TECHNICAL NOTES Written & Directed by: Produced by: Production Company: Executive Producer: Steven Edell Rain Breaw Benjamin Wilkins Roman Kasparovsky Rahul Gandotra Steven Edell USC School of Cinematic Arts FAMU Studio Lon Bender Production Format: 35mm Screening Format: 35mm Length: 25 min Date Completed: February 2009 Country of Production: USA/Czech Republic Camera package provided by: Film stock provided by: Film Print provided by: Sound Editing & Mix provided by: Panavision Kodak FotoKem Soundelux/Todd AO CONTACT Steven Edell USC/FAMU Studio 740 S. Burnside Ave., #324 Los Angeles, CA 90036 USA 1-973-615-9129 www.asonswar.com
LOGLINE The true story of a boy and his mother who are torn apart at the outset of World War II when Nazis invade Prague. SYNOPSIS Prague, 1939: The heart wrenching true story of a young Czech Jew, Jan Wiener, struggling to survive at the outset of Nazi occupation during World War II. As the German army tightens its grip on the city and danger grows ever closer, Jan is ultimately forced to choose between his freedom and his mother's honor.
STEVEN EDELL DIRECTOR/WRITER/PRODUCER Steven Edell is an award-winning director who has been featured in Variety and the Hollywood Reporter. He was born and raised in New Jersey before attending Yale University where he received his B.A. in Fine Arts. His focus started in drawing and painting, and then moved to photography and film. While doing a semester abroad in Prague at FAMU, he wrote and directed his first short film Bracia, which won several awards and was nominated for a Student Academy Award. Steven recently received his M.F.A. in Film Production from the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. While at USC, he received the John Huston Directing Scholarship and the Edward Small Directing Scholarship for his short films. He just completed his USC thesis film A Son s War, which won the Alexis Award for Best Emerging Student Filmmaker from the Palm Springs International Shortfest and the Gold Circle Award from the Caucus Foundation. In addition the film won the Panavision New Filmmaker s Grant, the FotoKem Answer Print Grant, and finishing grants from the King Foundation and the Caucus Foundation. Steven lives in Los Angeles where he is working on developing his first feature film.
DIRECTOR S STATEMENT While I was doing a semester abroad as an undergraduate in Prague, I met Jan Wiener who was one of my professors. One day while on a trip to Terezin, he told me the incredible true story of a how as a boy, his love for his mother tested when the Nazi army invaded Prague in 1939. As I was listening, tears welled in my eyes. It was the most heart-wrenching and touching story I had ever heard. For five years, I had been desperate for the opportunity to tell his story. I knew that my USC thesis film was the chance. The reason that this project resonates with me so much is that I could see myself in his place, faced with an impossible decision. I felt, and still feel, his love, pain, and regret as he and his mother were torn apart due to the horrific circumstances. As I began developing the script, I conducted several interviews with Jan and realized that the heart of the story revolved around his relationship with his mother. It became clear very quickly that the emotional impact of the film was reliant on the audience s connection to them. But it was also imperative to me that the film be as historically accurate as possible. As a result, I sought the support and mentorship of representatives from the Shoah Foundation, the Jewish Museum in Prague, and the Terezin Initiative Institute, which was created to support and pursue research on the history of the final solution in the Czech Republic. Michael Berenbaum, who is the former Director of the United States Holocaust Research Institute at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and has served as a historical consultant on HBO s Conspiracy and NBC s Uprising, also advised on the project. I was able to set the film up as a co-production with FAMU, which opened a lot of doors for us while we were prepping and shooting in Prague. However, it was still an unbelievably stressful, but also wonderful experience making the film in a foreign country. With limited knowledge of the language, I was completely dependent on our key crew members who were fluent in both English & Czech to accomplish certain things. Without our Czech producer Roman Kasparovsky and our cinematographer Martin Preiss, the ambitious project would not have been possible. They became trusted artistic collaborators throughout the entire process, but more importantly, friends that I could rely on. Working on a very tight budget, they were always willing to find creative solutions to problems. At the same time, being a foreigner had certain advantages. We were able to get some of the best actors in the Czech Republic to be a part of the project because they were excited to work with a director who had the dedication to travel halfway around the world to make a film. I think they could see the passion I had for the project, and that passion was infectious. Nancy Bishop, our casting director, did an amazing job of finding the proper actor for each role. In addition, I was able to look at the city and locations in a fresh way to tell the story as effectively as possible. The generosity and support of the Czech cast and crew that I worked with was truly remarkable. They were willing to go the extra mile to make the film the way it deserved to be made, regardless of the limited budget. I loved every moment of being on set in Prague and hope to one day go back to expand this story into a feature film.
CAST LIST KRYSTOF HADEK as Jan Wiener BARA KODETOVA as Frantiska Wiener MAREK VASUT as Klaus
RAIN BREAW PRODUCER Rain Breaw has recently completed her thesis film, Underpass, as writer/director at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. Secret Agent, an award-winning short she directed in 2005, is currently on the festival circuit. Rain has produced numerous thesis films at USC, including another award-winning short, Thermopylae. Before beginning her career at USC as a director/producer, Rain taught interactive and web media at multiple Community Colleges in the New England and Upstate New York region, including U- Mass Lowell. She also curated a new media center at Vassar College known as the Media Cloisters, and presented the innovative learning model of the Cloisters at such national conferences as the Coalition for Networked Information in Washington D.C. in 2001. BENJAMIN WILKINS PRODUCER Benjamin Wilkins, hailing from Denver, Colorado, earned his BA in Creative Writing from the University of Colorado at Boulder and his MFA in Cinematic Arts Production from the University of Southern California. In 2006, he received the Entertainment Partners Producing Award for his work at USC. Before entering the entertainment industry he spent three years teaching English in Japan. Currently he works as a producer for Tempered Entertainment. Benjamin has produced numerous short films which are now traveling the festival circuit, including "Everything Looks Perfect," first prize winner at The Malibu Celebration of Film Festival.
ROMAN KASPAROVSKY PRODUCER Roman Kasparovsky lives in Prague and is a recent graduate of FAMU, the Czech Republic national film school. He has produced 10 commercials, over 70 short film, and the TV pilot Loves in Praha. Since graduating, Roman has worked on four feature films in various producing roles (Restart, A Midsummer Nights Dream, Wanted, and Normal). He has a passion for traveling and has produced projects across Europe and Africa. Roman is currently working on Febiofest 2009 in Prague as a coordinator. RAHUL GANDOTRA PRODUCER/EDITOR/SUPERVISING SOUND EDITOR Rahul Gandotra is currently doing his MFA at the London Film School in England, where he is preparing his graduation film and is finishing the first draft of his feature script. Rahul has been cutting his film teeth on the past seventeen short film projects he's worked on - 9 he's produced, 7 he's directed, 5 he's done the film and sound editing for, and 3 he's done the camera work for). Two of these projects have worked their way onto the festival circuit with another four being prepped for other film festivals. Before attending the London Film School, Rahul was a film and video consultant for four years at the University of Michigan, where he also did his undergraduate education. He graduated from there focusing on political science, psychology, and Chinese philosophy and received a sum cum laude distinction. Rahul has now lived in eight countries and hopes, after his MFA, he can find a place to stay put at so that he doesn't have to lug around suitcases half way around the world.
LON BENDER EXECUTIVE PRODUCER/SUPERVISING SOUND EDITOR Lon Bender is widely recognized for his contribution to cinema as co-founder of Soundelux Entertainment Group and for his award-winning work as a Supervising Sound Editor on over 60 films. Lon teamed with Wylie Stateman in 1982 to form Soundelux where they explored numerous production, post-production and manufacturing opportunities. For his work as a supervising sound editor, Lon received an Academy Award, British Academy Award and Golden Reel Award for his efforts on Braveheart. Lon's contributions on the films Glory and Last of the Mohicans were recognized with Academy Awards for Best Sound. From 2000 through 2005 Lon served as the President of Ascent Media s Creative Sound Services Group. During that time Todd-AO went through a revitalization and modernization which included a citywide Gigabit Network which links all its facilities for audio and video sharing. The reinvention of the work process has enabled sound editing and mixing to fluidly integrate. LINDSEY SHOCKLEY CO-PRODUCER Lindsey Shockley studied film at the University of Pennsylvania before earning her M.F.A. from the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts. While at USC, she was selected among eighty applicants to direct one of the four school-sponsored films in 2005. Her film Lucky (2005) premiered at Cannes in 2006. She also wrote and directed The Truth About Faces (2007), which is one of the longest unedited takes in history, running over thirteen minutes long. It marks her second venture with producer Julie Sifuentes and DP Steven Edell. The film screened at many festivals, including Palm Springs International Shortfest. Shockley's other short films include Loose Change (2003), Letting Go (2004), and Shooting the Pilot (2006). Lindsey is currently the writer s assistant on Showtime s United States of Tara.
MARTIN PREISS DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY Martin is member of presidium of Association of Czech Cinematographers (ACK). Born and raised in Prague, Czech Republic, he got his Masters Degree in cinematography from Prague s prominent university FAMU, At 24 he shot his first feature film, Choking Hazard, which went to several film festivals, including Tribeca Film Festival and was featured in Variety. Martin completed a year at University Of Auckland, New Zealand and also attended the Berlinale Talent Campus. He received a nomination for Best Technical contribution on short film Cargo, which screened at the London Film Festival, Tribeca and received critical acclaim at the Venice Bienale. Along with a variety of foreign collaborators, Martin has worked internationally in locations such as the United States, Canada, Scotland, the United Kingdom and New Zealand. His mentors include Vladimir Smutny, ACK DP for Academy Award film Kolya (Best Foreign Film, 1997), Jaromír Sofr, ACK DP for Academy Award film Closely Watched Trains (Best Foreign Film, 1967) as well as Academy Award Nominated DP Miroslav Ondrícek, ASC (Amadeus & Ragtime). Martin is passionate about scuba diving and underwater cinematography.
MENTOR LIST Wolfgang Petersen Director (Troy, Air Force One, In the Line of Fire, Das Boot) John Watson Producer (Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Backdraft, Blown Away) Thomas Newman Composer (Wall-E, American Beauty, Shawshank Redemption) David Wasco Production Designer (Pulp Fiction, Collateral, Kill Bill) Miroslav Ondricek Director of Photography (Amadeus, A League of Their Own, Awakenings) Paul Pav Location Manager (Contact, Back to the Future, Ghostbusters)
PRESS ARTICLES Hollywood Reporter June 2009 wins the Alexis Award for Best Emerging Student Filmmaker from the Palm Springs International Shortfest
Variety Dec. 2008 wins the Gold Circle Award from the Caucus for TV Producers, Writers & Directors
Czech Tabloid March 2007 actors (Bara Kodetova & Krystof Hadek) are featured in a Czech tabloid during production to promote the film under its working title, HONZA
Student Academy Awards Press Release May 2003 director Steven Edell is nominated for a Student Academy Award for his first short film BRACIA
CREDIT LIST A University of Southern California and FAMU Studio Co-Production Written & Directed by STEVEN EDELL Produced by RAIN BREAW BENJAMIN WILKINS ROMAN KASPAROVSKY RAHUL GANDOTRA STEVEN EDELL Executive Producer LON BENDER Co-Producer LINDSEY SHOCKLEY Director of Photography MARTIN PREISS, A.C.K. Production Designer JAN VLCEK Costume Designer MICHAELA HOREJSI Editor RAHUL GANDOTRA Supervising Sound Editor LON BENDER RAHUL GANDOTRA SCOTT JENNINGS Music by DOUGLAS ROMAYNE Casting by NANCY BISHOP, C.S.A.