By Sharon Sheridan
The Ruhalter clan continued its local cinematic dominance on Aug. 17 when 10-year-old Crosby took first prize at the Fifth Annual MorristownGreen.com Film Festival with his video of “Amazing Basketball Shots.”
Last year, Crosby won second place for “Domino Tracks,” his film of myriad domino constructions falling down. This year, he earned top honors for a film showing humorous and creative shots of basketballs and other spheres projected in various ways through hoops, including an around-the-world shot that just missed the basket.
How did he achieve the circumnavigation? “Editing,” he told MG Editor Kevin Coughlin.
Crosby received video and editing (and basketball retrieving) assistance from his dad, who tied for third place in the 2011 film fest with “Nine Matches” and won first prize the year before with “Good for the Earth.” Eric Ruhalter is senior writer and producer for AMC Television and author of The Kid Dictionary, subject of another of this year’s films.
FIRST PLACE:
Morristown’s junior division of film makers did well over all, with Cadette Troop 1242 winning second prize for “Wrinkles and Lines an Clinique, Oh My!” and recent Morristown High School graduate Joey Gatto winning third for a music video of Eric “Fluffy” Glover, Morristown’s quirky cinema ticket taker, singing “Candy Man.” Last year, Gatto won Best Picture for “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.”
Inclement weather chased the film festival, initially planned for the Morristown Green, indoors to a packed Terrace Ballroom in the Hyatt. Audience members of all ages generated a festive atmosphere, with many sharing food and lounging on blankets and in beach chairs to watch the movies.
The evening began with musical sets by Timeless Jazz and the Brian Cunningham Project.
The show started with a few “blasts from the past,” films from previous festivals that featured cameos of Morristown residents and sites. Then followed screenings of four films from the “Kids Korner” and 16 in the PG-13 portion of the show. Audience members voted for their favorite films to choose the first- through third-place winners.
Crosby brought home a tall Best Picture trophy courtesy of Rios’ Engraving, tickets to the New York Film Critics Series, four hours of studio time at the Original Music School and gift certificates from the Morristown Partnership.
The Scouts received a MyVue Flip Camera and SD card from Sandrian Camera, four tickets to see the “Reduced Shakespeare Co.” at the Mayo Performing Arts Center and Morristown Partnership gift certificates.
Gatto earned two tickets to see Stephen Sondheim’s “You’re Gonna Love Tomorrow” at the Bickford Theatre, a 23 South boutique gift certificate and gift certificates from the Morristown Partnership.
The “Candy Man” has honed his musical rendition over time.
“I’ve been singing for, like, six years,” said Glover. Tuesdays, the song is always his requested karaoke performance at the Grasshopper.
“I just blow the roof off the place,” he said. “That’s the song the whole crowd requests.”
The Scouts’ film showed a pineapple who morphed into a near-lemon after experimenting with Clinique wrinkle cream and pink hair dye, then reverted to her old self with an appreciation of her inner beauty.
The pineapple theme came courtesy of member Alyssa Richtareck, 13.
“She’s obsessed with pineapples,” said Grace Prachthauser, 12.
“It’s like our theme, our signature,” said Eleanor Meli, 13.
The girls – including 12-year-old Tracy Cooper – created the film and a second one about bullying (which had a pineapple cameo) for their Silver Award but opted to enter the Clinique video in the festival because it was funnier.
While the winning film fit with the festival’s theme of comedy, it did have a serious message: “That you don’t have to change yourself to be beautiful,” said Eleanor.
Filming took one day, but “it took us a long time to edit,” said Mary Prachthauser, 13.
This was their first foray into video, and they were surprised at winning, Eleanor said, adding, “We had a lot of people come and vote.”
“It’s our first time in the film festival, so I think that’s pretty good,” Grace said of their second-place finish.
“The problem,” Mary said, “is how to split [the prizes] up.”
Crosby won’t have that problem, unless the other family members who starred in and helped film the movie want a piece of the action. He got the idea for the film, he told Coughlin, after practicing basketball shots in the backyard.
Did he actually make all those shots? “All of them,” he said.
It took as much as an hour to perfect some of them, Crosby said afterward.
“He would take the camera and go until the battery wore out almost every day,” his father said.
Although his “Kid Dictionary” entry didn’t win a prize, Eric Ruhalter said he didn’t mind being bested by his son. “I voted for him, too – because I have to live with him,” he said.
Crosby’s advice for next year’s aspiring film makers?
“Don’t make a bad film.”
MORE ABOUT THE 2012 MORRISTOWNGREEN.COM FILM FESTIVAL
