» Bill Cowell, Founder of The Buffalo Niagara
Film Festival is proud to announce a victorious
return for #2.
Bill pledges that this will be a spectacular 2nd year with large events and big
surprises to be talked about for years to come. Enjoyment to all, and to all
an enjoyable plight. See you soon.
Scaling
Up -
Tuesday, March 27th, 10:20pm UB North Campus,
Slee Hall (next to the Center For the Arts)
To
cover his affair, Jimmy’s father takes
him to a local jazz club so Jimmy can practice
his trumpet. With his father in another room,
Jimmy sits on the stage and reads his comic
book. Suddenly, his father’s voice
booms through the room. After a few moments
of lackluster practice, Jimmy hears a muffled
sound coming from a pile of old instruments.
Tentatively, he investigates the noise, eventually
picking up an old trumpet. As the trumpet
meets his lips, something magical happens.
While Jimmy gets lost in this experience,
his father opens the door and reality comes
crashing back. Now, Jimmy is faced with which
trumpet to take home: the new uninspiring
one or the old magical one?
DIRECTOR
STATEMENT
Besides providing an entertaining experience
for the audience, one of my goals while creating "Scaling Up" was to tell a story that would entice the viewer,
young or old, to try out a musical instrument if they have never done so before.
Someone’s passion for something most likely won’t be seen the same
way by the next person, so the real challenge in telling this story was not only
to excite the filmmaker about this film, but also have the audience come away
with a satisfying experience. Another way to get the audience involved was to
present a situation that most of us have experienced, and in this film, it happens
to be the moral dilemma that Jimmy is situated with. There is a personal connection
within the story and title for "Scaling Up". Creating an animated film of this
size and length proved to be a stressful challenge for one person. Working on
the same thing day in and day out for over a year can take its toll on you mentally,
but as with Jimmy, he never gives up and is determined to not only play his scales,
but get better and move up in the world, just like I am doing.
