URBANA–A group of children in Champaign-Urbana are getting the experience of a lifetime because of a new competition started by the Champaign-Urbana Film Society.
Nine scripts written by students throughout Champaign-Urbana are being turned into short films.

This weekend, one of those films, written by 10 year old Iona Sofia Hopping, began shooting.

Program organizers say they went through about 120 script entries.

They say, this program could encourage children to explore new avenues of creativity.

Pens to Lens Screenwriting Competition

Reposted from the TV Segment “Pens to Lens Screenwriting Competition” Reported by Erica Quednau of WCIA on May 6, 2013

CHAMPAIGN — Students are putting their screenwriting skills to the test. It’s apart of the screenwriting competition called Pens to Lens. The Champaign-Urbana Film Society came up with the idea.

Back in January, Kids K through 12 were asked to write an original screenplay. 120 students did and now about nine of those are being turned into short films with the help of Champaign Movie Makers.

WCIA 3′s Erica Quednau got to check out the making of “Tunnel to Greenland.” It’s an original screenplay written by Ruth Chung, a 17 year old from Champaign.

“I like to write just in general. Usually I don’t do screenplays, I just do like regular writings but I thought this might be a cool opportunity,” said Chung.

She entered the Pens to Lens competition after her english teacher suggested it. Now she is seeing her writing come to life.

“I really did not think it would happen to me so I think it’s really cool,” said Chung.

“I read the script and it was just absolutely mind boggling, so good. It was even better than scripts I’ve seen adults write,” said Anne Lukeman.

She is the director of the film and part of Champaign Movie Makers.

“We want to help build the film community starting with kids all the way on up,” said Lukeman.

It’s a community unknown to some but students like Ruth could change that.

“We have a really strong group of community film makers. It’s great to kind of spread that love and spread that knowledge and spread that interest back to a younger age group,” said Chris Lukeman. He is the assistant director on Chung’s film but also apart of Champaign-Urbana Film Society and Champaign Movie Makers.

“I think it’ll be cool to see all the movies and obviously to see the movie on screen, to see like the characters actually come to life,” said Chung.

All the short films will be aired at a red-carpet like gala at the end of the month. Awards will be given out for best writing.

Shatterglass Studios has arrived.

The new media development, film and video production company has made quite a name for themselves in Champaign County.

Shatterglass has worked on a number of projects in the community with such prestigious clients as Ebertfest, The Illinois Connection, Carle, Gillette and more. The company has been featured in numerous film festivals, including the Sonoma International Film Festival and screened at the Cannes Independent Film Festival, winning several awards and accolades along the way.

While Brett Hays and Luke Boyce are happy to share the secret to their success, it is a trait uniquely theirs – their partnership.

Boyce said he knew he wanted to do something artistic since he was a young boy. He was involved with his first film when he was only 14 years old. But when he graduated from high school it seemed music was his calling. He was the co-founder and lead singer of a pop-rock band for six years, but eventually decided to follow his first dream – film making.

Boyce knew he wouldn’t be able to run a creative company on his own. He had watched his father, an artist, struggle with all that comes along with running a business – scheduling, paperwork and networking. So when Boyce was connected with Hays, it was dream realized for both.

The pair set out at the end of 2005 to create a different kind of film production company. Their vision was to create commercial videos with a narrative storytelling theme that imitates a documentary – something they now call “docu-narrative.” Their company was originally based out of Springfield, but the duo saw so much promise in the Champaign-Urbana area they made the decision to relocate.

“Every community has a business sector,” Boyce said. “But in other places there are no relationships. It’s completely different here. There’s a cultural aspect and we’ve built friendships.”

Boyce is the creative director for the company and leads the vision for the style of film Shatterglass produces. Hays networks with companies, reaches out to new clients and maintains good relationships. Hays, a graphic designer, appreciates Boyce’s creative angle, but lets him lead. Throughout the years, that mutual respect has created a deep, trusting friendship. They say that is the real secret to their success.

“Having Brett to take the business load off my shoulders is so key,” he explains. “I just couldn’t do it myself.”

Shatterglass reached a major milestone when they moved into their new location this year at 309 S. Neil Street. The space is decked out in modern furniture, primary colors and vintage movie items. It is a creative paradise. As their company has grown and expanded, they needed the physical space to branch out. They are currently adding a complete sound stage, rivaling major production companies.

This branching out and creating a more-equipped building is all in hopes of bringing films to Champaign-Urbana. Though they say they will always have a commercial side, the next goal is to majorly expand their film side to become a reputable film production studio.

“The benefits to having a visible building with a sound stage will be huge,” Boyce said. “If a film was to come here, now we can have production offices, a sound stage, we can build sets. We can also coordinate with the community. Having this will give legitimacy.”

Shatterglass production coordinator Myles Beeson alongside owners Luke Boyce and Brett Hays at the 2012 Chamber Annual Meeting. The production company was named 2012 Small Business of the Year by the Champaign County Chamber of Commerce.

Hays is also quick to point out that films bring business to communities. A moderately-sized film will bring new crew members into the community. There could also be employment opportunities.

“People don’t realize what an economic boom film making can be,” he said.

He also explains that producing movies in smaller markets is currently trending. Many are moving away from Hollywood.

Boyce and Hays not only want to bring success to the community, but they want to engage the community with filmmaking. That’s a major reason they started the Champaign-Urbana Film Society – to educate and inspire community members.

“We want to inspire people, especially young people, that film is a viable job and art form,” he said.

The Champaign-Urbana Film Society plans to host a workshop for high school students in February or March. Shatterglass is going to bring in reputable professionals in the industry and give kids a hands-on approach to both the equipment and experience.

“Filmmaking is so good for communities,” Boyce said. “Even in a down economy people go to the movies. In 10 years, we want major films to be made here.”

Shatterglass Studios is located at 309 S. Neil St. in Champaign. They can be found online at www.shatterglassstudios.com.

For more information on the 2012 Chamber of Commerce Small Business of the Year award see “Shatterglass Earns Small-Business of the Year Award”

When did Champaign-Urbana morph into the movie capital of central Illinois? At last count, we’ve got Ebertfest, the CU Film Society, Champaign Movie Makers, CU Confidential (and Micro-Film), and of course, Shatterglass Studios all right here in our little town. We’re even mentioned in more than a few major motion pictures. Have we caught some filmmaking bug and is it contagious?

Filmmaking, whether for art or for commerce, is definitely a creative endeavor. So when it came time to invite our first guest in 2013 to speak at Parkland College’s “Meet the Pros” lecture series, I immediately thought of Luke Boyce, the co-owner and creative director of Shatterglass Studios. As a graphic design professor at Parkland College, I want my students to meet the creative pros that lift the local marketing communications industry to new heights. And Shatterglass Studios has risen to the top as a go-to creative studio for award-winning TV commercials and corporate videos.

Since the founding of Shatterglass Studios in 2006, Luke has directed and produced many short and feature-length films, commercials, and promotional pieces that have won numerous awards. In October 2012, Shatterglass was awarded the Small Business of the Year award from the Champaign County Chamber of Commerce.

In his spare time, Luke is a hopelessly addicted cinephile, developing organized movie-watching projects to fill every night of his week with multiple viewings. His current project involves watching 100 films from each decade in the history of film in chronological order, which sees him currently working through 1944.

In preparation for Luke’s upcoming presentation at Parkland’s “Meet the Pros” lecture series, I asked him to talk about his life and his work.

Smile Politely: What is Shatterglass Studios?

Luke Boyce: Shatterglass Studios is a full-featured production house, right here in Champaign. In the simplest of terms, we make movies. That includes both narrative movies and commercial movies. We’ve produced feature films, short films, commercials, corporate promotional videos, documentaries, training videos, government videos, etc. etc. In all cases, our main roles are to produce, direct, and edit the pieces. In some cases, we develop as well, but often we work with a company’s marketing team or an ad agency and simply produce a creative concept that already exists. In the narrative film world, we most often produce, meaning we help budget, hire crew, and manage the day-to-day production during principal photography.

Our competitive edge is that we approach everything with a high production-value, “cinematic” edge. We use the newest digital equipment like the RED camera (the same that was used to shoot The Hobbit or Prometheus) and try to make sure, no matter what we produce, whether it be narrative, commercial or corporate, that STORYTELLING is at the center of the concept and product. We are located in our own facility in downtown Champaign, where we have our offices, a full sound-stage, and even a small fifteen-seat private screening room.

SP: How many people work at Shatterglass?

Boyce: Shatterglass consists of both myself and my partner, Brett Hays. We are both owners in the business. We then employ various freelance creatives. Currently, Myles Beeson of Beeson Photography works with us almost full-time in both a shooting and editing capacity. And we often work with a brilliant editor from Chicago, Cam Yergler, who has been with us for years and edited some of our best work. We also currently have three interns that work with us as well.

SP: What projects are you most proud of?

Boyce: We’ve really been lucky in that almost every job we do has some new technique we try to employ, so thus far, we’ve had the great fortune to be able to produce so many pieces that I’m really proud of. Our docs for both the 2011 and 2012 Ebertfest have been some of my favorites, by far, but we’ve also produced really great stuff for various departments at the U of I, and quite a lot for the College of Business. I’m really very proud of the various stuff we’ve produced for them, especially a documentary called A Day In the Life, in which we follow around some MBA students and try to get a feel for what life is like in that program. Also, recently a video we did for their Global Consulting Program, where we went and filmed them in Brazil. And bringing out the heart and story of a project is really prevalent in a documentary we produced for the Champaign West Rotary. We went to Honduras with them for a week to document a project they are involved with down there, and that film really came out wonderfully. Of course, all of our films have been labors of love. I’m very excited about one we helped produce and film last year called The Drunk, starring Tom Sizemore and Jesse Ventura. It’s currently rounding out its post-production phase right now, and we hope to see it premiere later this year.

SP: What projects challenged you the most?

Boyce: The easy answer is every project. We really try to approach every project with a little twist on what we’ve done before. It’s so important for me to constantly challenge myself to try something new, as I’ve seen that when I do, we make huge strides forward creatively. The more specific examples would be, for instance, a video we did for a stained glass company in Jacksonville, IL called Jacksonville Art Glass. They wanted a corporate video to try to show potential clients their facilities and attention to detail, etc. We had scouted some of the locations where their glass was installed and was really inspired to produce something very heartfelt that could put more emphasis on the artistry of what they do. So we approached the video not as much as a corporate video, but more like we were making a documentary on stained glass with Jacksonville Art Glass at the center. We hadn’t done anything like that before and the results were so fantastic, that it opened up a whole new world of work for us. Everybody wanted their promos to be like ‘Jacksonville Art Glass.’

SP: Does Shatterglass have a studio style?

Boyce: Absolutely. The whole ‘documentary’ feel that we produced in the Jacksonville Art Glass film kind of became our signature style. Since we are first and foremost filmmakers and storytellers, advertising does not necessarily come as easy to us. We’re really in the business of filmmaking. Our interest is telling stories and trying to achieve a human interest level in whatever we do. That has served us well, and when we meet with clients we find that that’s really what they want. So we approach every promotional video or commercial with that same edge of ‘what is the story here?’

For example, after Jacksonville was produced, it got in the hands of the U of I Alumni Association and we met with them to produce a promotional video for their Illinois Connection program. Their goal was to have a video that would be impactful for students to get them to participate, but also for alumni to let them know that they can continue to participate and how rewarding it is. So we were left with this incredibly large demographic we had to appeal to. We started trying to figure out what the hidden story was in what could have just as easily been a simple informative piece. We ended up following them on a trip to Springfield to talk with Illinois lawmakers and met an older lady named Mary. She had been passionately involved with the program for years and we started following her and getting her story. And then we found a young female student with the same kind of passion and ended up juxtaposing their stories in the video to show the range of involvement and its lasting impact. It’s one of my favorite things we’ve produced.

SP: A few months ago, you won the Small Business of the Year award from the Champaign County Chamber of Commerce. How does it feel?

Boyce: It feels incredible. Honestly. I’m a creative person. Which means, to be honest, I don’t have a lot of good business sense. I leave a lot of that up to Brett and I think he’s probably the main reason we got the award. He came on about six or seven months after the business started up and I realize that if he hadn’t, it probably wouldn’t have lasted much longer. He really made a difference in how we worked with clients and the relationships we built. He’s got an amazing personability to him. People really trust him when he says something and he’s honest and reliable. I’m an artist, so, yes I’m trustworthy too, but I tend to live in my own head and can be a bit more introverted and sporadic.

What really made the award so meaningful, though, was just the history I’ve had with artistry and business. My dad was a graphic designer and had his own business, but he worked by himself and struggled a lot. We lived in a small town and he had to take all kinds of jobs to make it work, which was always a bit of a struggle. He died in 2006 from cancer and I had literally just started Shatterglass earlier that year. I was married and broke and I think he was worried about me, seeing me starting a business and going down the same path he had done and struggled with so often. So the award was quite a bit of a touchstone in my life, thinking about my dad. It meant so much more than even, I think, the people at the Chamber realized it could have.

SP: What other awards has Shatterglass Studios won?

Boyce: To date, we’ve won three Telly Awards. Tow for our Jacksonville Art Glass video and one for our Ebertfest 2011 Documentary.

SP: What do you do outside of work?

Boyce: Outside of work, I’m a completely hopeless cinephile. I watch movies. Literally, hundreds of movies. I have a theater with a 150-inch screen in my basement, and I spend almost every single night of the week down there watching movies from every era, country, and genre. It matters not, I adore them all. I also watch an insane amount of television with my wife. An unhealthy amount, but we don’t have kids yet, so we’re taking advantage while we can. We’re diehard Whovians.

SP: What exactly is a cinephile?

Boyce: A cinephile, at least in my opinion, is essentially a religious zealot, but whose religion is cinema. In many cases, a cinephile is a snob. I try really really hard not to be a snob. Truthfully, I like just as much crap films as art films, so I guess that disqualifies me from being too snobby. But, I will still judge someone completely based on their taste in film. Haha! As Frank Capra said, ‘Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream, it takes over as the number one hormone; it bosses the enzymes; directs the pineal gland; plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to film is more film.’

SP: What movies have changed your life?

Boyce: This is probably the most dangerous question you could ever ask a cinephile. I’ll try to be as brief as I can. I first saw Citizen Kane when I was about thirteen or fourteen. I didn’t know anything about it, really, but it completely blew my world apart as far as what was possible in film. It changed my life in that it was kind of that seminal moment when watching movies became a more transcendent experience. I suddenly became aware of mise-en-scène, structure, cinematography, dialogue, acting, etc.

I won’t go into why, but a few others that impacted me would be Vigo’s L’Atalante,Bergman’s Winter Light, Scorsese’s Goodfellas, Malick’s Days of Heaven, Godard’sContempt, Back to the Future, Mulholland Drive, Apocalypse Now, The Passion of Joan of Arc, Toy Story, Kieślowski’s Trois Couleurs Trilogy, and Satyajit Ray’s Apu Trilogy. Honestly, I could list about 500 more, at least.

SP: What movies have made you cry?

Boyce: Interesting question. I wept like a baby at The Passion of Joan of Arc. Probably one of the most moving experiences in cinema I’ve ever had. One of my favorites, actually, that makes me cry almost every single time I watch it is Forrest Gump. That’s not a favorite amongst cinephile’s, but I love it dearly.

SP: What movies do you wish you had made?

Boyce: Well, every movie I love, I wish I had made. In fact, I generally preach that it is the desire to reproduce the works we love so much that often makes a great artist. So, in my pursuit of creating art, I devour art. I think it’s all the hundreds of movies swimming around in my head that gives me better timing when I’m editing, or better instincts on where to put the camera when I’m on set. More or less, when I make a film, I’m just trying to make every great film I’ve ever seen, or at least the ones that are inspiring the most at that particular moment.

Not sure if that’s an adequate enough answer to your question. But I’ll take it and reframe it as what is essentially my mantra: To be a good artist, you have to study great art. Doesn’t matter if it’s film, design, music, theater, painting, etc. Jim Jarmusch put it like this:

Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery — celebrate it if you feel like it.

In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: ‘It’s not where you take things from — it’s where you take them to.’

SP: Any movie projects in the works for you in the future?

Boyce: Always. It’s not always a guarantee that any of them will see the light of day, but we’re always hard at work on potential projects. We’re in the process of shepherding a really fantastic comedy from a duo of brilliant writers in Chicago. You can see a lot of their stuff at www.dimestorefilms.com. We’re hoping to get that film underway by the fall this year. And I’ve personally got a film that I’m scripting with my wife at the moment with the hopes of starting to raise funds later this year, as well as four other treatments I’m working on completing as well. And we’re excited to premiere The Drunk, as I mentioned before, as soon as it is completed in post-production.

—

Luke Boyce will be speaking at Parkland College on Wednesday, January 30 at 12 noon in room C118. Luke’s presentation is the tenth event of “Meet the Pros,” a creative lecture series presented by Graphic Design at Parkland College and sponsored byCUDO and 40 North 88 West. This free lecture series is open to the public and features designers, photographers, illustrators, and other commercial artists in our local creative community.

Reposted from the article “Melissa Merli’s Art Beat: Documentary has me pumped up for Ebertfest“ by Melissa Merli of The News Gazette on Sun, 01/20/2013 – 11:00am

Reposted from the article “Grant will help C-U Film Society expand activities“ by Melissa Merli of The News Gazette on Sun, 01/20/2013 – 11:00am

Shatterglass Studios will have quite the 2013; between putting together local workshops where people can learn about some of the more technical aspects of filmmaking and hosting a screening that includes a meet and greet with the filmmaker, the film production company plays an active part in engaging with the local film scene. Buzz recently caught up with co-owners Brett Hays and Luke Boyce.

» buzz: I think there will be people surprised to find out that there is a film production company in Champaign. How did Shatterglass Studios get started?

» Luke Boyce: It started about seven years ago. It was a situation where me and some other people got together with a business man in town and decided to make a media company. We wanted to make films but we needed to pay the bills as well, so we decided to have a company where we could acquire the equipment needed to do all that stuff and use the filmmaking skills to also make promotional videos, commercial videos, things like that, and kind of do both at the same time.

» Brett Hays: We realized it was a lot harder to do. It wasn’t as easy as just getting the equipment and going forward. It took us time. I came on eight months later, I had just graduated from U of I. Within a year, I met them and it just took time for us to perfect what we were doing and have people hear about it.

» buzz: Tell me about your work with up-and-coming and local filmmakers.

» Brett Hays: The thing about film is its collaboration ­— it’s definitely collaboration in the perfect sense so it’s always about teaming up with filmmakers, and so we did our first big short. It was called Sugar and we teamed up with filmmakers in Chicago and shot it there with Alex Beh and Pete Biagi and built relationships and started relationships there. We are always trying to build relationships with filmmakers, especially here in the Midwest. It’s not like L.A., where everyone you meet is a filmmaker. Everyone in the Midwest does something, and when they want to make film, they do film on the side. So we just spent many years building relationships with other filmmakers. There are filmmakers in Champaign and Urbana, so we helped start the CU Film Society, which is a community organization to do workshops and screenings for anyone in the community to learn about filmmaking, and that’s one way we have partnered with other filmmakers in town. There is no true filmmaker in Champaign that that’s all they do, so it’s a matter of teaming up with people who are interested in making film, finding good crew people and stuff like that.

» Luke Boyce: To add to what Brett said, the issue is that in a place like this, a lot of times you have to look under a rock to find a filmmaker because everyone does other things. There are no full-time filmmakers in town, but there are a lot of people interested in film, and now that everyone is able to have a camera, there are a lot people who like to make film and want to be a filmmaker. That’s one reason we created the CU Film Society — to lift some of these rocks and let people know that there is an organization to help foster that a little more. Even on our end with Shatterglass Studios, we work a lot with departments of the U of I and we have several U of I interns and some non-U of I interns who we like to bring in and help foster their interest in filmmaking as well. The best thing you can do as a filmmaker in a place like this is not be shy. Let people know that you are interested in it and do it because there is always someone. There is always someone like us who wants to work with you. So that’s one thing we try to do: We try to kind of find those people, find those interests.

» buzz: Some of your projects include Sugar, Leading Ladies and The Drunk. What drew Shatterglass Studios to these films?

» Brett Hays: Sugar was because of Alex Beh’s charisma. I wanted to work with Alex when we meet him. We were working on a project up in Chicago and he had not done any film yet, but he just has this charisma that you’re just like, all right, this will be fun, and that project grew and grew from when we first talked about it. Leading Ladies was a project where they sought us out because we had worked with Pete Biagi on Sugar, who was the cinematographer. They wanted to work with Pete, and we had a relationship with him, and we were here in Champaign. Then The Drunk­, same thing ­­— Biagi wanted to use us to work on The Drunk because of Leading Ladies. Each one kind of grew from each other, working with other filmmakers building relationships. What attracted us to it, well with Leading Ladies, it’s a fun movie that was coming to Champaign. It was a little movie but at the same time had big ambitions. The Drunk definitely had big ambitions so I think just the challenge of trying to do more and expand a little bit is what attracts me to projects. It’s okay to go back and try small projects and little projects as well — it’s not like you have to keep going and doing bigger projects, but I think the challenge is always exciting. The big thing is working with the family, the crew, hiring the same people or finding new people building these relationships is what attracts me to film.

» Luke Boyce: Most independent filmmakers and local filmmakers specifically work on the level of keep it small, keep it intimate, keep it basic and that’s great. What I think sets us apart is that we think big. We want to do big things; we want to do big productions, big budgets. Every now and then we will do a little, and there is nothing wrong with that — sometimes that’s fun to do, but we are dead serious about it. We are here for the work. We are for the film, so we actually want to put it out there and do stuff with it.

» Brett Hays: So Luke isn’t misunderstood, that other people here don’t want to be big, they do.

» Luke Boyce: I’m not saying here, I’m saying in general. Independent filmmakers — it doesn’t matter if it’s Champaign or Madison, Wis. or such and such — I’m saying everywhere in the world.

» Brett Hays: We have chosen to take the risk. It’s paid off for us, but we have chosen to take the risk to do it full-time.

» Luke Boyce: Most people think if you do what we do, you have to be in Chicago, New York, or L.A. This is kind of the trifecta of film production so we kind of thumb our nose at that idea and say you can be here and do big you don’t have to be in L.A. to do big.

» buzz: Shatterglass Studios won the Champaign Chamber of Commerce 2012 Business of the Year. If you had any advice for young entrepreneurs/film lovers, what would it be?

» Brett Hays: Advice for college entrepreneurs: When I was a senior in college, I started my own business. That’s what got me excited about business. I was going to school for Art and Graphic Design. I can stand on a soap box — with our interns I’m usually on a soap box — but I will keep it to one, and that is just build relationships. It is so important; this is a little different than what I would say about film, but as far as the business side, it’s not a matter of what you do but who you know. Personality is key for us and just building relationships with people, and that’s on the business side. On the quality side, it’s producing the best possible work you can do. Doing everything you can do to make the client happy to making sure they get the best possible product. On the film side, who you know can get you far, but working hard is the key on a film set­ — working so hard that the boss or manager never has to worry about them. Hiring crew who are self-sufficient and are out there getting it done. Find like-minded individuals who are willing to work as hard as you.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Production firm Shatterglass earns small-business award

Photo by: Robin Scholz/The News-Gazette Luke Boyce, left, and Brett Hays, co-owners of Shatterglass Studios, pose Tuesday in their offices on South Neil Street in Champaign with the RED Digital Cinema Scarlet-X camera they use to shoot most of their films. The studio is the Champaign County Chamber of Commerce's Small Business of the Year.

CHAMPAIGN — Luke Boyce and Brett Hays say they have a great partnership.

Boyce, the creative director of Shatterglass Studios, admits he’s not very organized and not a great networker.

Hays, on the other hand, is “extremely organized” and good at sales and building relationships, Boyce said.

For the last six years, they’ve been working together as co-owners of Shatterglass, a film and video production company that makes promotional videos and commercials.

Today the company is being honored by the Champaign County Chamber of Commerce as its Small Business of the Year.

In nominating Shatterglass for the award, Habeeb Habeeb, president of Benefit Planning Consultants, described it as “a creative agency of young filmmakers who pride themselves on understanding the intricacies of influential and meaningful new media, video production and film.”

Shatterglass is the only independent production company in the area to offer a full soundstage, he said.

Plus, it’s using the new Scarlet-X camera from RED Digital Cinema, which is being used to shoot some of the biggest productions in Hollywood.

Shatterglass moved this year to the former Surface 51 office at 309 S. Neil St., C. Its offices are adorned with movie posters, vintage toys and guitars, among other things.

In addition to creating a soundstage at the rear of the building, Shatterglass is developing a private screening room where clients can screen early drafts of projects. The room will have 18 seats from the Virginia Theater.

Boyce and Hays said their company really took off after Hays relocated to Champaign and Shatterglass moved to the M2 building in downtown Champaign in 2010.

Among their key projects: a promotional video made for Jacksonville Art Glass and a video touting the University of Illinois Alumni Association’s “Illinois Connection” program.

They’ve also made numerous videos for Carle and have traveled to Brazil and Honduras for other projects.

Boyce, a self-proclaimed “cinephile” who usually watches two movies a night, said Shatterglass tries to approach commercial video “with a cinematic edge rather than a broadcasting edge.”

He said Shatterglass aims to “tell a story” and “provide narrative content for people, not just on an informational level but on an emotional level.”

Boyce said he approaches video projects as he would a documentary.

“We call them short films,” he said.

Hays and Boyce share a number of common interests, including film, music and graphic design.

Boyce, 30, of Champaign grew up in Cissna Park, studied graphic design at Parkland College in Champaign and for six years performed in the pop band Regarding Angels.

“I’ve wanted to be a director since I was a little kid,” he said. Boyce said he enjoyed making records, but liked filmmaking even more.

Hays, 31, of Champaign grew up in Rochester, studied graphic design at the UI and graduated in 2004. He returned to the Springfield area to work in sales and marketing, occasionally collaborating on film projects.

Scott Reichard, chairman of Benefit Planning Consultants, was interested in starting a multimedia company and brought the two together, they said.

For the first few years, the company struggled, with Boyce working from Champaign and Hays from Springfield.

Both credit their wives — Keri and Sheri, respectively — for supporting them in those early years. That support included not only income from their own jobs, but also respect for their husbands’ creative vision.

Today, Hays and Boyce said about 60 percent of their business is promotional videos and the remainder are commercials and miscellaneous videos.

Shatterglass has a goal of $200,000 in revenue this year, Hays said.

Boyce and Hays have been active in film production, including “Sugar,” “Leading Ladies,” “Finding Virginia” and “The Drunk,” which stars Tom Sizemore as a district attorney running for governor. Several won awards at film festivals.

Last year, the two created the Champaign-Urbana Film Society to promote filmmaking in the community. They’re planning workshops and other events as ways of sharing information about aspects of filmmaking.

Hays, for his part, said he respects Boyce’s opinions on Shatterglass projects.

“It’s his vision. My job is to make his (vision) work. We never fight for creative vision,” Hays said.

“I’m lucky,” Boyce said. “You don’t find many people with good business skills who have respect for the creative.”

Boyce underscores his passion for the creative in his attire. On Tuesday, for example, he wore a purple sweater, purple sneakers, a bow tie and a cap worn backwards, a la Samuel L. Jackson.

“I try to stand out a little bit, to be unique,” Boyce said. “I don’t feel comfortable looking normal. I definitely feel more creative when I dress creatively.”

Business profile

Name: Shatterglass Studios.

Business: Video and film production company.

Co-owners: Luke Boyce, creative director, and Brett Hays, producer.

Address: 309 S. Neil St., C.

Other staff: Three free-lancers, two interns.

Origin of name: Founders liked the imagery of “breaking through.”

Recognition: Shatterglass won Telly Awards for cinematography and corporate image in 2011 for a Jacksonville Art Glass video and a Telly Award in 2012 for a retrospective on the 2011 Ebertfest.

Community: Boyce and Hays created the C-U Film Society in 2011. Boyce chairs the digital conversion subcommittee for the Art Theater Cooperative and hosts a film discussion series there.

Reposted from article “Production firm Shatterglass earns small-business award” by Don Dodson of The News Gazette on Friday, October 26, 2012

Shatterglass Studios Named Chamber’s ‘Small Business of the Year’

Story date: Friday, October 26, 2012 from Illinois Public Media News

The Champaign County Chamber of Commerce named Shatterglass Studios Small Business of the Year at its annual meeting on Friday.

Located in Champaign, the company specializes in film and video production.

The business has grown considerably in the past three years – increasing its income by 60 percent last year alone. Laura Weis of the Champaign County Chamber of Commerce said, “They are a great example of how small business can prosper in our community.”

Brett Hays and Luke Boyce founded the company seven years ago. “We’re not shy about letting people know that having a small business is a challenging thing,” Hays said. “For the first three years we relied on our wives income to move forward on our dreams. We have extremely supportive and understanding wives. It was hard.”

But Hays and Boyce persevered. “We kept dreaming bigger and bigger. There is no secret other than persistence. We said, ‘Let’s just be the best at our niche, which is cinematic film and video production,’” Hays said.

The film duo are also the founders of the Champaign-Urbana Film Society, which provides filmmaking education in Champaign-Urbana.

Workshops are just one way the society is promoting filmmaking. On November 6, a presentation on DSLR camera filmmaking will take place at the University of Illinois.

In addition, Hays said he hopes to inspire high school students to take an interest in filmmaking.

“We gotta start young,” Hays said. “We’d love to get into the high schools and start creating visions for young people to say, ‘You can make film, you don’t have to go and buy an expensive camera. You can start making films now, and we’d love to support you in doing so.’”

Reposted from article Shatterglass Studios Named Chamber’s ‘Small Business of the Year’ Friday, October 26, 2012 from Illinois Public Media News

A couple of months ago, we discovered that a vacancy would soon be occurring in a building that we’ve long dreamt about but had never considered a real possibility to be in. But, just as it tends to happen sometimes, destiny took it’s course. In May, a few different conversations took place that suddenly made our dream a very possible reality. Without hesitation, we started to pursue it, and on July 1st, we officially moved into 309 S. Neil St., where we’ve spent the past couple of weeks creating our dream space, and while it’s still a work-in-progress, we’d like to take this moment to give you a brief tour of the new Shatterglass “Studio,” if you will.

The Building

Our new offices reside at 309 S. Neil St., just at the southern tip of Downtown Champaign. We’re tucked between Champaign Surplus and the corner of Neil and Springfield.

At M2 on Neil, we had offices in the “Enclave” which is a professional “Shared Space” where multiple businesses reside, share a receptionist, kitchen, conference rooms, etc. There’s a lot of things we loved about the space, like the ability to always be in contact with other businesses and have a very communal work environment, but we started to outgrow it and needed more space. So at 309 we’re actually still sharing the space with another company that we met at M2, Accuraty Solutions. It’s a brilliant fit as Accuraty specializes in Web Development and Management. It’s something that fits the creative atmosphere of the space, but neither company has to worry about competition and we’ve become great friends with Jeremy, the founder and owner, and his spectacular staff.

They reside in the front portion of the building and we reside in the back. The space is perfectly designed so that it is both open and private at the same time. We can casually run into each other on a constant basis, but we don’t infringe on each other either. We both have our own bathrooms and we share the conference room and kitchen.

The Mojo Room

When you walk straight back into the Shatterglass portion of the building you immediately know it’s a different space. Shatterglass comprises of a common area in the middle, with 4 offices surrounding it on two sides and a small open work area as well.  We call the common area the “Mojo Room” (which was cleverly coined by One Main Development President, Mike Royse). This is the room where we come together, interact, collaborate and create. It’s an area that allows our space to be both comfortable and professional, private and collaborative. Since our offices all reside on the sides of the Mojo Room, we can easily go from being reclusive while editing or making phone calls in our own offices, to coming together and being collaborative and creative in the room.

A lot of thought and effort went into the design of the space. While most of the color scheme existed from the previous owners paint on the walls, we wanted to really run with the ideas. It’s been shown in studies that color can really help improve the creative process so we wanted to really be surrounded by it. Most of the office is splashed with Red and especially in the Mojo Room. A red sectional, red chairs, red lights, etc. Red is not only the brand of our beloved camera, but it’s the color that most evokes passion, romance, anger, creativity, etc. We’ve got it all over.

While it seems that it would be fairly obvious for a film production company to decorate with film-related posters, we decided to decorate with our own love of pop-culture. Our entire space is filled with Comic Book cover posters. Our hallways, walls, even the bathrooms have comic book covers on them. And why not? Comics are not only one of the greatest American art forms, but they’re our modern mythology. They’re the greatest form of non-photographic, visual storytelling we have and we here at Shatterglass are avid readers and lovers of the form, being dedicated storytellers and artists. 99% of the covers are the greatest stories ever told by DC Comics (our preferred publisher), but the first thing you’ll really notice is the giant IRON MAN cover gracing the back north wall.

Myles’ Office

Myles Beeson is the newest addition to the Shatterglass family. He’s a brilliant and accomplished photographer, cinematographer, editor and musician. I’m fairly confident you’ve never met anybody as carefree and easygoing as Myles Beeson. A world traveler and avid surfer, Myles’ room reflects his personality beautifully. His own photography populates the room in stunning canvas prints and a giant canvas of a blue wave fills the east wall.

Brett’s Office

Our Co-Owner, Producer and Project Manager, Brett Hays, resides in the office next to Myles. A spacious office with dashes of playfulness thrown in at various places, Brett’s office displays his passion for art, pop-culture and Michael Jackson. His figures comprise of various vintage Star Wars and superheroes from his childhood and his office includes a relaxing sitting area where he can chill at the end of the day, or watch his two beautiful young daughters play or draw while he works at his desk.

Luke’s Office

Luke’s office consists of two halves: workstation and lounge. As the Creative Director of Shatterglass, Luke works in both an idea capacity as well as an editing one.  So the first half of the office contains an editing workstation, while the second half is a comfortable lounge area where he can work through the creative process, all while enjoying his classic rock and jazz vinyls. The occasional video game or blu-ray doesn’t hurt either. Luke’s figures consist of collectible figures ranging from THE MUPPET SHOW to Elvis Presley and Jack Bauer.  Two full-size, officially licensed Muppet replica’s of Animal and Gonzo watch over the space, while posters of 60′s Star Trek comic covers, classic movie vinyl soundtracks and a framed Edward R. Murrow autographed record represent the range in his interests and passions.

Edit Suite A

A small editing suite resides to the east of Luke’s office. A small office that contains a Mac Pro, 30″ Apply Display and 32″ HDTV Reference Monitor. This suite also functions as a mixing station and color correction suite as well.

Workroom

A small workroom sits to the east of the Edit Suite where 2 or 3 people can work simultaneously at the counter.

The Back…

Currently a work-in-progress, the back area, the actual “studio”, will be the center of our activities here. The space we’ve acquired is absolutely perfect for us to create a sound stage for filming, as well as a small area for entertaining, a storage room and best of all, an 18-seat private screening room. We intend to spend the next 6 or so months working on building this area out, but we’ve created a 3D walkthrough video (below) to give you an idea of how the space will work. Once we’ve completed the studio, we’ll update with another blog detailing it.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The CU Film Society was first thought up by myself, Luke Boyce, and my business partner, Brett Hays, somewhere around September 2010. Together we own and operate a small independent film production company called “Shatterglass Studios“.  Some of you might recognize our name as we’ve produced several award-winning shorts and features, mostly shot in the Champaign and Chicago area’s. In 2009, we managed and co-produced the award-winning feature “Leading Ladies”, directed by Daniel and Erika Randall Beahm. It was the first full-length film that we had produced in Champaign and the cooperation that we found in the area was breathtaking. Champaign-Urbana is not only a brilliantly progressive and culturally-savvy town, but it is full of completely wonderful people who are infinitely supportive of the arts. For decades, many of us who have resided here have seen this first-hand with our amazing music scene, but there has been an underlying scene of local filmmakers and film-lovers in this town that have been crying out for their own community as well.

In the past 13 years we’ve really seen that community blossom under the incredible experiences of our annual Ebertfest! Every year, around the last week of April, Champaign becomes a film town, front and center. Roger Ebert, our hometown hero, gracefully brings his unmatched love of cinema to our small city and we get 5 days of glorious cinephilia hosted by Roger and his amazing wife, Chaz, all under the roof of our very own “Picture Palace” at the majestic Virginia Theater. But after those intoxicating 5 days are over, the cinephiles of Champaign-Urbana are once again scattered for the remaining 11 months, left to our own solitary devices.

At Shatterglass Studios, Brett and my life is film. It’s what we do on a daily basis. We watch it, study it, make it and most importantly we LOVE IT. The only things we really love more than film is our families and our community. It’s our love of this community that lead us to want to bring together all the film-lovers in Champaign-Urbana. We wanted to develop an organization that would be film-focused, both on literacy and education. So about 8 months ago we decided to gather up a small group of like-minded individuals, other Champaign-Urbana natives who love film and filmmaking as much as we do, and pitched them our idea to create this organization that could unite the film-lovers and film-makers of Champaign the entire year through various programs like special screenings of classic and independent films and workshops and classes to teach the art of filmmaking in order to foster a more vibrant filmmaking community in Champaign as well.

The idea went even better than expected. Everybody we pitched it to wanted to be involved immediately and heavily. Chris and Anne Lukeman, who together have created some of the most creative and original independent films you’ll ever see, and have been two of the forerunners of the Champaign independent film scene. Bill Kephart, who has been an incredible force for local acting in Champaign, bringing together a network of incredibly talented individuals, and being a massively talented thespian himself. AJ Christensen, an employee at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, who is not only a professional filmmaker himself, but also a passionate advocate for student filmmaking and independent animation, having overseen the University’s chapter of SIGGRAPH in years past. And Myles Beeson, a young filmmaker and alumnus of the New York Film Academy in Los Angeles, whose skills have found him in various exotic locales shooting films and commercials for major corporations.  Each of these amazing people were eager to get on-board and with their devoted help within weeks we had already developed a serious game-plan to bring a Film Society to Champaign-Urbana.

So what exactly is a “film society”? Click HERE to find out!

The article was originally posted at www.cufilmsociety.com