Athena Studios, an Emeryville, Calif.-based company specializing in production services for film and multimedia clients, has co-produced, along with the Bay Area section of the Visual Effects Society (VES), the official trailer promoting the 36th Annual Mill Valley Film Festival. The Mill Valley Film Festival (MVFF) will be held from Oct. 3-13, in movie theaters throughout Marin County, Calif. The festival presents programming that exposes attendees to local and independent features, while also giving early looks at prominent high profile films.
The 2013 MFVV trailer, which was directed by David H. Tanaka, chairman of the Bay Area VES and an editor with Pixar Animation Studios, depicts an abandoned San Francisco Bay Area. In the trailer, the Golden Gate Bridge, farm lands, freeways, shopping malls, sidewalks, public parks, restaurants and office buildings all appear empty. The viewer then learns that everyone from the Bay Area is alive and well – and sitting inside a movie theater, attending the 36th Annual Mill Valley Film Festival.
“This is the second trailer I’ve been asked to direct and co-produce for the Mill Valley Film Festival,” Tanaka said. “The first was for last year’s ‘Inspire. Create. Share,’ 35th anniversary campaign. Athena Studios did such a fantastic post-completion on last year’s trailer that I definitely wanted to use them again this year. They were terrific not only for the postproduction aspects of the piece, but also helped us throughout the shooting and production.”
“This was an incredibly fun project for our folks to work on,” said Jon Peters, CEO/founder, Athena Studios. “One of our visual effects artists, Jorge Martinez, really put his skills to work by depicting a real sense of desolation to areas of the San Francisco Bay Area and Marin in this trailer, even digitally emptying the Golden Gate Bridge for the opening shot. He also added in a few other elements as well, such as lighting effects, and a special guest inside the theater.”
“This is the second year in which we’ve collaborated with Athena Studios on the creation of our official festival trailer,” said Kevin Heverin, marketing and communications manager for the California Film Institute. “We truly appreciate the creative eye they bring to every facet of the creative and production process, along with their additional expertise as a postproduction finishing house.”
Last year the MVFF, attended by more than 50,000 people, featured 154 screenings, representing 43 countries with 60 official premieres.
MVFF36 trailer from California Film Institute on Vimeo.