Yamasong is screening at the Graphation Film Festival at 8:00pm on Thursday March 16th at the Hive Gallery! There will be a Q/A panel with myself and Sam after the screen then a showing of one of the Jim Henson masterpieces that inspired Yamasong, The Dark Crystal!
Graphation @ the Hive
Thursday, March 17th, 8:00pm
The Hive Gallery and Studios
729 S. Spring St.
Los Angeles, CA
Yamasong the movie had it’s premiere at the Florida Film Festival and has been accepted to several other festivals including: “Plastic Paper” Festival of Animation & Puppetry in Winnipeg, Canada, the World Festival of Puppet Art in Prague, Czech Republic, the San Francisco United Film Festival, the Fear No Film Festival in Salt Lake City and the World Music & Independent Film Festival in Washington DC. We also just received word that Yamasong was nominated for Best Screenplay and Best Original Sound for a short film at the World Music & Independent Film Festival in DC!
A year and a half ago I met with Sam Koji Hale a talented puppet maker and visual artist over a bowl of ramen and we talked about doing a short film based on one of the Ume in the Middle tracks. I had seen a table top bunraku production that Sam was involved with and was really taken by the artistry of the performance. When we got together it was clear that creatively we had much in common and that we should try to do something together. Sam then pitched the project to Heather Henson and she agreed to produce a short film through her production company IBEX.
After that it was off to the races. Sam put together a great crew and it was amazing to watch the whole thing come to life from initial character designs and sketches to models to puppets to the shooting and the post production work. At every step of the way my excitement grew as the film came together and now it’s finally finished! Sam is submitting it to film festivals now and we are also producing a DVD of the film with making of features and commentaries.
Sam, the director we’ve been working with, has finished “Yamasong” a short animated film based on our track of the same title. He’s started submitting it to film festivals and it’s already been accepted to the World Music and Independent Film Festival in Washington, DC and the Florida Film Festival. We’ve also set up a website for the film and will be producing a DVD soon! We’ll be posting more news about “Yamasong” and where it will be showing soon!
We’ve been working with puppeteer director Sam Koji Hale on a short film set to Yamasong. I just saw the rough cut and it looks amazing! Sam has posted some short clips of what his done on his facebook page. Check it out!
