Music Video Screening Tonight (4-9-09)
Sorry for the extra-super late notice here folks.
Jainee Dial has arranged for an awesome screening of selected music videos. Along with the premiere of "Missoula", her newest video, Kurt is offering a sneak-peak at "Don't Cry" for Olivia Broadfield. Uli will be showing "Le Puzzle".
The videos will be shown alongside work from Rachel Larsen, Benji Brucker and Johnny Le.
The magic happens (tonight) Thursday, April 9th at the
Screening Room Theater in NW Portland (925 NW 19th Ave. Portland, OR 97215)
The 40 minute program will begin at 7:00pm and will loop until 9:30pm.
Important p.s.: the bar is cash only.
Hope you can make it!
B-E-F.ORG is Live (4-6-09)
We are very happy to announce that the
Bonneville Environmental Foundation has launched their brand spankin' new website.
Tequila built it for BEF and we're thrilled to see our videos on such an awesome platform.
Enjoy browsing around for our videos. Consider it an early Easter Egg Hunt. And who knows, maybe you'll find a new way to do something great for the environment in the meantime.
Kurt Wins Again / Welcome Cat! (2-12-09)
Kurt, Kurt, Kurt...
We were recently in Los Angeles, having a laugh and passing around our new reel when Kurt gets a rather exciting phone call. It turns out that Kurt's entry to the
Project Rising Stars contest was a winner and everybody knew it - and Kurt's video got some national airtime during the Grammys. So CONGRATULATIONS Kurt, you are #1. His entry was a music video for Olivia Broadfield's single "Indescribable". If that name sounds familiar it is because every time Kurt and Olivia collaborate it seems to result in magic.
Recently Sandymontana expanded its ranks even further with the addition of
Cat Tyc . Cat joins us as a writer/director with one foot firmly in the world of fine art and one foot striding toward site-specific and new media explorations. Look for some of Cat's work in our videos section soon and see for yourself. Welcome Cat. We are fortunate to have you.
Sandymontana Open House / Welcome Adam! (11-12-08)
This Saturday - November 15th - Sandymontana is opening the door to our super-secret fortress of creativity. Be sure not to miss this once-in-a-lifetime event. There will be snacks.
Our open house is part of a larger open building at the
Towne Storage Building. This place is full of independent artists and craftspeople with unique and fun enterprises. It should be good times. Come by anytime between 6:30 and 10-ish in the pm. We are in Studio 410.
We would like to take a moment to welcome our newest director
Adam Long. Adam joins us as an amazing creative force - specializing in motion graphics and radness of that type and disposition. We are all looking forward to "killing it" together.
Homework assignment:
Read up on the most famous Sandymontanian - Uli Beutter - in the October issue of
XLR8R where she earns the unlikely nickname "The Cub". The whole article is a fun read, but we are beaming like parents at a recital over the reaction Uli's work has gotten in the media. The person who leaves the best comment under the article wins!
PS -
Olivia Broadfield asked Kurt to make a video for her new single. As usual, Kurt went all out with the idea and has been working overtime on his latest masterpiece. Keep your eyes open for this one - it's going to be cool.
Sandy is Huge in the UK (7-8-08)
So these news nuggets are coming a
little late, but they're still exciting (to me at least).
First - If you are a fan of the Foo Fighters you may have already heard about their recent blowout at the
Wembley Stadium. We were lucky enough to get to make the video for the insanely huge screens that wrapped all around the stage. We enlisted the help of 5 directors, a slew of animators and plenty of camera crew to create clips and loops that were played for 2 nights, over 23 songs to 90,000 people. The show was taped by the BBC so there should be some awesome footage arriving soon. More to come as this story develops.
Second - Our "About BEF" video won the Award of Excellence for Creativity & Originality from the 2008
Accolade Video Awards. It gives us great honor to be recognized by the Accolades. We will now conclude this news transmission to return to the mirror and continue our rigorous self-congratulating.
The Reign of Kurt / New Office (4-16-08)
There is a lot going on for us right now. I think most of these news updates start like that. I guess I only get inspired to write here when we are extra busy.
Unfortunately I'm going to have to be a little secretive, as many of the projects are in production or negotiation - and you know what happens when you talk too much about things before they're actually done. I will say that our website is undergoing a big (overdue) update right now and as soon as it's done, we will have even more videos to upload. Which is good.
Our boy Kurt's video for
Silence by Olivia Broadfield is now in regular rotation on VH1! So that's awesome.
Also in Kurt-related news: his video for
It's About Time by
Barcelona was recently a featured video on MyspaceTV. So that's awesome too.
So in summation: Kurt = awesome. Kurt's videos = awesome. My communication skills = awesome.
We have moved in to our new
office and we are the happiest people in the pacific northwest. If you are able, please stop by and bring us lots of office-warming gifts. Like tons. Seriously.
Having our new office means having a FAX MACHINE, which you should take as an invitation to send us random, nonsense faxes. Some sort of prize will be awarded to the sender of the wildest fax. The contest has no official end date or promise of an actual prize. (503)-764-9914
I should probably stop before this "news" posting becomes any more embarrassing. Adios for now.
COLIN! etc. (10-11-07)
So this is long overdue but, we would like to announce the arrival of the newest member of Sandymontana - namely one Colin Brown! Colin joins us as a producer, mover, shaker, butcher, baker and candlestick maker. Colin comes to us with an impressive background in production spanning feature film, television, commercial, and documentary. His personal focus is on creating media that promotes social awareness, as well as entertains. He has got some big ideas for Sandymontana and for the world. Watch out.
Remember those music videos we mentioned Kurt working on? They are finished and look...well, beautiful. We will be posting them to our site soon, but in the meantime watch Echo Helstrom's "Hungry Ghost"
here and "You're Everyone I Know Right Now" by The Lives of Famous Men right...about...
here. One can only imagine what will come out of this prodigy's mind next. (P.S. Thank you to everyone who attended the official premiere of the Hungry Ghost video and to
Mississippi Studios for hosting the event.)
Uli has recently wrapped production on her new music video for
Eric John Kaiser's song, "Le Puzzle". True to form turning Uli's vision to a reality was no small accomplishment - involving a warehouse, building two apartments, theatrical spotlighting and no less than 300 feet of black plastic sheeting. I've seen the rough cuts and the video is already fantastic. Come and see the world premiere of "Le Puzzle" on October 23rd at
Holocene (1001 SE Morrison St. Portland, OR 97214). $5 at the door includes a live performance by Eric John Kaiser and special guests. What a bargain!
We are pleased to announce Alec's short "I Got Shot with a Bullet" is an official selection of this year's
BendFilm festival in Bend OR. IGSWAB will be playing this weekend, October 12th and 13th. Check out their website
here for full festival and schedule information.
Thanks for watching.
Festivals, New Videos, Friends (5-29-07)
Last night I woke in the middle of my slumber in a cold sweat. It's been too long since we let you know what's been going on with Sandymontana and that has got to change starting now.
Ok, this one's huge. OUR FILM,
CATHEDRAL PARK PREMIERES! Come watch the eagerly anticipated feature length film by Vincent Caldoni, a co-production between
Blueprint Films and Sandymontana. Cathedral Park will be screening this Friday, June 1st at 9pm at the
Hollywood Theatre (4122 NE Sandy Blvd. Portland, OR 97212). Tickets are $7.00. This film is so good that the Salem Film Festival had to invent a whole new prize (Winner - Northwest Emerging Artist) to honor it. This film is so good, after playing at the Longbaugh Film Festival the theater asked to keep it running for an additional two weeks. The point is: don't play yourself, come see this movie.
Kurt has been working overtime approaching bands and making music videos. He currently is working on new videos for two bands. You can check out
Echo Helstrom and
The Lives of Famous Men by clicking on their names here because I made them link to their pages because I'm a genius. Watch out for these upcoming videos, they're gonna be razor sharp.
Sandymontana just completed a series of commercials for the
Champ Car Grand Prix of Portland. For those who don't know, Champ Car is an international automotive racing league. They drive open-wheeled cars like in F1 and go super fast. So if you live in Portland, keep an eye out for the spots because they're playing on TV and radio as we speak. Come find us in the stands at Portland International Raceway, June 8-10. We will be the ones eating hot dogs and covered in SPF 150.
Lastly, Alec's short
I Got Shot with a Bullet is playing in New York City at the
First Sundays Comedy Film Festival on June 3rd at the Pioneer Theater (155 East 3rd St. New York, NY 10009). The show starts at 7pm. If you're in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Boston, Philly, Virginia, Florida, Chicago or the Western Hemisphere, consider yourself booked for this Sunday night.
You can also see
I Got Shot with a Bullet in Las Vegas as part of the Best of the Art Institutes program during the
CineVegas Film Festival. Be at the Brendan Theaters in the Palms Casino Resort (4321 W Flamingo Rd. Las Vegas, NV 89103) on Thursday, June 14th at 9:30pm to see the magic that is IGSWAB.
That's it for now. See you soon.
So Much to DO! (3-18-07)
Sandymontana has a lot coming up in the next few weeks, so I'm going to cut to the chase.
March 22nd - Kurt's prize winning video for the
Re-Animate The Decemberists Contest and Uli's prize winning video for the
Tropicana Fresh Take on Portland Contest are both playing at the
Hollywood Theatre (4122 NE Sandy Blvd. Portland, OR 97212) along with several short films from the Art Institute of Portland's senior class. Doors at 6:30, free admission.
March 24th, 25th - Uli's video installation "WHITE" is opening at The White Gallery (625 NW Everett St. #104 Portland, OR 97209). Come by from 6 to 8pm on the 24th and from 2 to 4pm on the 25th. You can also see WHITE at the same gallery on First Thursday, April 5th from 7 to 10pm.
March 25th - You are invited to The Secret Sandymontana Launch Party! Shhhh... Be there for free music by
The Village Green, free drinks, free admission, video screenings by Sandymontana, and
Copy will be DJing for your dancing pleasure. It all happens at
Holocene (1001 SE Morrison St. Portland, OR 97214). Doors open at 8pm.
March 30th - The
Longbaugh Film Festival will be screening Kurt's music video "It's a War" and "Fancy Time" (aka GFM - Copy Remix) by Uli and Alec at the brand new
Living Room Theaters (341 SW 10th Ave. Portland, OR 97205) as part of their Local Shorts 1 program.
March 31st - Today
Longbaugh will be screening a bunch of Sandymontana fare. Local Shorts 1, featuring "It's a War" by Kurt and "Fancy Time" (aka GFM - Copy Remix) by Uli and Alec, will screen at the
Laurelhurst Theater (2735 E Burnside St. Portland, OR 97214). Doors open at 12:45pm. Also, Kurt's music video "Happiness in Milligrams" and Alec's short film, "I Got Shot with a Bullet" are both playing at 12:15pm at the
Living Room Theaters (341 SW 10th Ave. Portland, OR 97205) in the Local Shorts 3 program. They both play again in the same program at the
Laurelhurst Theater (2735 E Burnside St. Portland, OR 97214). The show starts at 6:30pm.
It's going to be a busy few weeks. We'll see you around town.
Winners! (3-1-07)
Kurt is amazing. Not only did he write and direct a wicked awesome music video for mtvU's "Re-Animate The Decemberists" contest in record time...he also won. But that's just Kurt's style I suppose. Kurt's video for The Decemberists' "O' Valencia!" is set to be aired on mtvU and on the internet on March 5th at 7am eastern. Congratulations Kurt!
www.mtvu.com/reanimatethedecemberists
Uli is amazing. Her video "Splash" was just announced as the winner of the grand prize in Tropicana's "Fresh Take on Portland"! After intense public voting and a private consultation with Mr. Richard Roeper, Uli has proven again how unstoppable she is. Congratulations Uli!
www.freshfilms-portland.com
Tropicana Competition (2-1-07)
Our entry to the Tropicana "Fresh Take on Portland" short film competition has been selected as a pre-finalist! What this means for you is that between Feb. 16th and Feb. 22nd you better get your butt over to their website and vote for our video "Splash". If for no other reason, do it for poor Chris Herman, the star of the video who endured multiple buckets of water to the face on that cold, cold January morning.
www.freshfilms-portland.com
In other news, the results from the No Exit Music Video Festival are in. Kurt's video "It's a War" was nominated for Best Editing and Uli and Alec's video "GFM - Copy Remix" was nominated for Best Video. We are very pleased to have been honored by the festival and congratulate the winners.
Festival News! (1-4-07)
Both "It's a War" by Kurt Nishimura and "GFM - Copy Remix" by Uli Beutter and Alec Cohen have been selected as part of the top 25 entries to the No Exit Music Video Festival. Our videos will go on to be screened on January 28, 2007 in Hoboken, New Jersey where they will be judged and compete for a variety of prizes. Wish us luck. Check out the No Exit website at
www.noexitfest.com