Bell, Book and Camera Productions

FILMS	MUSIC VIDEOS	EDUCATIONAL
Say My Name: A Horror Short Rearview: A 3-Minute Horror Film *This Sacred Place: The Story of Old Lynn Concerts*, a new documentary. As seen on the Documentary Channel, now available as a digital download. Best Documentary Winner at the Illinois International Film Festival, 2007 This short documentary was created in 2016, using archival footage. Written and Directed by Bruce David Janu	Music video from an upcoming documentary about the Old Lynn Concert series, featuring Tom Flannery and Bret Alexander singing "Ben Franklin Bridge." Music video from an upcoming documentary about the Old Lynn Concert series, featuring Lorne Clarke sing a new song, "Do You Pray?" Music video for Lorne Clarke's, "When Christmas Comes Around" Music video for the Civil Wars' "20 Years" for a Genero.tv contest. Official video for Tom Flannery and the Shillelaghs, "If I Only Knew"	Newly Updated. Now includes SAT and Common Core activities Bell, Book and Camera Productions has a variety of lesson plans available for purchase.

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LOCAL TALENT HITS CHICAGO HORROR FILM FEST WITH CHILLING SHORT, 'SAY MY NAME'

Woodstock, IL – The locally produced horror short Say My Name heads to the Chicago Horror Film Festival next month. With over 222 films screening over the three-day fest at the historic Logan Theater, The Chicago Horror Film Festival is now considered to be the largest in the world for the horror genre.

This chilling tale of vengeance and justice brings together the talents of Maria Puga, a Woodstock resident; Bruce David Janu, a Cary filmmaker and longtime educator; and Andrew Zilch, an emerging cinematographer and 2022 graduate of Cary-Grove High School.

Written and directed by Janu, Say My Name follows a serial killer haunted by the horrifying return of one of his victims. She appears with her glowing, lava-like wounds and fiery eyes. She carries a demonic doll with a chilling laugh, and has only one request: “say my name.”

“Say My Name is more than a horror film. It is a story about a ghost, for sure,” said Janu, who plays serial killer Mason Oliver Reed. “But it is also about how justice can be as terrifying as the crimes it avenges.”

Maria Puga, who not only plays the spirit but also designed the makeup for the character, expressed her excitement about the project’s completion. “We wanted to create something that was scary but also gets the audience thinking about who is the true villain. It’s been an incredible journey, and I can’t wait for audiences to see it,” Puga said.

Recently, Say My Name received a “Best Cast Award” at the Couch Film Festival in Toronto.

Bruce David Janu is no stranger to impactful storytelling. His filmmaking credits include the critically acclaimed documentaries Facing Sudan (2007) and Crayons and Paper (2008), both of which explore genocide and the impact on victims and those who work tirelessly to stop the carnage. Facing Sudan was awarded the Best Documentary Award at the Illinois International Film Festival in 2007. His 2020 release, This Sacred Place: The Story of Old Lynn Concerts, tells the story of a rural Pennsylvania church that became a home for world-renowned singer-songwriters, earning Janu a Best Director award at a Canadian film festival.

Say My Name was shot entirely on location in Illinois, with scenes filmed in Cary, Woodstock, and Oak Park. The stunning visuals were brought to life by Andrew Zilch, the film’s director of photography. A 2022 graduate of Cary-Grove High School, Zilch has a passion for filmmaking and took a break from working on his own short film, Blue Hotel, to lend his expertise to this project.

Tickets for the Chicago Horror Film Festival can be purchased at https://www.chicagohorrorfilmfest.com/

For more information about Say My Name, visit https://www.bellbookcamera.com

About the filmmakers:

Maria Puga, a Woodstock resident and 2006 graduate of Woodstock High School, makes her acting debut in Say My Name. Cary resident Bruce David Janu, a librarian at John Hersey High School in District 214, is an award-winning filmmaker dedicated to fostering creativity and innovation among students. Andrew Zilch, currently a student at Harper College, brings a passion for filmmaking to his role as director of photography, stepping away from his own project, Blue Hotel, to work on this film.

Productions stills and other Images can be found at https://www.bellbookcamera.com

Say My Name at IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt34276117

Teaser Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FGJcfH0jno

Contact:

info@bellbookcamera.com

224-357-6214

For Immediate Release

**** FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ****

LOCAL TALENT BRINGS VENGEANCE TO THE SCREEN IN CHILLING SHORT FILM, SAY MY NAME

Woodstock, IL – The haunting short film Say My Name has completed production and is making its way to film festivals worldwide. This chilling tale of vengeance and justice showcases the collaborative talents of Maria Puga, a Woodstock resident, and Bruce David Janu, an educator with over 30 years of experience teaching social science and is the current librarian at John Hersey High School in Arlington Heights.

“Say My Name is more than a horror film. It is a story about a ghost, for sure,” said Janu. “But it is also about how justice can be as terrifying as the crimes it avenges.”

The 30-minute short film is a testament to the power of independent filmmaking and what can be accomplished on a shoestring budget. The film is currently being submitted to film festivals, with hopes of captivating audiences and critics alike. Plans are underway for a local screening of the film.

For more information about Say My Name, including upcoming screenings, visit https://www.bellbookcamera.com

About the filmmakers:

Productions stills and other Images can be found at https://www.bellbookcamera.com

Say My Name at IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt34276117

Contact:

Bruce Janu

info@bellbookcamera.com

224-357-6214

Free Streaming Event -- May 28, 2022

Three years ago, I packed my car with cameras, microphones, tripods and a camera crane. I left right after work and made my way from the midwest to the hills of rural, northeastern Pennsylvania. The location of my journey was not even on a map -- it was church in the small, forgotten town of Lynn.

For nineteen years, the Old Lynn Church was the home to one of the most prestigious concert series in modern, acoustic folk music. And this was their last show.

This Sacred Place: The Story of Old Lynn Concerts is not only about that last show, but about the history of the building and the music that echoes there.

In the spirit of the Old Lynn Concert Series, which was free and open to the public, we will be streaming the documentary free on Saturday night, May 28, 2022 on our Facebook page at 7pm Eastern.

This is a special, never-before-seen event:

The film will be introduced by the director, Bruce David Janu
After the film, Bruce will introduce and screen three deleted scenes not yet seen

So join us on the Bell, Book and Camera Productions Facebook page to tune into this special event. The documentary, with the additional scenes will then be available the entire Memorial Day weekend on YouTube as well.

Enjoy.

This Sacred Place now available to RENT or DOWNLOAD

This Sacred Place: The Story of Old Lynn Concerts is now available to rent or download. Click here to go to Reelhouse, or simply use the window below:

Best Director at the Couch Film Festival, 2021

Bruce David Janu, the director of This Sacred Place: The Story of Old Lynn Concerts has won the Best Director Award for documentary features at the Couch Film Festival. The festival is a quarterly event held in Toronto, Canada. It is an IMBD-eligible event, meaning award winners can list their awards in the penultimate movie database.

This Sacred Space was nominated for both the Best Documentary Award and Best Director.

The Couch Film Festival Selects This Sacred Place

The Couch Film Festival in Toronto has selected This Sacred Place: The Story of Old Lynn Concerts as a Semi-Finalist in the Documentary (60-120 Minutes category). Plus, a nod for Best Director for the 60-120 minute film category, as well. Unfortunately, due to new Covid restrictions, they had to cancel all public screenings. Still, the films will be judged and winners announced on March 31.

Bare Bones Film Festival, here we come!

This Sacred Place: The Story of Old Lynn Concerts was selected for The Barebones Music & Documentary Festival in Oklahoma. The festival runs May 13 -15, 2021 in Muskogee, OK.

Color Correcting "This Sacred Place"

The setting was stunning: an old rural church in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania. Built in 1883, the Old Lynn Church had hosted many performances over the last 100 years. But for the last two decades, it was home to some of the world's most renowned singer-songwriters.

This Sacred Place: The Story of Old Lynn Concerts tells this part of the Old Lynn story.

As a concert venue, the sound is spectacular in this church. There is something warm and comfortable about the way the sound envelopes the audience, bouncing here and there off the walls and the tin ceiling, providing a pleasant reverb. In terms of lighting----well, that proved to be a bit of a challenge. This was apparent especially as the light from the early evening that was coming in through the stained glass began to change, darkening the room.

Lighting is crucial to any endeavor at story-telling; a live concert is no different. "White Balance" is necessary to adjust the camera's sensors to the light in order to train the processor to adapt for the conditions. This usually involved pointing the camera at a white-colored board and pressing a button to set the color temperature to its most natural look and then adjust manually as needed. Color is measured by temperature --- not too different from the "daylight" bulbs and "soft white" bulbs that you buy for your fixtures. They are graded by temperature in the form of Kelvin (K). A "soft white" bulb is about 2700K, whereas a "day white" bulb is around 5000K. There is more blue in daylight and more red in soft white.

Prior to the start of the show, all three Canon cameras used to film This Sacred Place were white balanced for the conditions at roughly 6 pm when sunlight was still streaming through the windows. The light from the windows was more natural, thus blue-light heavy. The artificial light that lit the stage and the room was incandescent; thus, more red in tone. This made the shooting of the room very difficult for the camera. The mixture of different light sources tends to mess with the camera's imaging processor. As the show started and the cameras were rolling, the light changed. And so did the way the cameras processed the color. As the filming progressed, the adjustment of the white balance was not possible without jeopardizing the final product and thus making digital color-correction more difficult.

The raw footage of This Sacred Place was not uniform in its look, due to the placement of the cameras and how the artificial light at those locations was interpreted differently by each camera, especially when the natural light from the windows diminished. Overall, the end result was footage that was tinted red; more so as the night progressed. No worries. Digital imagery can easily be manipulated.

Post-Production of any film involves color-correction. This is the process of changing the palette of the film, and making sure that all shots match each other in temperature, tone, and saturation. This can be a tedious process, especially if an editor has shots from different cameras at angles with different lighting.

I edited the film in Adobe Premiere Pro, which is a timeline-based editing system. This robust program has the Lumetri Color Panel which provides a host of options for color correction. For each clip, an "adjustment layer" was used to modify the color settings for that clip. The adjustment layer applies color correction and effects to the clip directly below it on the timeline.

Temperature, exposure, saturation, and curves were all adjusted to my liking. I also added a slight vignette, as well. I liked the way that looked and provided a retro feel that fit nicely with the setting and narrative.

Before any of the color correction could happen, however, the film had to be edited and placed in the timeline in the order that the narrative required. Then the audio was mixed to also provide some type of uniformity in tone and volume. The color correction was the last phase of the project.

In the end, the concert footage contained in This Sacred Place: The Story of the Old Lynn Concerts looks more natural than the raw footage revealed. The adjustments in Premiere Pro lowered the red tint and boosted the blues in the spectrum. The muted blacks were raised through a boost in contrast and the saturation of the colors was increased to provide a look that more closely aligned with what the audience actually saw that night.

This Sacred Place --- No. 2 Streamed movie at DMOFF

For this week, This Sacred Place: The Story of Old Lynn Concerts was in the top 10 of the streamed films for the festival this week. It landed at the number 2 position!

Keep streaming! You can view the film at this link: https://www.dmoffest.com/post/this-sacred-place-the-story-of-old-lynn-concerts

This Sacred Place is an Official Selection for the DMOFF

This Sacred Place: The Story of Old Lynn Concerts has been selected as an Official Selection for the Direct Monthly Online Film Festival. The film will be streaming online throughout the month of January.

Click here to watch the film.

World Premiere of "This Sacred Place" to Stream for Free Jan. 2

Back in 2019, suburban Chicago history teacher Bruce Janu packed his car with camera equipment and headed on a road trip to Lynn, Pennsylvania. His task: document the last concert of the famed "Old Lynn Concert Series."

He wasn’t the only out-of-towner to attend this concert. Others came a long way for the show --- as far away as Idaho.

But this place is not on a map. Lynn is at a crossroads in rural Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania. Blink and you will miss it.

The unusual concert venue was the Methodist Episcopal Church of Lynn built in 1883. This church was known for its musical presentations throughout the years. That tradition was continued in 2000 when the old church was turned into a concert hall. Despite its location in rural Northeastern, Pennsylvania, the Old Lynn Concert Series managed to bring in some of the most acclaimed acoustic folk artists from all over the world. Renowned singer-songwriters such as Jez Lowe, Bob Warren and Michael Jerling were among those to grace the Old Lynn stage over the years. During its nineteen-year run, the series presented over 150 free concerts to the community and beyond.

This Sacred Place: The Story of Old Lynn Concerts presents the history of the series along with footage from the grand finale, featuring singer-songwriters Lorne Clarke, Tom Flannery, and former Badlees guitarist Bret Alexander.

Before hitting the festival circuit next year, This Sacred Place will have its world premiere on Saturday January 2, 2021 at 7:30 pm, Eastern. The film will be streamed for free online via Scener. Janu, Clarke, Flannery and others will be on hand virtually to introduce the film, talk about the series and answer questions from the online audience.

“As the Old Lynn Concert Series was a free event,” explains Janu, “we wanted to honor that tradition by first presenting the film to the world in the same way.”

More information about this event can be found at http://www.bellbookcamera.com.

https://scener.com/bbcp?eventId=41805

Media Contact

Bell, Book and Camera Productionsinfo@bellbookcamera.com224-357-6214http://www.bellbookcamera.com

Categories : Arts , Entertainment , Event , Movies , Music

Tags : movie , premiere , documentary , pennsylvania , folk music

Suburban Chicago Teacher Produces Documentary on Famed Concert Series

"This Sacred Place" tells the story of Old Lynn Concerts

(Chicago) December 27, 2020. Memorial Day weekend, 2019, suburban Chicago history teacher Bruce Janu packed his car with camera equipment and headed on a road trip to Lynn, Pennsylvania. His task: document the last concert of the famed "Old Lynn Concert Series."

He wasn’t the only out-of-towner to attend this concert. Others came a long way for the show --- as far away as Idaho.

But this place is not on a map. Lynn is at a crossroads in rural Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania. Blink and you will miss it.

Janu had met Lorne Clarke and Tom Flannery back in 2005 when the musicians contributed the soundtracks to his films Facing Sudan and Crayons and Paper. When he heard that the concert series was coming to an end, he knew he had to tell the story.

“I went to one concert about 10 years ago,” Janu explains. “And I just fell in love with the venue. So unique. And a great place to listen to music.”

The concert series was a labor of love for Lorne Clarke, who not only served as the musical director and host of the series, but also is one of the producers of the documentary.

Before hitting the festival circuit next year, This Sacred Place will have its world premiere on Saturday January 2, 2021 at 7:30 pm, Eastern.

“As the Old Lynn Concert Series was a free event,” explains Janu, “we wanted to honor that tradition by presenting the film to the world in the same way.”

The film will be streamed for free online via Scener. Janu, Clarke and others will be on hand virtually to introduce the film, talk about the series and answer questions from the online audience. More information about this event can be found at http://www.bellbookcamera.com.

More information about the artists:

Lorne Clarke

Tom Flannery

Bret Alexander

Media Contact

Bell, Book and Camera Productionsinfo@bellbookcamera.com224-357-6214http://www.bellbookcamera.com

Categories : Arts , Entertainment , Event , Movies , Music

Tags : movie , premiere , documentary , pennsylvania , folk music