Just wanted to pass along a quick note to let everyone know that in another absolutely stunning evening, Tohubohu took home several awards at the 2011 TIVA Peer Awards, held last month at the National Press Club!

• Bronze Award: 48HFP — Directing, “All Roads Lead Away” (William R. Coughlan, director)
• Bronze Award: 48HFP — Overall, “All Roads Lead Away” (Pam W. Coughlan, producer, and William R. Coughlan, executive producer)
• Bronze Award: Editing — Fiction Short, “Green House” (William R. Coughlan and Brad Hartland, editors)
• Bronze Award: Independent Short, “Green House” (Pam W. Coughlan, producer, and William R. Coughlan, executive producer)
• Silver Award: 48HFP — Directing, “Please Forward” (William R. Coughlan, director)
• Silver Award: 48HFP — Overall, “Quite Contrary” (Nello DeBlasio, director, Bjorn Munson, producer, and William R. Coughlan, executive producer)
• Silver Award: Editing — Fiction Short, “Touched by a Lawyer” (William R. Coughlan, Brad Hartland, and Colin Heichman, editors)

Sincerest congratulations to everyone involved in all of these productions! The event itself was a blast, and we had a great time networking with other film and video professionals — and had a special treat on realizing that three out of the four award presenters were Tohubohu veteran performers (Joy Haynes, Gale Nemec, and Joe Hansard).

Of course, for a somewhat more detailed recap (and some information on other notable award winners), be sure to check out the latest episode of the just-released Tohubohu Producer Podcast! For those of you keeping score, that’s episode 10 since the original launch, or the second in our “relaunched” series. In this episode (in addition to the aforementioned information on the Peer awards), regular hosts Bjorn and Bill are joined by special guest filmmaker BigTony of Crowded Elevator Pictures to discuss DSLR filmmaking. Go ahead and give it a listen — and be sure to subscribe either via the iTunes Store or the direct RSS feed to get the latest episodes delivered automatically.

That’s it for now. Have a great holiday season, everyone, and we’ll be sure to keep you posted about upcoming projects, screenings, and events!

After what must seem like an interminable hiatus, the Tohubohu Producer Podcast has returned! For our inaugural “relaunch” episode, hosts William R. Coughlan and Bjorn Munson reintroduce ourselves, discuss what we’ve been watching lately, point out some upcoming Tohubohu-related events, and jump right into our first featured topic: The top ten essentials for a 48 Hour Film Project shoot. So hurry up and visit the podcast home page — tohubohu.tv/podcast — and subscribe to the feed, so you’ll be sure to get new episodes delivered to you as soon as they go live! Because moving forward, we’ll be broadcasting on a monthly basis (or at least that’s the plan). Now, if we’re going to fill up that much time, you know we’re going to need content! So if you’ve got any suggestions for us (or feedback on the podcast itself), drop us a line at podcast@tohubohu.tv.

Now, I know you’re all going to be listening to that episode right away, right? So you’ll have all the latest news… but just to be on the safe side, I’ll cover a few of the highlights here as well. First of all, the Maryland International Film Festival was a big success. In addition to a screening of our film “Green House,” highlights included the features White Knight, Gods and Generals, Narc, and The A-Team (with directors Jesse Baget, Ron Maxwell, and Joe Carnahan in attendance) and some really compelling short films, including Best Animation winner “Prayers for Peace” and Best Short (and Audience Award) winner “God and Vodka.”

Coming up this month, “Touched by a Lawyer” will be screening at the Alexandria Film Festival. The festival starts this Thursday and runs all weekend — our screening is Friday evening at the Athenaeum, and tickets are available via the official festival site, alexandriafilm.org. (Hey, if you think hearing me talk about film on the podcast is awesome, just wait ’til you hear me in person!) As a special bonus, the aforementioned short “God and Vodka” will also be shown at our screening; definitely worth the price of admission. And on the 19th, the TIVA Peer Awards ceremony will be taking place at the National Press Club. In addition to recognizing some of the best in audiovisual production in the mid-Atlantic region, there will be a special commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the 48 Hour Film Project (including a short film with footage from the crew that followed our team around on our “Touched by a Lawyer” shoot). Tohubohu has several pieces in contention for awards (not to mention pieces from some of our frequent collaborators), so we’d love to see some friendly faces in the audience — tickets are available at peerawards.org!

That’s it for now — we don’t want to keep you any longer, since I’m sure you’re all eager to go and set up your podcast subscription. Enjoy, and we hope to see many of you soon!

I hope everyone had a great summer — we were pretty much silent for the duration, though that’s not to say we were inactive. Most significantly, we finished production with Tarakata Films on “The Lake,” which is now deep into the postproduction process. We had a really amazing location shoot, and worked with some extraordinarily talented people (almost all newcomers to the Tohubohu fold). Absolutely stellar cast and crew all around, with (at the risk of offending those remarkable contributors I may be leaving out) some great camera work from Bryan Tosh, creature effects from Morphiage, and (naturally) screenwriting and co-direction from Tara Garwood. Having seen the initial rough edit of the film, I think we’re all in for a treat.

But if you don’t want to wait for your regular dose of entertainment, I’ll direct you straight to the upcoming Maryland International Film Festival, taking place October 13th through the 16th in Hagerstown, Maryland. Highlights include appearances by Joe Carnahan, Robin Givens, Tom Sizemore, and Bruce Boxleitner (among others); several workshops and Q&A sessions; receptions and after parties; and, of course, film screenings. Some of the films that will be shown at the festival are Narc, The A-Team, White Knight, Gods and Generals, and Breaking Through the Clouds… and a selection of short films including our very own “Green House”! Check out the official schedule for details on the really rich program they’ve put together — “Green House” will be screening with Shorts Session #5, at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday. (Online ticket purchasing will be available at this link very soon.) I’m planning to attend the entire festival, and I really hope to see some of you there!

(And though we don’t have a film in contention this year, I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that the 2011 DC Shorts Film Festival is going on right now. So run and check out some top-notch short films right here in DC!)

That’s it for this update — we’ll have more as things progress (including, quite possibly, the triumphant return of a long-neglected podcast…).