To View the trailers, go to: http/www.mightypics.tv
MIGHTY:PICTURES FOLLOWS UP THEIR
2004 & 2005 GOLDEN TRAILER AWARD NODS
WITH ANOTHER TWO NOMINATIONS THIS YEAR
The Full-Service Creative Boutique Garners Nods For The HD Trailer for ‘Alexandra’s Project’/Best Foreign Dramatic Trailer, and
Best Trailer-Fundraiser for ‘War Dance’
Mighty:Pictures, the New York-based creative boutique specializing in movie trailers, documentaries, promos and programming, has once again been acknowledged by the Golden Trailer Awards, with nominations for Best Foreign Film Trailer for the psychological thriller, ‘Alexandra’s Project,’ and Best Trailer-Fundraiser for the compelling documentary, ‘War Dance.’
The four-year old company, headed up by partners Charlie Sadoff and Mary Matyas, has built a reputation for producing film trailers that not only convey the essence of a movie’s storyline, but also give viewers a taste of the cinematic experience that is unique to that movie.
Mighty:Pictures took home Golden Trailer Award Nominations for Best Foreign Independent Film for ‘The Man of The Year’ in 2005, and ‘El Bola’ in 2004, which, along with ‘Alexandra’s Project,’ was produced for longtime client, New York-based Film Movement. The steady stream of accolades for their work in the movie trailer arena
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have reinforced Mighty:Pictures’ position as a premiere one-stop resource for a skilled collaborative creative team of writers, producers, editors, effects artists, composers and audio talent, adept at every phase of production - from concept through completion. The accolades received for this year’s Golden Trailer Awards continue to recognize Mighty:Pictures as a top-caliber creative problem-solver, and build upon its already considerable reputation with independent film companies and film studio distributors.
Each of this year’s nominated trailers presented Mighty:Pictures producer Charlie Sadoff and his team with a unique set of challenges. For ‘War Dance,’ they had to create a captivating HD trailer for a movie that didn’t even exist yet. After screening footage shot by Shine Global’s Emmy Award-winning Co-Directors, Sean Fine and Andrea Nix, Sadoff’s glimpse of this compelling story of a war-torn nation’s children triumphing over incomprehensible tragedy, inspired him to meet the challenge.
The complement of skills and experience Sadoff brings to the Mighty:Pictures banner as producer, editor and writer of a long roster of award-winning promos and trailers, as well as a diverse mix of documentary films and episodic television projects, proved to be the ideal preparation for creating this project, as it required both the traditional editorial approach employed for long-form films and TV programming, as well as the fast-paced cutting style he uses for short-form trailers and promos.
‘War Dance’ is a documentary set against the backdrop of Uganda's 20-year civil war, during which over 30,000 children have been abducted into military servitude. It tells the story of how a group of children from the Patongo Internally Displaced Persons Camp are transformed by a life-altering, historic journey when their school qualifies for Uganda's national music and dance competition, making them the first children from a war zone to ever participate in the event.
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The power of the event somehow transcends the reality of these young people’s world, where they live in constant fear of being snatched during night raids, and forced at gunpoint to beat and murder the neighbors, and sometimes even their own parents. After their hellish initiation, the boys become soldiers, filling 80% of the army’s ranks, and the girls are forced into sexual slavery. And, even though they had to travel through hostile territory with armed escorts to attend the music festival, the children did not hesitate to make the journey.
Producer Albie Hecht and Shine Global’s Executive Director/Executive Producer Susan Maclaury Hecht presented Mighty:Pictures with the challenge of creating a rather unconventional trailer that could initially be used as a vehicle for raising funds to complete their documentary. And, as there was no movie to emulate, it was left to Mighty:Pictures to create the pacing, mood and feel of the piece.
Helping the client develop that vision utilized the entire roster of Mighty:Pictures’ capabilities. The full-service company collaborated on the concept, developed the approach, wrote the script and edited the trailer, as well as created the sound design and supervised the mix. Mighty:Pictures, which has the kind of award-winning talent that can take a high-end project from concept to completion, also provided the client with an output to DVD, after cutting down the original 10:35 trailer to a 5:30 High Definition version for the web and a 4:30 HD trailer, for submission to the Golden Trailer Awards.
“Initially, no one was sure how the story could best be told,” noted Sadoff. “We had to decide if it should reflect the point of view of the school’s teachers or the perspective of the kids. Then there was the question of how much of Uganda’s politics we should use as back-story. The atrocities that these children endure are a big part of their story, but too much emphasis on this ongoing tragedy could overshadow the triumph that is the documentary’s empowering message.”
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This was not a traditional trailer. Its tone and structure also had to work as a presentation piece that would attract backers to the project. So, once again, Mighty:Pictures had to find a balance.
“If we cut the piece like a trailer, viewers would only see short snippets of scenes and there’d be no time to develop individual characters,” noted Josh Glaser, who edited the project for Mighty:Pictures. “But if we let things play out too long we risk making it seem like we were cutting the actual film.” Once these issues were resolved, Mighty:Pictures still had to deal with all of the questions that come up when producing and editing a traditional trailer, such as whether or not to use voiceover and what music would best support the storyline.
Much of the dialogue is in an African dialect and a lot of the English spoken was difficult to understand. Sadoff and Glaser had to refer to transcripts to understand what was being said, and figure out how the limited dialogue could be utilized to add yet another layer to the project.
The creative process first began in early November of last year when Mighty:Pictures’ creative team – Executive Producer/Writer/Editor Charlie Sadoff and Editor Josh Glaser - screened selected footage with Producer, Albie Hecht, Shine Global’s Executive Director/Executive Producer, Sue Maclaury Hecht, and Co-Directors, Sean Fine and Andrea Nix.
“The HD footage, shot by Fine on Panasonic’s HD Varicam, was spectacular,” noted Sadoff. “It became obvious that the best thing we could do was stay out of its way. Contrived structure, tricky editing or overly dramatic writing would only detract from the impact of the story.”
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Using Andrea’s brief outline as a jumping off point, M:P’s team tossed around some general structural ideas. Then Glaser and Sadoff were set free to begin shaping a concept.
After several script revisions and trying a few different approaches to editing, the pair realized that they needed to integrate both the elements of traditional trailers, as well as those of a documentary, in order to make it an effective tool for raising funds for the film. Mighty:Pictures, well known for producing award-winning trailers, has also distinguished itself as a production resource for high-end documentaries and television programming, so the project was a good fit with Sadoff’s and Glaser’s extensive crossover expertise as producers and editors of a diverse mix of genres.
Glaser, (who cut the trailer for, ‘Man of the Year,’ which was nominated for a 2005 Golden Trailer Award,) is a very technically savvy editor, and was in his element cutting the High Def project on Final Cut HD. Sadoff focused on writing the scripts and developing the structure, while collaborating with the client on different ideas.
Mighty:Pictures was able to create a custom-tailored approach to this project that gives an audience of prospective investors and critics enough of its story and character development to understand the completed documentary’s potential. At the same time, by interweaving fast-paced visual sequences, simple, strong copy and carefully selected clips of dialog with subtitles – they were able to include all the crucial elements of the story.
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“Our client, Shine Global, and the Hechts, were a pleasure to work with,” noted Satoff. “A project like this, first and foremost, is a labor of love. Our creative team was truly inspired by the devotion of everyone who worked on this film. Shine is a non-profit company and Albie was financing the project out of his own pocket. Even though he was both financially and personally invested in the film, he always listened to our ideas and allowed us to be an integral part of a truly collaborative creative process.”
“We could not have found a more collaborative team than Mighty:Pictures," noted Albie Hecht. "And, just as importantly, one who was able to empathize with our story and our children in order to deliver the right tone and emotion of the movie."
“The creative team at Mighty: Pictures was honored to be entrusted with a project that dealt with such a compelling and important issue,” added M:P partner, Mary Matyas. “We’re very proud of the final product.”
Since the completion of the trailer, that satisfaction has grown, as it was instrumental in securing an agent for the documentary and raising additional funds – which was it's purpose from the outset.
The other trailer, for renowned Aussie/Dutch director Rolf De Heer’s film, ‘Alexandra’s Project,’ earned Mighty:Pictures a nod for Best Foreign Dramatic Film Trailer. Dubbed by their client, Film Movement, as ‘the ultimate revenge movie,’ this psychological thriller that explores the different ways in which men and women view relationships and enact revenge – and it presented M:P with an entirely different set of challenges.
De Heer, known for his raw, honest approach to filmmaking, hooked into the new trend of unconventional ‘High-Art’ X-Rated cinema with his recent films ‘Dance Me To My Song,’ and this year’s ‘Bad Boy Bubby,’ (which Roger Ebert touted as “one of the
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bravest films of the decade,” when it was chosen as the first-ever selection at the Overlooked Film Festival.) ‘Alexandra’s Project’ continues in this tradition.
The movie tells the story of a day in the life of Steve, a typical alpha male contently going through the motions of married life. It’s his birthday and he’s in high spirits as he returns home after receiving a long sought promotion to middle management.
Anticipating that his wife has planned a surprise party, he’s taken aback when he finds his house dark and empty. The only clue to what’s going on is a videotape labeled 'Play Me.’ It begins with his wife Alexandra, and their children wishing him a happy birthday. Then his wife is alone on the screen, and she begins a striptease that ends with her pointing a gun at her head.
Film Movement asked Mighty:Pictures to create a trailer that built upon the raw sexuality and shock element of the movie, while focusing on the classic war between the genders.
“As with most trailers, a major issue is deciding how much of the story to reveal. There's a point in the movie where Steve comes home, opens the door and says, "Surprise!" I had wanted to end the trailer at that point and reveal nothing of what comes later,” noted Sadoff. “I really loved how the trailer for ‘Maria Full of Grace’ built up tension by showing a single scene from the movie and leaving the viewer wondering what's going to happen to this girl. However, I knew that if we took that approach we’d have a hard time positioning the film as part of the new trend in “High-Art” X-rated films.”
“We've worked with Film Movement Director of Production, Brandon Rosser, since the production company’s inception, and we’ve always enjoyed a relationship that included honest debate over questions like these,” noted Sadoff. “And this case was no different. “
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“We started experimenting with a few different directions. But because Film Movement’s ultimate goal was for their trailers to expose audiences to a newly resurrected genre of film - we realized that we needed to create a trailer that was more than just a teaser, and reveal more of the story.”
“As with most of the Film Movement titles we've worked on, we opted not to use a VO artist and tell the story and establish a tone using dialogue, imagery and music, as effective vehicles for building tension as the characters sense of isolation escalates.”
Mighty:Pictures Editor Josh Glaser cut the trailer. The movie is basically a tour de force for two actors, further limited by the fact that all the information comes from the perspective of the husband’s one-sided conversation added to the challenge.
“We had to convey that De Heer’s film was a riveting cinematic experience ewith this restricted range of footage,” noted Glaser. “The trailer takes the viewer to an emotionally risky and confrontational place. We needed to present enough of the story and style of the film to captivate the viewer, but stop short of giving any clue as to the final outcome.”
“I always enjoy working with Mighty:Pictures,” stated Rosser. “ They understand our goals, come up with good ideas, are easy to communicate with, and they work quickly. The trailer for ’Alexandra’s Project’ was tricky in that we did not want to give away too much of the story, which was difficult given the film’s structure, but Mighty:Pictures came up with something that really worked.”
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Mighty:Pictures offers an award-winning, collaborative team of talent that specializes in taking high-end movie trailers, documentaries, network programming, promos and music projects from concept, script, production and editing - through music, sound design, audio post and finishing, creating deliverables in standard or high definition.
Their other clients include independent production companies, studio film distributors and networks such as Miramax, Castle Hill, Paramount, MTV, Spike TV, HBO, ABC, CBS, ESPN, NBC, , Fox Sports, Nickelodeon , and Cablevision, to name a few.
For additional information about Mighty:Pictures’ services, contact Mary Matyas or Charlie Sadoff at 212.206.6557 or go to "
http://www.mightypics.tv" www.mightypics.tv. X
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