davidroehm — Thu, 07 May 2009 02:18:12 +0000

Location scouting today with a group of students working on a senior thesis for portfolio film “The Harvest”.

Buena, Vineland, Millville, Ocean City… some beautiful locations in the swamps , marshes and shores of South Jersey.

Along the way, we met with director Amel Figueroa of SaintSinner Entertainment to discuss his films and the students participation in them. For more information on their films, go to…

SaintSinner Entertainment

Questions

davidroehm — Fri, 01 May 2009 23:12:06 +0000

Each year my students and I try to get out in the world and interview strangers from different walks of life and neighborhoods; asking them questions about life and seeing how their answers differ.

We are about to go out again on May 12th.

Here is one that we did some years ago.

And here is the same idea David Lynch has done – being released June, 2009.

About our studio

davidroehm — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 19:07:02 +0000

We are a full pre to post production facility with a soundstage, animation/after effects lab, 4 editing suites [Avid, Adobe CS3, FCP6] and a post production sound – ADR Foley room with a G5 [Protools, Digi002] and a PC [GigaStudio, cakewalk producer, midi composite.].

We also have a production van that fits a crew of 15 with a Jimmy Jib, DVX100 24p cameras, 3 JVC GR110 HD cams, Glide cam and doorway dolly with tracks.

Our offices usually serve as home office to preproduction where the students hammer out locations, permits, etc. and our team is fully insured themselves during production – which makes getting some locations easier. We work closely with the Atlantic City and Philadelphia Film Commissions as a student to workforce bridge.

With this set up we serve the independent film community as supplemental crew in all aspects of production as well as a few larger budget films where we are more like PA/grips. We are currently gearing up for a shoot in Los Angeles and another in Austin which are high end low budget features. We also intern at local TV stations [NBC / 40] and provide material for local Philadelphia cable [WYBE and WCBM].

In addition to this production resume, we also lend our team and gear to help produce film festivals. We have, for the past 4 years helped to produce the Cape May New Jersey State Film Festival, the Garden State Asbury Park Film Festival, the Down Beach Film Fest in Atlantic City and the Algonquin Film Festival in Pa. The experiences from helping to run these festivals have proved invaluable to both the students and the festival directors. It is a working relationship which allows the students to mingle with industry professionals and to see films they would not usually be exposed to.

As a public school, we are not allowed to be paid for our services for either festivals or productions. Producers generally put us up in a hotel and pay for our food. In some cases, donations are made to the school, department or individual student accounts which they use as scholarship or class trip monies.

Photos of the studio can be seen here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2476851&id=8839064&l=1194c433b6

S.A.C. Report

davidroehm — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 02:49:18 +0000

As the acting Student Assistance Coordinator – eo ipso of my continued representation of the school at county meetings – I attended the spring meeting today in EHT.

Loads of great information was distributed and will be made available at my desk for students to reference for support. State resources for individuals and/or families who are encountering problems with drugs, alcohol, eating disorders and many other health issues are available for those who may need it.

The goal of the SAC is to be helpful in pointing students towards resources that are therapeutic and not punitive in nature. Questions about these resources are protected by confidentiality.