Last week Emulsion Arts launched its first crowd funding campaign to help complete a documentary about an obscure Hollywood collector, Martin Hill. Martin owns the greatest collection of vintage Hollywood film equipment in the world and its located in the modest, remote town of Midland, NC. The collection includes cameras, lights and stage props from Academy Award movies like Gone with the Wind, Lawrence of Arabia, Star Wars and countless other award winning films. Charlie Chaplin’s personal camera that filmed The Gold Rush is Martin’s most cherished piece in his collection.

“With the declining state of the collection we felt there was no better time than now to capitalize on the popularity of crowd funding by launching a Kickstarter campaign to fund the completion of the project,” said Bruce Clark, Director of Strategic Development at Emulsion Arts.

The campaign will run for the next 43 days. Emulsion Arts hopes to raise over $6,000. The money will be used to complete editing, scoring and post production work.

Information about the the documentary and the campaign can be found at:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/emulsionarts/martin-hill-preserving-hollywood-history
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Martin-Hill/107770202466

http://historicmoviecameras.com/

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Emulsion Arts is an internationally acclaimed, award-winning film production company based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Emulsion Arts has produced feature length documentaries, national and international television ad campaigns and motion picture productions for Fortune 500 companies, as well as feature films.

For questions or interview requests please contact Bruce Clark, Director of Strategic Development. 704-343-0220, Bruce@emulsionarts.com

Emulsion Arts helps Thompson Child & Family Focus raise $1.3 million

CHARLOTTE, NC (6/1/11) At the annual fundraising luncheon for Thompson Child & Family Focus, something magical happened, $1.3 million dollars was raised through generous donations.

Working alongside the non-profit organization since 2005, Emulsion Arts has been helping Thompson Child & Family Focus spread the word about their life-changing programs and services for suffering children.

According to Toniette Wilkinson, Thompson’s Director of Community Relations, “Emulsion Arts has been instrumental in helping us raise $5.2 million dollars since they started producing our films seven years ago. The wonderful messaging via their powerful films has certainly been an important ingredient in our success.”

“It feels great to be able to affect people and help an organization reach new heights,” admits Amanda Van der Meulen, Editor/Producer at Emulsion Arts. “Being a part of Thompson’s milestone fundraising event is a personal reward for me”.

The 2011 film recounted the emotional true-life story of a Charlotte teenager and his family’s struggle to help their son by enrolling him in Thompson Child and Family Focus.

“Letting people in on your personal life through a visual story is truly worthwhile. A visual story stays with us much longer than a speech, leaving a mental image you’ll always remember. It is gratifying to see the emotion and understanding in a room after audiences watch our films.” added Lisa Gergely, Emulsion’s Director of Development.

Reaching this year’s extraordinary sum of $1.3 million dollars is remarkable, but the real story will begin when word of the positive results of Thompson’s programs are spread by the Charlotte business executives attending the luncheon.

Joanne Hock, founding partner of Emulsion Arts who has been the Creative Director behind Thompson’s fundraising films for the past 7 years feels fortunate to be in the position to help Thompson gain exposure for their wonderful programs.

Emulsion Arts is currently developing additional films for Thompson, as Thompson gets ready to celebrate their 125th year of making children whole. Ginny Amendum, President of Thompson, expressed personal thanks to Joanne Hock and Emulsion Arts, “For all you have done for us, with professionalism, enthusiasm and humor, I am forever grateful.”

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All inquires should be directed to Lisa Gergely at Emulsion Arts.
704-343-0220
Lisa@EmulsionArts.com

http://www.wfae.org/wfae/18_93_0.cfm?do=detail&id=13272

Information from a Thursday, May 12, 2011 WFAE Segment on the North Carolina Film Industry taken from www.wfae.org

North Carolina has been a destination for Hollywood filmmakers for more than two decades now thanks to our varied landscapes, large cities and a studio in Wilmington. Now North Carolina is becoming a source for films as more and more local writers, directors and cinematographers are making films right here at home. These filmmakers are finding that North Carolina is home to a deep talent pool and experienced crew members. What isn’t yet in place is an infrastructure of investors and a network of distribution. The members of our panel our out to change that and we will talk to them about the present and the future for the North Carolina Film Industry.

Guests

Linnea Byer – Director of Film, The Light Factory

Aaron Syrett – Director, NC Film Commission

Joanne Hock – Director, Writer and Cinematographer, Emulsion Arts

Juli Emmons – Co-Founder, Charlotte Film Community

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Ideal work environment for a 9-year-old: Your office is next door to one of Charlotte’s best bakeries, the conference rooms are full of pooches who snuggle when they’re awake and wheeze happily while they sleep, hip young people come and go to connect you to the zeitgeist, neighborhood kids drop by to use the computers.

No wonder Emulsion Arts, born in May 2002, flourishes in its NoDa digs.

The company is putting the final touches on its first feature film, a broad comedy with unexpected heart titled “Redneck Roots.” (The rough cut gets its public premiere Saturday at Sensoria, Central Piedmont Community College’s multi-cultural fest.)

Emulsion continues to shoot local, regional and national commercials and corporate films while planning TV, documentary and feature projects. And though its four leaders – all women in their 50s – collectively have 130 years’ worth of experience in the film business, they’re kids at heart.

“Nothing has aged about us,” says producer Heidi Dove. “We love learning, and our pulse is on what’s new.”

Dove created Emulsion with writer-director Joanne Hock and financial manager Doug Adams and was there when the company leapt forward with a changing of the guard in 2008: Former New York entertainment attorney Robin Grey became CEO, Lisa Gergely came in as director of business development, and Adams left.

“I wanted to reconfigure the business,” says Grey, who knew Hock from the board of directors of The Light Factory. “They were getting jobs but not making nearly as much as they should have. The question was, with the economy failing, how would Emulsion prosper?”

The answer: “By thinking bigger.” It raised $200,000 to make “Roots” last summer. That figure is deceptively low, because it doesn’t count in-kind contributions or voluntary salary cuts. (Emulsion’s long list of thank-yous begins with the town of Stanley, where policeman Derek Summey was so helpful with locations they made him associate producer.)

Emulsion chose not to do a horror film or a slacker drama, typical low-budget debuts. It shot a family-friendly comedy about businesswoman Chris (Heather Gilliland) and co-worker Ben (Dean Napolitano), who has proposed to her. When she visits the rural family she has always hidden from him, he goes after her to meet her flatulent, beer-imbibing but surprisingly wry kinfolk.

“We cast the comic net wide to appeal to as many people as possible,” says Hock, a veteran known for calm demeanor and firm control on sets. “We wanted to find the fine line between silliness and heart in the story.”

Their complementary skills

The four women seem to harmonize as smoothly as a barbershop quartet

“We’re not always so ladylike in production meetings,” Hock says, laughing. “But we fit together well. Robin has the business acumen I don’t have. Lisa has the people acumen.”

And, says Gergely, “Heidi is creative at everything: She can write, edit, shoot (footage), do voice-overs. We throw anything at her on short notice.”

In a way, the atmosphere at Emulsion seems placid: A few neighborhood kids come in to use computers, three dogs amble up to visitors, interns learning the business drift in and out of cubicles (and onto Hock’s film sets, too).

At the same time, Emulsion plans to ratchet up production.

Hock, who jokes that she goes home only to sleep, cook meals and do laundry, plunged from post-production work on “Roots” into directing “Trinity Goodheart,” a drama starring James Hong and Eric Benet. Emulsion didn’t produce it, but success would reflect positively on Hock and her company.

Commercially viable

Emulsion hopes to document the travels of Charlotte acting coach J.D. Lewis, who’ll take off with his two sons on a round-the-globe public service jaunt this summer. A “Six Feet Under”-style series in a tattoo parlor is brewing. Gergely recruits commercials for clients that could be local (Boyle’s), national (General Electric) or philanthropic (Thompson Child and Family Focus).

Yet a string of feature films would set the company apart as nothing else can. The next one could be “Wednesdays at the Gem,” a period piece – and thus more expensive to recreate – about the Gem Theatre in Kannapolis during the 1930s, when segregation kept black audiences out of the theater. Hock describes her pet project as “‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ Meets ‘Cinema Paradiso.’”

“We’ll try to do stories we’d want to watch, like ‘Driving Miss Daisy’ or ‘Fried Green Tomatoes,’” says Grey. “You have to be commercially viable, so people will invest in you, but a movie’s quality matters, too.”

Read more: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/04/03/2192465/emulsion-making-its-new-mark-on.html#ixzz1IVgzTAo5

Emulsion Arts is nearing completion on their first feature film, Redneck Roots, written and directed by Emulsion partner Joanne Hock. The film, a “comedy with heart” tells the story of Crystalyn (Heather Gilliland), a small-town girl who moves to the big city to hide her southern roots. When a family event calls her home, she covers up the truth, lies and leaves behind the city and her boyfriend Ben (comedian, Dean Napolitano) in a fib. Ben trails her in hot pursuit through the DEEP SOUTH. Nothing could prepare him for the oddball, off-kilter loveable kin and townspeople he encounters below the Mason Dixon line.

Focus groups have been giving the film rave reviews: “It’s full of heart, fun, romance and charm.” “I can sum up Redneck Roots with one word – heart. In these times of fast food, fast life and frantic friendships, holding on to our families, laughter and love will get us through. It is heart and you nailed it.”

The Emulsion team filmed for 24 days over the summer of 2010, braving temperatures well above 90 degrees. Locations included the Metropolitan in Charlotte, downtown Stanley, the old WBT emergency broadcast station and Rabb’s Florist in Mt. Holly. John Disher edited collaborating with Tony Elwood and Heidi Dove. Sound design was sketched byTony Elwood and composer Fred Story of Concentrix Music and Sound Design is working on the score with further sound design by Anthony Fedele. Kingdom Post is working on color correction and compositing. The Redneck Roots theme song was written by Emulsion partner Heidi Dove with cohorts Gina Stewart and Brenda Lee.

A rough cut of the film will be shown on April 9th at CPCC’s SENSORIA festival.

Emulsion Arts partners have been planning their expansion into the feature film world for the past two years. It is clear to Emulsion CEO and Redneck Roots’ Producer, Robin Grey that Hock has what it takes to be a feature Director. Hock has been writing feature scripts for many years including her Nichol’s Fellowship winning script “Wednesdays at the Gem”. Regionally she is known for her directing and cinematography work in commercials, corporate and not-for-profit films. Now she is eager to show her storytelling capabilities on long form projects.

Emulsion financed the film with help from an Emulsion friend and a few companies that supported the filmmakers with collaborative assistance: Perry’s Jewelry, Bojangles, Mercedes-Benz of South Charlotte and Steinmart.

Ms. Grey is confident Emulsion has a winner. “This is a film that appeals to a wide audience” she says. “It is a delightful blend of sweet romance and lovingly dished out humor using stereotypes in a charming manner that has made our test audiences laugh out loud.” Redneck Roots is truly a romantic comedy gone south; full of heart, charm, wisecracks and fun!

All inquires should be directed to Robin Grey at Emulsion Arts. 704-343-0220.

A Charlotte production team headed by Emulsion owner, Director and Cinematographer Joanne Hock has earned four impressive awards for film work completed in 2008. The honors were awarded by the prestigious New York International Film Festival and the Charlotte Addy Awards.

A coveted 2009 Finalist Certificate from the New York Festivals was earned by Emulsion Arts for a custom-made corporate film for Bank of America, entitled “Diversity and Inclusion” in the award category of Industrial Productions. Director Hock, Creative Producer Heidi Dove and veteran Emulsion Producer Kay Thompson led a Charlotte production crew for ten days of filming in Charlotte, Tampa, Wilmington (Delaware) and New York City. Ms. Hock and Editor John Disher also post-produced the project here in Charlotte. The completed twenty-minute film, outlining Bank of America’s commitment to diversity and inclusion, will be used by the Charlotte based bank for training, new employee orientation and internal
presentations.

Emulsion’s work on the “Diversity and Inclusion” film also garnered two Silver Addy awards from the Charlotte Addy Association in the categories of Cinematography and Audio/Visual Sales Presentation. The awards were presented during the annual Addy presentations on March 5, 2009 at Center Stage@NoDa, here in Charlotte. The Charlotte Addy organization is affiliated with the American Advertising Federation, a not-for-profit industry association of 200 member advertising clubs and 15 districts throughout the U.S.

Also a Silver Award winner for Cinematography at the 2009 Addy event was Emulsion’s corporate presentation piece for BMW entitled “BMW Zentrum”. BMW Zentrum is a 28,000 square foot visitor’s center and museum located at the manufacturer’s Greer, South Carolina location. The museum showcases BMW’s heritage of engineering and innovation in auto, aircraft and motorcycle manufacturing. As a production team, Director/Cinematographer Hock, Cinematographer Peter Mallamo, Producer Kay Thompson and Editor John Disher produced a state-of-the-art presentation piece that features very dynamic aerial photography of the BMW plant and surrounding area.

Silver Addy Award winners are eligible to submit entries to the District Addy Award competition for regional recognition. District award winners then compete for the National Awards presentations held June 6, 2009 in Atlanta.

Heidi Dove, Creative Producer and co-owner at Emulsion Arts, has created a new video for The Levine Museum of the New South’s most recent interactive exhibit, Changing Places: From Black and White to Technicolor®. The exhibit opens today at the downtown Charlotte museum and will be open throughout 2009, and scheduled to run until February 28, 2010.

Working closely with Levine’s Assistant Curator Dr. Tom Hanchett, Ms. Dove and a local production crew filmed Charlotte area residents and organizations over the course of several months in 2008. The project explores how Charlotte is dealing with the cultural diversity and change created by the influx of newcomers from across the U.S and around the globe.

“The resulting video offers a fascinating look at the cultural changes in our community,” offers Dove in summary. Ms. Dove and crew initially interviewed individuals in several immigrant families and also members of a multi-cultural Charlotte church. The video explores the unique experiences in all of the “Coming to America” stories. What emerges in Ms. Dove’s thought-provoking work provides an illuminating perspective on the unexpected difficulties in adapting to a traditional society in a new country and region.

The Changing Places video is an integral part of Levine’s newest exhibit in which museum visitors will also experience an exciting new technology know as “video-talkback”. Visitors can record their reactions to the exhibits themes and those responses will become an actual part of the exhibit.

Changing Places is the second video Ms. Dove has created for Levine. In 2005, Dove produced a video for a museum exhibit, Purses, Platforms & Power: Women Changing Charlotte in the 70s. The exhibit ran at Levine museum from March 11, 2005 until January 16, 2006.

During the summer and early fall of 2008, Emulsion Arts was deeply immersed in the production of four short films for the Crossroads Charlotte initiative. Now completed, the films will premiere tonight from 6-8PM on multiple screens throughout the Charlotte community, including auditoriums at UNC Charlotte, Johnson C. Smith University and Davidson College.

A production team headed by Emulsion Owner/Director and Cinematographer Joanne Hock and Emulsion CEO/Executive Producer Robin Grey, began pre-production in June 2008 and filmed for eight days in and around Charlotte during the first two weeks of August. Multiple intercity locales, businesses and neighborhood locations helped to shape four potential scenarios of where the Charlotte community MIGHT be in 2015.

Crossroads Charlotte was launched by the Foundation for the Carolinas and the John S. and James Knight Foundation. The goal of the special initiative is to create a more equitable
community that will be better equipped to tackle the future’s challenges by choosing and pursuing opportunities for Charlotte that are based on intentional choices and creative foresight.

With the support of veteran Emulsion Producer Kay Thompson and a large and talented cast and crew of local filmmakers, Ms. Hock directed scenarios that included scenes of gang violence, homelessness, faith-based ministries, community shelters and unemployment. Director Hock, also co-wrote the scripts and supervised the post-production process to create the vignettes that depict four possible realities for Charlotte.

The premieres tonight will include audience discussion following each scenario that is intended to engage local citizens and encourage involvement and the contribution of ideas and action that will create the best possible future for the community.

Ms. Grey is a New York Entertainment Lawyer and Consultant who relocated to Charlotte in 2004.  She joined Charlotte-based Emulsion Arts in early April and “hit the ground running” according to Adams, who co-founded Emulsion, along with business partner Joanne Hock.

“Joanne and I have gotten this company off to a winning start,” beams Adams, “but we feel that Robin is the key to reaching the next level.  With her experience in film and television production as well as entertainment law, we are very excited, knowing a dynamic partnership has been forged.”

Grey received her J.D. in New York from The New York Law School.  She was admitted to the bar in New York State in 1989 and has since been practicing entertainment law in New York and managing a myriad of entertainment enterprises.  Her NY business management experience includes:

• VP Business and Legal Affairs at Scholastic Entertainment during the years they produced both HBO and Fox series, The Magic Schoolbus and The Babysitter’s Club, as well as the feature film, The Indian In The Cupboard and several other acclaimed properties.
• Managing Director/COO of R/GA Media Group, Interpublic’s leading interactive agency
• Adjunct Professor at NYU, Tisch School of Arts, where she taught students how to start their own businesses at the graduate Interactive Telecommunications Program.
• Business Manager for the Off-Broadway/International award winning theater production of “Charlie Victor Romeo”

Prior to, and while attending law school at night, Robin freelanced, doing production on feature films and television series for 12 years. Ms. Grey moved to Charlotte to pursue a “quality of life” change along with her husband Clyde and their teenage son, Alex.  “We have family here, so the transition was a smooth one and we love it.”  Grey soon joined a number of local organizations to get a feel for her new home and to acquaint herself with the entertainment industry in Charlotte.

Since arriving in Charlotte, Grey has consulted privately with businesses, including The Film Foundry and Red Ventures.  She is also a Guardian Ad Litem for the North Carolina court system. While a board member of The Light Factory, a contemporary museum of photography and film, she met fellow board member, Joanne Hock.  Grey and Hock struck up a friendship and mutual admiration. Ms. Hock later introduced Grey to her business partner, Doug Adams, and a new management strategy was born over dinner one night in early 2008.

Hock and Adams both agree that their partnership was ready for this new direction. “Doug and I have been brainstorming a great deal over the last few years, focusing on how best to ‘grow’ Emulsion Arts,” says Hock. “We were two of the original Silver Hammer Studio employees and split off from there to fulfill our own dreams of creating award winning productions. With great employees and Charlotte’s talented freelance crew, we know we have the creativity and skill to
succeed in the larger entertainment community. We just needed some added expertise – that’s where Robin comes in.”

Ms. Grey is equally excited about the new strategy at Emulsion. “I am thrilled to see the quality of work created and produced by Emulsion Arts. Joanne is an immensely talented director and writer and Doug is a sales wizard with better quips than Dr. Phil.  From the current Bank of America corporate film on Diversity and Inclusion, to some of their earliest work, Emulsion consistently turns out a superior film product.”

Emulsion has earned numerous achievement awards including three Emmy Award nominations for their documentary, Laugh At Us; the prestigious Grand Prize from The New York International Film Festival for Ms. Hock’s 2005 direction of a teen safe driving film; a New York Festivals World Medal in 2007 and a Telly Award for Heritage a Bank of America film; a 2005 semifinalist citation from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for Ms. Hock’s original screenplay, Wednesdays At the Gem, and numerous local Telly Awards for such clients as BMW, Doctor’s Care, Horizon Eye Care and The Light Factory.

“I feel very fortunate to have found the right entertainment home in Charlotte,” says Grey.  “I look forward to guiding Emulsion Arts’ future business endeavors and sharing in their expanded successes.”

Hock concurs.  “We will now have more time to concentrate on our own areas of expertise.  I can’t tell you how serendipitous it was to meet Robin and envision this new direction for Emulsion Arts.  We are so fortunate to have her on board to manage our company’s operations and long term vision.  Her solid background and expertise in the entertainment industry will help steer Emulsion in the optimum direction for our future.”