In October we produced a short film with Todd Sklar (writer/director of our first feature, Box Elder), called ‘92 Skybox Alonzo Mourning Rookie Card. Todd directed this short film, which was co-written by Alex Rennie and himself. We filmed one day in Branson, Missouri and one day in Columbia, Missouri.

A few weeks ago we were excited to learn that the short film will play in competition next month at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. This week we are putting the finishing touches on the film and preparing to head to Park City in January.

Also this month we learned that our feature film, Box Elder, is finally available on iTunes. You can rent or buy the film for just a couple bucks and watch it on your computer, iPod, iPad, AppleTV, etc.

If you’ll be in Park City, check out showtimes for ‘92 Skybox Alonzo Mourning Rookie Card. If you haven’t seen Box Elder yet, check it out on iTunes. And if you have already seen it, please rate it 5-stars on iTunes and share the link with your friends. A few seconds of your time will help us out tremendously. Thanks!

Click here to view the embedded video.

One of our favorite advertising agencies to work with is Vittles Marketing. We first worked with them in 2008 on a series of videos for the California Olive Industry, shooting several interviews with olive farmers around rural California. Then in 2009 we shot a series of cooking videos with Vittles in Virginia Beach (also for California Olives) in the kitchen of Tammy Deane, the creative director for Vittles. Most of those videos can be viewed at www.calolive.org.

Recently we got to work with Vittles again to create several videos for Freebird Chicken and Plainville Farms Turkey. This project took us to rural Pennsylvania to shoot interviews with chicken and turkey farmers (all of them small, family farms) as well as back to Virginia Beach to shoot more cooking videos in Tammy’s kitchen. We had a great time learning all about the process of raising antibiotic-free poultry and we enjoyed getting to be creative with the shooting and editing of these videos.

Most of these videos will live online, but some of them have already been playing on monitors in Whole Foods stores in the Northeast.

A couple samples of the different videos are below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Boxcar Films rarely makes local commercials, but we wanted to work with Midwest Computech because when we talked to them they really wanted to give us complete creative freedom to make a series of spots that were funny and entertaining for the viewer. They gave us very few restrictions and they really just wanted us to come up with spots that feel more like comedic web videos than TV commercials.

Once we had written the scripts we called in several actor friends from BOX ELDER and shot all three spots in one day in Columbia, MO. We also created a longer version of each spot that Midwest Computech will use on the web and in social media marketing.

The first of these spots aired today in Columbia during the MU football game, and the others will run over the next few months.

Check out all three spots below, and the longer version of the 3 spots can be seen on Midwest Computech’s Youtube Channel.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

A preview of the video was featured on an episode of MTV’s show “The Seven” about a month ago. Then the video was release on Monday of this week exclusively on blurt-online.com, with youtube and other outlets to soon follow. Meanwhile, Ha Ha Tonka just wrapped up a very successful tour which included 7 sold out shows out of the 45 dates they played. The band was also recently featured on an episode of No Reservations on the Travel Channel. We’ve been friends with these guys for years, so we’re all very excited about their continued success.

Check out the new video here:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Our short documentary Yellowcake was accepted into the 1st International Uranium Film Festival, URANIO EM MOVI(E)MENTO. The festival is Latin America’s first film fest designed to address nuclear and radioactive issues.

We made the short documentary about the effects of uranium mining and milling on communities in Colorado and around the country. With global warming and rising fuel prices, nuclear power has reemerged as a viable candidate to solve future energy problems. While nuclear energy is touted as affordable and clean, few take into consideration the cost and effects of mining and processing the uranium for the power plants. Yellocake talks to experts and real people affected by uranium enrichment to create an eye opening portrait of the true cost of a nuclear future.

The film festival is being held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on May 21-28, 2011.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The 2011 Addy Awards for Mid-Missouri were held on Friday night and Boxcar Films won 3 awards for the 2010 True/False TV commercial we made called “Miniature City.” The spot won a Gold Addy Award, as well as Best of Television and a People’s Choice Award for Advertisement of the Year. We are very proud since we worked so hard on this spot, and we didn’t work with an agency on this one so we had complete creative control of the spot from concept through completion. Several people have asked who the band is in this spot… they are our friends Capybara and you can learn much more about them HERE.

The Woodruff-Sweitzer agency also won several Addys, including a Gold Addy Award for the promotional video we created with them for Hubbell Power Systems. If you haven’t seen either video, both the True/False TV spot and Hubbell video are below.

You can read about all of the Addy Award winners in Mid-Missouri HERE.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Thanks to our partnership with Gravitas Ventures, our feature comedy Box Elder will finally be available on Netflix streaming on Feb 20th! You can add the film to you Netflix queue by clicking HERE.

And that’s not all… the film will also be up on Amazon.com VOD in about 45 days, and it will be available on Cinema Now in about 90 days. So please, tell all your friends to watch the film and help us spread the comedy and sandwiches around the world.

And if you really want to help support us you can still purchase a DVD of the film. We don’t get much money when you watch the film online, but when you buy a DVD it actually helps contribute to us recouping our investment in the film. Plus you get over 2 hours of special features. You can buy the DVD on the Box Elder website by clicking HERE, or on Amazon.com.

And if you haven’t seen it yet, watch the trailer for Box Elder here:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Beginning in January, some of our work will be shown at The Big Screen Project in New York, so if you’re in that area you can soon check out some of our short documentaries and music videos on the big screen.

Here is a description of the project from their website:

“The Big Screen Project is an innovative venue for video, film, live and interactive content that will set a new standard for the urban, cinematic experience. It consists of a large 30 x 16.5 ft. HD Format LED screen located at the 10,000 sq. ft. public plaza behind a new 54-story multi-use building on Sixth Avenue between 29th and 30th Street in New York City.

The content shown is eclectic ranging from the best in the arts, cinema, and new media to highlights in sports and video gaming. Our team of curators collects the best of global cultures in participation with strategic content partners such as art institutions, film festivals, ecologically and humanitarian minded not-for-profits etc. The programming will be at least 10 hours a day.”

Our first piece to be shown on The Big Screen will be the short documentary Fuad, which will screen as part of the Emerging Documentary Filmmakers block beginning on January 10th at 10AM. The series will run in January and will also run again later in the year. You can see The Big Screen’s programming lineup here, and you can watch Fuad below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

To shoot this project we traveled to 9 cities over 3 weeks, filming a total of 13 days, then spent about 3 weeks in post production (which began while we were still in production). We used our newly acquired Canon 5D Mark ii and Canon 7D cameras, with several lenses as well as several accessories (remote timer, mini jib arm, steadicam, etc).

We’re very proud of the finished product and it has been very well received so far.

Check it out:

Click here to view the embedded video.

…sort of.

We need everyone to “save” the film in your Netflix queue, and once enough people have it saved, Netflix will actually offer the film both on DVD as well as Watch Instantly.

Click Here to see the film’s listing on Netflix.

And there are other ways you can see the film (and help us out). It continues to be available on Video On Demand for the next 80 days or so.  Click Here for a list of cable providers that carry the film, but the list can change without notice so check your local Video On Demand menu to see if the film is available in your area.

And of course the film is still available to purchase on DVD from our website, as well as Amazon.com.

Thanks to all of you for your support.