FOTL Blog

Media Bridges "Film Outside the Lines" 2010 Premiere
Friday, Dec 3rd    6-9pm

The talented students of Media Bridges’ Film Outside the Lines (FOTL) 2010 program will be premiering their original films at a screening event on December 3, 2010 at the Cincinnati Art Museum. The event will feature a compilation of short documentaries by the students on their experiences and two short films, "Dark Digital Romance" and "Counterfeit Killer II: Cry of the Banshee".

These films were created by the 24 participants in this year's FOTL program, a program providing film and production training to adult artists with disabilities. The program is made possible through a partnership with local agencies Visionaries & Voice and the Tall Institute. Funding for this year's project was generously provided by ArtsWave.

Doors open at 6pm; Films begin at 7pm

Cost: $10 in advance; $15 at the door

Reservations Required. Call (513)721-ARTS or go to the Cincinnati Art Museum website to purchase.

As we explore the talented members of FOTL, we should also highlight the three organizations that make this program possible.

Media Bridges  http://www.mediabridges.org

Media Bridges provides the education, equipment, and environment to assist people in communicating effectively through media such as television, radio and the internet.  It serves a vast audience from streetvibes authors to small non-profits in the Greater Cincinnati area.  They serve the community with free classes, equipment use and loan and access to various media communication channels.

Christian Appleby, a MULTI award-winning writer, producer, and editor with over 18 years of professional production experience, is a Program Coordinator at Media Bridges and co-program lead with Barb Thomas.

TALL Institute   http://www.tallinstitute.org

Half of our FOTL students are members of the TALL Institute.

The TALL (Thomas Adventures of Lifelong Learning) INSTITUTE’s vision is to provide unprecedented Lifelong Learning opportunities that empower Adults with Developmental Challenges, in conjunction with their Support Team, to establish, cultivate and accomplish Realistic Goals.

Barb Thomas, co-program lead for FOTL, has 35 years of teaching experience, and for the past 16 has been Director of TECS Education Center (Thomas Educational Consulting Services), which is an extension of the TALL Institute.

Under Barb's Direction and as Executive Director of TALL, she offers classes with a focus on Social Skills Development, Physical Health and Personal Development.

Visionaries & Voices   http://www.visionariesandvoices.org

The other half of our FOTL students are members of Visionaries and Voices, whose Northside studio is the weekly meeting place for FOTL classes.

Visionaries and Voices had its beginning about 10 years ago when two case managers for county boards of Developmental Disabilities Services came into contact with self-taught artists through their jobs. Slowly but surely, the artists formed a loosely organized arts collective, exhibited their works around Cincinnati, and became friends. 

By 2003, Visionaries and Voices had incorporated as a non-profit 501(c) 3 organization and opened its doors at the Essex Place Studios. Artists with disabilities were invited into the studio to make, market, and celebrate their work. 

The FOTL program could not be possible without the generous support of all three organizations.

Student Interviews Featuring:  Aaron Ringeisen

Aaron FOTL from Christian Appleby on Vimeo.

Aaron Ringeisen has always wanted to entertain people and finds his involvement in FOTL as a great first step in that direction.  You can see his passion and true talent for entertaining in the jokes he tells and his breadth of vocal accents.  Further, Aaron has a creative imagination for humorous story lines and witty dialogue, as found in his in-class skit on “Hot Lunch” and dialogue for “Dark Digital Romance”.

Aaron’s passion for entertainment landed him a key role in “Counterfit Killer II” as the Irish Wizard, Horace McGurk.  He stature perfectly portrays the tall, dark wizard with a thick Irish accent and a slight hint of forgetful humor.  Lurking under a dark cloak and a staff that shoots fire, you would not want to meet Horace in the dark forest of Ireland.  

Come to our 2010 Film debut on Friday, Dec 3rd to see Aaron in full action.

What is “Film Outside the Lines?"

Film Outside the Lines (FOTL) is a Media Bridges sponsored program based on collaboration with Visionaries & Voicesand the Tall Institute. Through this program, artists with developmental disabilities take part in classes where they learn the art of filmmaking, and all of its stages - from storyboarding to shooting to editing and post-production - every aspect of the craft. They then create their own films, which are screened and distributed both locally and regionally -- helping to shine a spotlight on the talents and creativity that filmmakers of all backgrounds have to share with us.

The program is lead by two highly qualified individuals:  the Media Bridges Program Coordinator, Christian Appleby, a MULTI award-winning writer, producer, and editor with over 18 years of professional production experience and Barb Thomas, Executive Director of the Tall Institute, a non-profit that provides unprecedented Lifelong Learning opportunities that empower Adults with Developmental Challenges.  Ms. Thomas has 34 years of experience in educating individuals with special needs.

The program is in its second year, running from April to December.  Each week, 25 students gather for three hours to learn the art of film making and to try their hand at every level of the film making process.  Most gravitate to certain parts of the process, based on parts they really enjoy, parts they always wanted to do, or because a part plays on talents they didn’t know they had.  

With a fair democratic process, the collective group works together to learn the different “on-set” roles, learn how to use and properly handle the equipment, write a script, and even audition and cast the parts.  Professional actors who also join them for a film or two have said “I am amazed by the positive energy and support among this group.  There is so much patience and collaboration;  so unlike any other film sets I’ve been on.”

The result is a dual benefit for the individual participants and the community.  Each person is able to spend their time doing something extraordinary.  It breaks up their week, gives them a highly positive activity to participate in, allows them to use talents they didn’t know they had or could never use before, and in some cases, helps them build their confidence and self-esteem.  For the community, it shows a new range of activities possible among adults with disabilities and opens new doors of personal and professional choices they can make.  (One participant in particular has decided he’s going to be a professional film maker and has already had two gigs in Cincinnati.)  It also brings to life a creative voice that otherwise might go silent. 

This program also shows us that in our daily lives, we should carefully listen and consider all persons from all backgrounds and all abilities as we all have a voice and a creative thread to share.