Now PushPush  has announced that they’re doing a stage-to-screen comedy series that will go to the web. Coming a few weeks after they just had Brian Newman in town to talk about new media and new models for filmmakers, it’s even less of a surprising announcement. Newman has been traveling the world over lecturing about the changing media landscape and how it not only affects filmmakers and content creators, but how it can empower them.

PushPush has always been about applying what they’ve learned to create new works and new experiences. It will be interesting to see how this new series comes to fruition and what the result will be. This is one we’ll definitely have to do more followup on. Press Release is below:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: PushPushTheater@gmail.com

404-377-6332

PushPush Produces Original Stage-to-Screen Comedy Series New Series Performed Live in Preparation for Filming and Digital Broadcast

July 6, 2010 – ATLANTA, GA – This fall, PushPush will begin a new and unique project, Slow Down Atlanta, an original episodic series about a group of out-of-work stooges who’ve started their own paranormal services company. PushPush will stage the first episodes of the series live before beginning to film the episodes for digital broadcasting and distribution. Utilizing some of Atlanta’s top talent in film, theater and improv, the first episodes will be presented to live audiences in August, with the first online broadcast set for the end of 2010. This series will pave the way for a new international project aimed at filming in Berlin and Atlanta.

According to PushPush founding member and Managing Artistic Director, Shelby Hofer, staging the work before filming introduces a new process for long-term craft and content development, which reduces film production time. She explains, “The serial aspect itself, along with the live staging, allows the characters and story line to develop into a richer experience over time.”  Hofer continues, “The added element of a live audience can improve the content before the cameras ever start rolling.  It also provides the creative team with an outlet for the gritty groundwork that will develop over a longer period of time.”

The title Slow Down Atlanta originates from the notion that dealing with our personal ghosts, both literal and figurative, sometimes slows forward progress. The Slow Down series has a unique blend of modern office comedy and creepy, genre-based mystery show. The themes range from internet gaming and marriage to immigrant culture, the new racism, strippers, and good-old-fashioned homophobia. The plot begins as two 30-year-old friends rent an old office, hire a secretary and start a paranormal services business for beer money.

The launch of Slow Down Atlanta marks the start of PushPush’s new entrepreneurial phase, where the company will implement new methods, including transmedial marketing, to monetize results of their new development projects. PushPush, in its role as a hub for artistic development, works to create projects that enable Atlanta theater and film artists to connect, explore and refine their craft, create original works, and provide equal effort toward improving revenue while doing it.

PushPush achieved success with its film and theater hybrids, such as The Robbers, Cats Have Nine Lives, The Seagull, and Intersection of Dreams. The launch of Slow Down is part of a 5-year-plan to present two types of serials, including a multi-cultural project entitled GRFX.

PushPush will hold open workshops on Monday evenings in July for actors, directors and other film or theater artists interested in getting involved.

For more details on Slow Down Atlanta, PushPush, or their new phase of development, contact Shelby Hofer.

Just for the record, CinemATL writer Charles Judson also serves as the Communications Director or the Atlanta Film Festival.

Here’s the press release in its entirety:

Media Statement from Atlanta Film Festival 365 Board of Directors

Atlanta, GA (June 24, 2010) – Atlanta Film Festival 365 (ATL Film 365), formerly IMAGE, Independent
Media Artists of GA, has been championing independent film and filmmakers since 1977.

By programming cutting edge films, the Atlanta Film Festival is one of Georgia’s most distinguished
cultural events, serving as the region’s preeminent celebration of cinema and as one of only two-dozen
Academy Award® qualifying festivals in the United States.

Year round programs, such as screenings, events, discussions, workshops, panels, and educational
activities, coupled with an interactive Web site and engaged social media platforms, provide the forum to
lead the community in creative and cultural discovery through the moving image.

Critical support is provided to ATL Film 365 through its corporate sponsors, its public funders (MAAF,
Fulton County Arts Council, City of Atlanta Office of Cultural Affairs and Georgia Council for the Arts)
and its membership base, which the Board respects with great stewardship.

As ATL Film 365 approaches its 35th anniversary, the Board of Directors is excited about the future. Fully
committed to the continuation of this vibrant organization and world-class festival, they have elected to
pursue a re-focused leadership and operational strategy.

The ATL Film 365 Board extends enormous thanks to Gabe Wardell, in his role as Executive Director
these last four years, for his tireless dedication to the organization’s mission as well his passion and
creativity in his efforts to build the festival into a superb event. The Board wishes to thank Gabe for
graciously agreeing to stay on during this transition period.

Tom Karsch, former ATL Film 365 board member and former executive vice president of both Turner
Classic Movies and Turner South will serve as the Interim Executive Director, while the board begins a
nationwide search for their next Executive Director.

Tom will spend the coming months assessing the needs of the community, and the organization, to fully
engage in identifying new partnerships and opportunities. He will manage the day-to-day activities of
ATL Film 365, while working with the staff and board to plan the programs and events leading up to and
surrounding Atlanta Film Festival 2011.

About The Atlanta Film Festival 365
Positioned at the intersection of art, culture and commerce, Atlanta Film Festival 365 brings meaning to
the moving image by championing the shared community experience, fostering the free exchange of
ideas, and nurturing the development of a thriving industry. The organization dates back to its founding
as IMAGE Film & Video Center in 1977, an outgrowth of the need for equipment access, networking,
education, and support among Georgia media artists and producers.

Over the course of four decades, the organization evolved into ATL Film 365, a membership-based
501(c)3, with a mission to lead the community in creative and cultural discovery through film.

Contacts:
Board Chair – Walker Anderson
walker.anderson@atlantafilmfestival.com
770.559.2190

Immediate Past Board Chair – Caroline Moise
cemoise@comcast.net
404.373.2333

Atlanta, GA (Vocus/PRWEB ) June 9, 2010 — EUE/Screen Gems has opened a studio complex in the former Lakewood Fairgrounds site near midtown Atlanta. The new studio targets film, television and digital production communities and commercial agencies in the United States and other countries as potential clients. According to the lease agreement with the City of Atlanta, EUE/Screen Gems can book films and television series in an existing soundstage now. One nationally recognized entertainment brand is currently shooting a film at the facility.

Located minutes from the airport, new EUE/Screen Gems Studios in Atlanta covers 30 acres of land.

EUE/Screen Gems is undertaking a multi-million dollar phased renovation for the property and is updating five other buildings. They will start construction on a new 37,500-foot sound stage that will be ready in March 2011. Plans include the development of office space, a mill shop and lighting and grip facilities. The Lakewood site has a film history. It was home to “Smokey and the Bandit” the 1977 film that inspired other trucking films and its own sequels.

This investment represents another bold move for the bullish studio provider who currently houses the “Rachael Ray” show in New York City and offers a 50-acre studio complex in Wilmington, N.C.

“Producers, directors and studios came to us and asked us to go into Atlanta. We were humbled by that vote of confidence, and we feel strongly about how this investment further extends our offerings,” says Chris Cooney, chief operating officer and co-owner of EUE/Screen Gems. “Through our properties in New York City, Wilmington and now Atlanta, we provide coastal, rural and urban settings to our clients as well as size and infrastructure needed to handle intensive special effects for film, commercial and gaming needs. This urban location expands our portfolio in a powerful way.”

Cooney says the company was also drawn to the attractive 30 percent tax credit to qualified production and post-production expenditures. The credit is available not only to traditional motion picture projects such as feature films, television series, commercials and music videos, but also innovative new industries such as game development and animation. In addition to the incentive, the city’s ethnic and cultural diversity in the talent base was a draw as well as the close proximity to the airport and the number of direct flights to Los Angeles and New York.

Bill Thompson, Deputy Commissioner of the Georgia Film, Music and Digital Entertainment Office welcomes the arrival of EUE/Screen Gems. “The agreement between EUE/Screen Gems and the City of Atlanta could not have come at a better time,” said Thompson. “Having a high-profile soundstage in the metro area will only add to the many assets Georgia offers for the film industry. We are building this industry in Georgia, and EUE/Screen Gems locating here helps us achieve that goal. The new facility will create more jobs for Georgians and increase our competitiveness as a state for film and television productions.”

For more on the Georgia incentive and the sales and use tax exemption, visit http://www.georgia.org/GeorgiaIndustries/Entertainment/AboutUs/Pages/Incentives.aspx.

The expansion into the Lakewood community was widely heralded in the Atlanta press as a source of jobs in a growing, vibrant industry.

ABOUT EUE/SCREEN GEMS
EUE/Screen Gems supplies production space, studios, technological infrastructure and support for movie, film and commercial producers. Its Wilmington, N.C. studio campus has been home to more than 350 productions, including the recently renewed television series “One Tree Hill.” Other titles include “Dawson’s Creek” and “Matlock” and the HBO comedies “Eastbound & Down” and “Little Britain USA.” Recent films that have called Wilmington home include “Nights in Rodanthe” and “The Secret Life of Bees.”

The company has just invested in updating wireless and coast-to-coast remote capabilities on its lot in Wilmington. The Wilmington property is also home to Stage 10, a $15 million special effects water tank and sound stage. The EUE/Screen Gems New York City facility provides high-end production, post-production services and “wired” production offices to CBS’s “Rachael Ray” show. New York clients include Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, Food Network and others. The company also owns a lighting and grip company in Charleston, S.C. www.euescreengems.com and www.screengemsstudios.com

CONTACTS:
Susan Dosier, media relations for EUE/Screen Gems
(704) 953.9408 mobile

Kristin Michael, media relations for EUE/Screen Gems
(704) 591.0049 mobile

###