Recently in Steeltown in the News Category

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Carnegie Mellon University faculty member Dennis Schebetta's movie script about a wedding planner looking for the perfect date was the big winner at the fourth Steeltown Film Factory competition, held Saturday at the university's Philip Chosky Theater. Mr. Schebetta was awarded $20,000 to produce his film, "My Date with Adam." It will premiere at the Three Rivers Film Festival in November.

A $10,000 second prize was awarded to Point Park University graduate Glenn Syska for "The Sketch," about a lonely artist who falls in love with the subject of one of his drawings. Heather Gray won $2,500 for her script for "Life after Deaf."

St. Ignatius Church / credit: Post-Gazette

By Bob Podurgiel / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Scott Peters, a 25-year-old filmmaker, had many people to thank when he stepped to the lectern at the former St. Ignatius Church in Scott, where he and his writing partner made the film, "Escape from St. Quentin's."

Mr. Peters and fellow filmmaker Tony Poremski hosted a free screening of the movie April 20 for the cast, crew and friends of the project at the church on Ignatius Street in the Glendale neighborhood of Scott.

Mr. Peters, who grew up in Ross, thanked the cast and extras who portrayed church parishioners in the story of 10-year-old Danny, a mischievous genius who attempts to escape Sunday services to play a game of football with his friends. The lead role is played by Nick Staso of Washington, Pa.

The film follows Danny's attempts to trick his overbearing parents, avoid the death stare of a nun and wiggle through a tiny window in the church's storage room.

With his artful preparation, he may have a chance unless unexpected complications sideline him for all eternity -- or at least another hour.

The independent film cost about $20,000 to make. Extras were not paid, but they received free food and T-shirts.

By Barbara Vancheri / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Drum roll please ... and the Steeltown Film Factory finalists, their occupations and films are: Heather Gray, a professional deaf-interpreter ("Life After Deaf"); Dennis Schebetta, a Carnegie Mellon University faculty member and playwright ("My Date With Adam"); and Glenn Syska, Point Park graduate and graphic artist ("The Sketch").

A winner will be chosen May 11 at the final event at Carnegie Mellon University's Purnell Center for the Arts, Chosky Theatre. Doors will open at 10:30 a.m., the event will start at 11 a.m.

CMU drama students will do a live table read of the three short scripts with $30,000 and the chance to turn that screenplay into a short film at stake. TV writer-producer Sally Lapiduss will be among the judges.

The event will be held in memory of Ellen Weiss Kander, Steeltown's co-founder and founding executive director. A tribute film to her will debut and the top prize once again is being called the Ellen Weiss Kander Award.

Read more: Film Notes

By Barbara Vancheri / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Drumroll ... and the Steeltown Film Factory finalists are: Heather Gray, "Life After Deaf"; Dennis Schebetta, "My Date With Adam"; and Glenn Syska, "The Sketch."

A winner will be chosen May 11 at the final event at Carnegie Mellon University's Purnell Center for the Arts, Chosky Theatre. Judges have yet to be named.

Doors will open at 10:30 a.m., the event will start at 11 a.m.

CMU drama students will do a live table read of the three short scripts with $30,000 and the chance to turn that screenplay into a short film at stake.

The event will be held in memory of Ellen Weiss Kander, Steeltown's co-founder and founding executive director. A tribute film to her will debut and the top prize once again is being called the Ellen Weiss Kander Award.

Go to www.steeltownfilmfactory.org to buy tickets or read more about the finalists.

3 Steeltown Finalists Revealed

From left to right: Carl Kurlander, Rusty Cundieff,

Asher Garfinkel, Doug Crise

By Timothy McNulty/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The plot line for the Steeltown Film Factory remains the same, with fledgling filmmakers writing screenplays judged by Hollywood players with Pittsburgh ties. But the character development of the competition itself, now in its fourth year, is growing stronger, much like the group that organizes it.

Filmmakers submitted more than 250 scripts to Steeltown that script readers in Los Angeles, Pittsburgh and New York City cut down to 12 quarterfinalists. The dozen hopefuls had to pitch their scripts to three panelists Saturday, and after rewrites five of them will move on to the semifinals next month.

Last year's winner, Carnegie Mellon University student Yulin Kuang, had her short film "The Perils of Growing Up Flat Chested" screened last month at Lionsgate studios. The film by second-place finisher Chris Preksta, best known for directing the "Pittsburgh Dad" shorts, was picked up by a Web production studio founded by Disney chief Michael Eisner.

This year's crop of stories -- including one about a grief-stricken boy counting all of Allegheny County's bridges, another about a woman who falls in love with a robot, and a comedy by WDVE-FM disc jockey Randy Baumann -- is next in line. Steeltown itself has high hopes for where it is going as a leading promoter of the Pittsburgh film industry.

Read more: Pittsburgh's budding screenwriters make their pitches

By Barbara Vancheri/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A dozen candidates are one step closer to winning $30,000 to make a short film in Pittsburgh courtesy of the Steeltown Film Factory competition.

The fourth annual contest, organized by the Steeltown Entertainment Project, received more than 250 entries, which were winnowed to submissions by 10 men and two women. They will appear at Film Factory: The Writer's Pitch at 11 a.m. (doors open at 10:30 a.m.) March 23 at the University of Pittsburgh's Frick Fine Arts Building.

General admission, $10, and students, $5. For details: www.steeltownfilmfactory.org.

A panel of three judges -- director and Pittsburgh native Rusty Cundieff ("The Wanda Sykes Show," "Chappelle's Show," "Fear of a Black Hat"), Oscar-nominated film editor Douglas Crise ("Babel," "Spring Breakers") and screenplay expert Asher Garfinkel -- will weigh the pitches from the dozen who dabble in dark subjects, a mayoral run, dreamy dates and squatting in abandoned houses alongside a homeless man.

Read more: Film Notes

The third annual Take a Shot at Changing the World contest kicked off January 19th at the Heinz History Center. Steeltown announced a new partnership with Voices of a People's History, building on the legacy of Howard Zinn. Students who came to the event enjoyed a special screening of "The People Speak."

Read more about the kick-off event here.

By Sarah Jackson/Remake Learning

Hollywood is rolling out the red carpet for the 85th annual Academy Awards this Sunday. But in Pittsburgh, we're celebrating our own local film talent - the city's young people - who through a variety of innovative programs in the region are becoming accomplished filmmakers in their own right.

Teens in the Pittsburgh region are using digital media to write, edit and produce their own films, building skills, experimenting with new technologies, and expressing important ideas about the most pressing social and cultural issues of their generation.

The Steeltown Entertainment Project, for example, is encouraging budding filmmakers through their Take a Shot at Changing the World video contest. Now in its third year, the contest awards prizes to local middle and high school students for films that "tell stories about people and movements that changed the world, and how they are inspired to act."

The contest was inspired by Steeltown's film, The Shot Felt 'Round the World, which tells the story of how Jonas Salk and his team at the University of Pittsburgh pulled together with the city to conquer what was once the most feared disease of the 20th century--polio. In 2011 schools were given copies of the film and asked to make their own short movies connecting what happened locally with the development of the vaccine to present-day eradication efforts.

Since then, over 400 students from over 60 schools have made videos about how Pittsburgh has changed the world and what they would do to change their own communities, winning over $20,000 in prizes for themselves and their schools. Lenique Huggins, a middle school student at Falk Laboratory School, won the Heinz History Center Pittsburgh Innovation Prize last year for her short film "Lawrence's Fight for Green." Huggins wrote (& performed) an original song about Pittsburgh's former mayor David Lawrence who fought for heavy restrictions on air pollution in the city in the 1940's. The film also suggests ways her peers can help continue Lawrence's fight for a cleaner community by taking public transit, for example, planting trees or buying green electricity.

Read More: Pittsburgh Teens Make Movies to Change the World

By Marty Levine/PopCity Media

The "Take a Shot" kids' video contest is still about "how kids can change the world and how Pittsburgh can change the world," says Carl Kurlander, president of Steeltown Entertainment, which started the contest three years ago.

Inspired by, and originally focused on, Jonas Salk's pioneering polio vaccine work here, the contest now has several new themes for video entries -- including the environment, nonviolence and "The People Speak" -- and $10,000 in prizes.

"The People Speak" theme stems from the Steeltown-sponsored event last May in which actors Matt Damon, Frances McDormand and John Krasinski (in town to film the just-released "Promised Land") and local activists read here from the work of Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States and subject of "The People Speak" documentary. Take a Shot is now partnering with Voices of a People's History, founded by Zinn and others, to bring to life the stories of lesser-known movements and people instrumental in the country's history. Voices is also providing Take a Shot with curriculum materials to help teachers encourage their students to participate. "That's really important to us," says Kurlander. "We've really been inspired by how teachers have used this in their classrooms."

On Jan. 19, this year's Take a Shot contest will launch with a free showing of "The People Speak," which features Morgan Freeman, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Pink, Eddie Vedder and others. "We'll use that kickoff to inspire kids to make videos on how you make change in your community," Kurlander says. On Feb. 24, before that evening's Oscar broadcast, Take a Shot will hold a filmmaking workshop at the Senator John Heinz History Center.

Read more: Kids' video contest

Pittsburgh Business Times

Steeltown Entertainment Project, a nonprofit aiming to build a sustainable entertainment industry in southwestern Pennsylvania, has received a $500,000 grant from the Hillman Foundation, led by billionaire industrialist Henry Hillman.

Steeltown will use the support to collaborate with other interested organizations and companies to strategically build the region's infrastructure, expand its programs and attract investments.

Read more: Steeltown secures $500,000 Hillman Foundation grant