Eight months after announcing it was retooling its competitive Film Factory, Steeltown Entertainment Project is making good on its promise of money and mentors.
The creators of four potential feature films, a half-hour sitcom pilot and the third installment of a short trilogy each will receive $5,000 to develop a sizzle reel and use as leverage to raise additional money or otherwise help their projects move closer to reality. They also will receive advice from Steeltown’s network of industry experts.
The first class of the Steeltown Indie program will be introduced tonightMON at the Regent Square Theater, 1035. S. Braddock Ave., during the Three Rivers Film Festival.
They are: Charlotte Glynn, for a feature with the working title of “Inside Out,” about a 14-year-old gymnast who suffers an injury ending her Olympic dreams and her dad; Garrett Kennell and David Light, “Buzz,” about a beekeeper who falls in love and overcomes his normal qualities in a world of superpowers; Tressa Glover, Julianne Avolio, Maggie Carr and Don DiJulio, “The Sisters Sorella” sitcom pilot about free-spirited Italian sisters whose lifestyles are derailed when their eldest sister shows up to live with them.
Also, Thad Ciechanowski, Joe Serkoch and Frank Tirio, “Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart,” third installment of a short trilogy designed to combine entertainment and education; Don Ammon and Kris Veenis, “Candyland,” about a neglected teenage boy’s plan to escape his life in a small town and what happens when love and friendship with a new boy develop; and Demetrius Wren, “The Rehabilitation of the Hill District Housing Projects by Gwendolyn Livingston,” in which a woman whose grandmother committed suicide uses her inheritance for an experiment to change the world, against her family’s wishes.
Short films, including Pittsburgh’s Dad “Back to the Future” episode by Chris Preksta and Curt Wootton, teaser trailers and a live scene will be part of the event starting at 7 p.m. today. Tickets, $9. See 3RFF.com and steeltown.org for details.
Movie editor Barbara Vancheri: bvancheri@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1632.
First Published: November 9, 2015, 5:00 a.m.