Brief Update:We had a wonderful Zoom virtual Pioneer Valley Films meeting on May 22nd and the recording complete with the all-new YouTube chapters feature is on our channel here. You can jump to any part that interests you: either scrub over the timeline or click on a chapter marker in the description.

But you say, “I looked at the informative chapters you spent so much time adding and now I’m sad I missed all your witty banter and insightful discussion on films and filmmaking technique! I so very much wish I had attended!” 

Fear not! To allay your remorse and/or poor planning, our next Zoom meeting is set for this coming Thursday (June 11th) at Noon. Bring some finger food, a nosh, or just your late-morning caffeine to another Pioneer Valley Films online meeting. It’s free form, nothing to do but show up and let us know what’s happening in your world. Imagine the look in your grandchildren’s eyes when you tell them how you attended a virtual meeting, back before neocortical implants made us all part of The Borg!

So, if Resistance is Futile then we’ll see you Thursday at noon!

A little update from our Zoom meeting on Monday, May 11th…

We had Mike, Casey, Luis, Brian, Jonathon, and myself (Rowan) for a one-hour gathering. Next Zoom meeting will be on Friday, May 22nd at 2 PM (that’s a week from this Friday, in case you’ve lost track of time).

Meeting date: Dec 4th, 2019

Howdy!

We just wrapped on our final meeting of the year where we regaled one another with stories of films we liked, places we love, projects to work on, and stars to be born.

Ed showed us some short films he’d worked on and even co-starred in using his wondrous viewing devices (see photo to be amazed).

Mike talked about differences between French and American cultures, what he loves about each, and how much he loved watching Midnight in Paris and Casablanca.

Howdy Folks!

Our two most-recent meetings (November 6th and 16th) helped focus us better.

About our 13th meeting on crowdfunding:

The crowdfunding talk by Peggy Twardowski (meeting 13 on November 6th) was incredible and provided a lot of insight into what it takes to make a campaign work. Mike and Rowan have edited the video of that, which will be up shortly to view (it will be announced). The meeting lasted over an hour with many examples of campaigns, all specific to Western Massachusetts independent filmmaking.

Our next meeting is happening on Wednesday, November 6th at 9 pm in Northampton. Our special guest speaker is Peggy Twardowski, an expert in crowdfunding. She will explain the ins and outs of how filmmakers (that’s us!) can get the maximum play for our campaign. This talk is an exceptional opportunity to learn from a real expert with first-hand experience how to create and run a crowdfunding campaign in today’s over-saturated world. RSVP using our contact page (seating is very limited).

In our twelfth meeting, Russell, Mike, Ed, and Rowan discussed the flyers (plus an awesome surprise was revealed for our next meeting on November 6th, to be shared in a separate post). Rather than annoy you with details, here’s the comic book summary of our meeting…

Howdy Folks!

It’s really a joy to be in a room full of creative and enthusiastic people. That’s what I got to experience at our most-recent meeting of Pioneer Valley Films!

With our April 2020 date set for filming Sound Staged, we put the focus on…

• Russell designs the flyer (he will be posting versions to get comments on shortly). The flyer will be one of our tools to get the word out to potential members.
• Rowan provides Casey with boilerplate replies for when people enquire from the flyer.
• Mike, Russell and others (not sure who else is doing this) create a video of our members: a round-table of interviews with inserts/cutaways to talk about our current involvement, past experience and upcoming interests. Russell said to think of it as an explanatory commercial of PVFilms. To create this, they need:
  • clips (or pointers to clips) of videos that show what you’ve done in the past, and
  • a biographical statement that describes you (in whatever way you want: personal, hobbies, filmmaking experience, what you’re planning to do) or anecdotescfrom your experience.

Howdy Folks! In the face of evening torrential rains and on-going existential ennui, four brave filmmakers met for our eighth meeting at Packard’s in Northampton this past Wednesday.

We had a short meeting and discussed…