Beaumont, Texas – January 18, 2020 – What if Spielberg never met Lucas? We would still have E.T. and Star Wars, but we wouldn’t know the glory of Indiana Jones.
With four short films created in Southeast Texas this summer headed to film festivals, some area filmmakers want to continue that momentum. South East Texas ACTION Networking Group will host its inaugural meet-up at 6:30 p.m., Jan. 31, in Lamar University Communications Department room 103, 801 E Virginia St, Beaumont, TX 77705.
“Lamar has opened its doors to the local film community so they can connect with each other and local film students,” said Penny LeLeux, one of the organizers of the event. LeLeux is the writer/director of one of the local films and an award winning screenwriter from Orangefield.
The first meeting, “Take ACTION,” is a meet and greet where area filmmakers, students, actors, and anyone interested in growing a unified film community in Southeast Texas will gather to get to know each other.
Plans are to meet once a month. Future meetings could include screenings and discussions of locally created films, discussions and determination of areas of strengths and weaknesses and how that can be addressed; along with other related topics.
Practical workshops where filmmakers could learn things such as shooting fight scenes are also under consideration.
“That is something I would be interested in,” said Dakota Parker, another of the event organizers. Parker is a current film student at Lamar and was part of the crew on some of the films made locally. Parker said fight sequences are something that hasn’t been taught locally and most area filmmakers haven’t had the opportunity to experience.
All those in attendance at the first meeting will be polled to see what areas of filmmaking they would like to explore to assist with planning of future events.
Julia Rodriguez, the third member of the planning committee, is the director of Boomtown Music and Film Festival. She will be addressing ACTION on the future of Boomtown, as they shift some of their focus towards education.
They will also conduct a filmmaker “speed dating” session during the meeting where filmmakers will get a chance to quickly learn about other filmmakers – their area of expertise, passion projects, current needs, etc. – to hopefully facilitate future collaborations.
The meeting is open to anyone that has an interest in advancing filmmaking in Southeast Texas. It is free and open to the public. For updated information check the Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/821093208342889/ or contact one of the event organizers.
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