Sync’d : a success

Last night I had the privilege of screening work alongside a number of Pittsburgh filmmakers. Each of us created silent films; the bands Dire Wolves and Black Yodel provided live soundtracks. The results? Holy wow. In front of an almost-full theatre, a very attentive audience.

tess allard's piece for sync'd

Tess Allard’s transferred 16mm film totally captured the essence of the beat up mill town she filmed. Ben Hernstrom’s Vazaha Drive showed the transformational landscape of Madagascar. Justin Crimone’s unnamed collage created a repetative drone filled with ghosts.

As a filmmaker who provided footage to be scored, I could not have been happier with the results. The band Black Yodel scored my film. They chose to use found audio of birds as well as narrative voices describing the physics of flight in the soundscape. Their detailed attention to the work provided a synchronized result that actually made me cry in gratitude.

Organized by filmmaker Mike Maraden & featuring filmmakers Justin Crimone, Michael Maraden, Tess Allard, Anna Hawkins, Ben Hernstrom, Chris Smalley, Matthew R. Day, Keith DeVries, & me. Mike plans to organize another one in the future … This was such a fantastic night. Kudos to Mike for putting it all together!