And, of course, we can use help from everyone in a few critical areas, such as potential shooting locations, unusual costumes and interesting props, specialized equipment, and really just about anything else that might make this weekend’s creative venture a rousing success. Know a local business owner who’d love some publicity in exchange for having a film crew on hand? Have a lead on an assortment of period outfits? Got a collection of medieval weaponry just gathering dust? Have a ranch that would be perfect for shooting that long-overdue Western? Let us know!

In other quick news, be sure to keep an ear out for this month’s Tohubohu Producer Podcast, in which we’ll chat with a few team leaders about their 48 Hour Film Project experiences — as well as sitting down with a very special guest who has some unique insight into the process. (Ooh, suspense!) The episode should go live a few days before the competition weekend, so be sure to set up your iTunes subscriptions now (and catch up on those back episodes).

And as if that weren’t enough, for all of you struggling screenwriters out there (and I know there are a lot of you), be sure to check out the biweekly Writers’ Round-Table, sponsored by Kevin Good of Crisis Lab. It’s a great opportunity to garner real-time feedback on script pages as a diverse group of writers (and the roster changes from session to session) perform live script readings of your works-in-progress and provide immediate reactions. As of this writing, there are still a couple of slots available for this week’s session — so check out Crisis Lab’s Writers’ Round-Table page for full details and to reserve a spot. (Space is limited!)

Okay, that’s it for now — I look forward to hearing back from many of you soon. Let’s make a movie!

Let me explain… in addition to producing “professional-quality independent entertainment,” one of our original objectives in establishing Tohubohu Productions was to give people an opportunity to learn more about the craft of filmmaking. And the Tohubohu Producer Podcast is one way of expanding that education beyond just the periodic on-the-job production. And so far, it’s been going pretty well: As of today, we’ve got five solid episodes under our belts since our relaunch in November, and we’ve managed to stick to our planned once-monthly production schedule. So if you’ve been holding off on subscribing — wanting to make sure we actually kept going with this — then I’m afraid you’re out of excuses. But the great thing is that you can go back and catch up on previous episodes at your convenience! You’ll have a chance to hear highlights such as:

• The top 10 essentials for a 48 Hour Film Project production
• An overview of DSLR filmmaking with special guest BigTony
• A discussion of film festival submission strategies
• A detailed interview with “The Lake” writer/co-director/co-producer Tara Garwood

And this month, in addition to Bjorn and Bill’s Academy Awards recap, you’ll get to hear about the films that inspired some of the DMV’s top independent filmmakers — with contributions from Francis Abbey, Lonnie Martin, Ron Newcomb, and Kevin Good. Moreover, you’ll hear about several upcoming events, such as the “audition competition” Monologue Madness, the filmmaking adventure that is Genre Wars, and a biweekly Writers’ Round-Table for screenwriting critiques. You can visit the podcast site for more information and detailed show notes, or subscribe (free) via the iTunes Store (where you can also rate the program).

Moving forward, we’d love to get your input. Since this is intended to be helpful to the DC-area independent filmmaking community, we want to know what will be most useful to you the listener. What do you want to hear about? Who would you like to hear from? Would you like to join in on a topic of your expertise? Send your suggestions — or other feedback — to us directly at podcast@tohubohu.tv.

Of course, we’ll likely be spending a fair amount of time across the next few episodes gearing up for one of our big regular events: The 48 Hour Film Project. Registration for the DC competition begins this week. So in addition to soliciting podcast topic areas around the Project, consider this Tohubohu’s first official call for participation. Want to try throwing your hat into the ring for the team this year? Or participating on another team and want to share your experience? Drop us a line and let us know.

Let the filmmaking commence!

• 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!

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…).

Our film — written by veteran Tohubohu scribe Robin Brande — stars Nello DeBlasio, Mary Egan, and Nick DePinto, and also features Richard Fiske, Gale Nemec and Kristina Zilli, with appearances from Linda Gabriel Deutsch, Carol McCaffrey and Ken Coughlan. You can catch a 48-second trailer at our website (already updated to reflect our “Best Of” selection, naturally), and here’s a quick summary to whet your appetite:

Phil has an amazing ability: With a touch, he can see exactly one hour and eight minutes into someone’s past. Unfortunately, it seems to cause him nothing but trouble — especially at the office, where he is called in before the boss and lectured on “inappropriate touching.” His coworker Lily is convinced that his ability makes him a superhero, but Phil is hardly persuaded… until a chance bump with a new client shows him that he may have an opportunity to prove her right.

In other news, over this summer Tohubohu is going to be helping to produce and promote a new short in conjunction with Tarakata Films. “The Lake” is an unconventional dark drama/horror film written and produced by award-winning actress Tara Garwood. The film focuses on two sisters, each dealing in her own way with the childhood loss of their father. Claire still lives at home with Mom and spends her days on the lake in their father’s old rowboat. Laney has built her own life in the city, but when she comes back to visit, the sisters’ discoveries will dredge up the past and the secrets that bind their family together may just tear them apart.

The film is being made under a union contract with the Screen Actors Guild, and we currently have three SAG actors committed to the project. You can follow along with the entire development process at the official production blog, “like” the film’s Facebook page to get the latest updates and screening info, and visit the IndieGoGo campaign page to help us actually get the film made. And, of course, the more word-of-mouth promotion we can get the better (in fact, the same could be said for all of our projects). Spread the word — post links, send tweets, email friends and family… whatever you can do to help!

Finally, I also wanted to send out another reminder about the upcoming TIVA Peer Awards. The final deadline for submissions is June 16. There are a lot of skills categories available, both in front of and behind the camera, and given the extraordinary pool of talent we’ve assembled here, there’s a very real opportunity to be recognized by your peers for your accomplishments. And two changes make this year special — one, the window for eligibility has been opened up to two years instead of just one (making “Uncertainty Principle,” “Liability,” “Number One With a Bullet,” “Green House,” and “Touched by a Lawyer” all eligible for consideration), and two, for this year only, there are special categories for any 48 Hour Film Project film, no matter when it was produced. Those categories include Overall Production, Directing, Lead Actor, Writer, Cinematography, and Music. Eligible films under those criteria would include “Schlimmer,” “The Big Lie,” “Quite Contrary,” “Close Quarters,” “You Pay Your Dues,” “All Roads Lead Away,” “Please Forward,” and the aforementioned “Liability” and “Touched by a Lawyer.” (Wow, we’ve made a lot of those.)

We’ve already submitted a few films for overall production consideration, but if you’d like to throw your hat into the ring for your “skills” contribution to any of the above-mentioned films, let us know ASAP and we’ll be sure to get you a DVD for your submission! (We’ve even remastered several of them just for the occasion.)

That’s all for today. Hope to see several of you Thursday night!

First, our premiere screening time at the AFI Silver Theatre has been set: Wednesday, May 4, at 9:30 p.m., as part of Screening Group D. Tickets are now on sale, so be sure to pick yours up at the AFI site. (In fact, if you want to plan ahead, tickets are also available for the “Best of the 48 Hour Film Project” screenings on Thursday, May 26, at 7:00 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Historically, there is a different set of films at each of those two “Best of” screenings, so you wouldn’t be hurt getting tickets to both. Not that we know whether our film will screen in either, you understand, but it promises to be a good show regardless.)

As for the weekend itself, we’ll be posting updates on our progress at our official Twitter feed — so be sure to sign up to follow us if you want the quickest in-the-moment news. We’ll also have a camera crew following us around to capture footage for an upcoming tribute video for the 48 Hour Film Project, to air at this year’s TIVA Peer Awards — as if we didn’t have enough excitement dealing with our own movie.

And speaking of the Peer Awards, entries are now open — and this year, the window of eligibility is two years (instead of just one). So if you’d like to submit anything you’ve done with us across the past two years (i.e., from June 2009 onward) for consideration in one of the “Skills” categories, please let us know as soon as possible and we’ll get you a submission DVD. (To clarify, the short films we produced within that window are “Uncertainty Principle,” “Liability,” “Number One With a Bullet” and “Green House” — plus whatever we accomplish this weekend.) Furthermore, this year there’s an all-new 48 Hour Film Festival set of categories, with eligibility extending back indefinitely — so be sure to consider our earlier 48 Hour Film Project entries as well. Those categories are a little more limited, so be sure to check out the official site for details!

That’s all for now — more once we’ve got another movie under our belts!