Two local filmmakers, Justin Talbott and Justin Noto, have captured the essence of the political campaign in their new film, "Landlocked." The 10-minute film depicts the election of a fictitious Pennsylvania governor. The key issue of the election is the candidate's stand on whaling (killing of whales) in Pennsylvania, a state without an Atlantic Ocean border. Somehow, an ancient law was on the books regarding whaling and one candidate, put on the spot, was forced to take a stand. From there, the issue escalated to the point where a non-issue became the central issue. The film was made as an application in an international filmmaking competition called NYC Midnight Movie-Making Madness. At midnight on the initial day of the contest, participants were given the subject of their film. Then they had two weeks to write, shoot, edit and score a ten-minute film and send it to NYC for judging. At the end of the judging, "Landlocked" placed third in its category, political satire. "Justin Noto and I have been making movies together since sixth grade," Talbott says. "We continued to make movies throughout high school and had two films win awards at the Young Audiences of Rochester Film Festival: "Lucky 7's" for Best Comedy and "The Contestant" for Best Editing. We also worked together throughout high school on BHS-TV, which was Brockport High School's news program." " 'Landlocked' is the fourth movie I have submitted to a contest or film festival. Of these submissions I have also earned a second place national award in a Triple A (AAA) Contest for a Drunk Driving Prevention," Noto said. Talbott and Noto, also known to friends as "the two Justins," graduated from Brockport High School in 2002. Talbott is a cinema and photography major at Ithaca College, and Noto is studying film directing at School of Visual Arts in NYC. "I have made two short movies in NYC in the past two years, "Three Blind Mice," an action film and "Dichotomy" a dark comedy," Noto said. "I have worked on many short films by other student directors as well." "I decided to enter the NYC Midnight Movie Making Madness competition this summer," Noto said. "The fact that they tell you what your movie has to be about and you are only given two weeks to make it interested me very much. It sounded fun and challenging, so I paid $100 to enter the contest figuring it would be worth it, and it definitely was." For two weeks, Talbott and Noto raced around planning and shooting the film. One scene was staged at the Monroe County Office Building, another in the Channel 10 newsroom. They also filmed at various stores in downtown Brockport including Jimmy Z's, the Collector's Choice and Trader Shag's. Professional actor Brian Sanders played one of the candidates in the film and Dan Izzo and Neil Czerniak also had parts. "My ultimate goal is to someday direct feature films. It's a very tough business, but hopefully continuing to do the work will pay off sooner or later," Noto says. |
