HDM Blog » Fox Theater

The Measure of a Man is up on the Fox’s marquee!

Amber — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 06:42:44 +0000

The Measure of a Man is getting some buzz!

Amber — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 00:53:29 +0000

We finally got our first article written about the film! Check it out here or on the Kern County Family website HERE. I’m told there might also be a review in the works to be published in the magazine!

“THE MEASURE OF A MAN” MOVIE TO PREMIERE IN BAKERSFIELD

by Vaun Thygerson
Staff writer and mother of three

A local film company will premiere its third feature film, “The Measure of a Man,” on March 25 and 26 at the historic Fox Theatre. The movie based on the inspiring true story of Donald P. Bailey, a charming and eccentric father of nine whose charisma and optimism set him apart from the average dad, was produced by the independent film company Higher Definition Media (HDM).

Writer and director, Elizabeth Waite, recreated Donald P. Bailey and brought to life this endearing character-driven story about her father – a man whose optimistic personality and discipline lead him through the Great Depression, WWII, and with his wife, Emogene, raising nine children with the love of music and his golden voice. HDM owner, Andrew Waite, is producer and director of photography. The original musical score is by talented local composer Brianne Sorkin-Lee.

Tickets are available for $12 at the Fox Ticket Office and through Vallitix.com. For more information, please visit www.hdmweb.com.

The Measure of a Man | Trailer and IMDB Page

Amber — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 01:38:29 +0000

The team has been working hard and we’d like to present to you the Official Movie Trailer for “The Measure of a Man”! Tickets to the Premiere are on sale NOW and can be purchased from the Fox Theater box office or through Vallitix for just $12 each. The premiere will be held on March 25th, 2011 at the historic Fox Theater in Bakersfield, CA. The doors open at 6:00pm and the show starts at 7:00pm. It’s going to be HUGE!~ Complete with spotlight, movie stars, classic cars, limos and of course the infamous red carpet! Watch the official trailer and buy your tickets today! You won’t want to miss this red carpet event!

The Measure of a Man | Official Trailer | an HDM Film from HDM on Vimeo.

THE MEASURE OF A MAN IMDB PAGE is also up and running! Please check it out for more information on the cast and crew.

The Measure of a Man Press Release

Amber — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 22:17:18 +0000

HIGHER DEFINITION MEDIA IS PROUD TO ANNOUNCE IT’S THIRD FEATURE FILM:
“THE MEASURE OF A MAN”

The inspiring true story of Donald P. Bailey, a charming and eccentric father of nine, who’s charisma and optimism set him apart from the average dad.

The independent film company, Higher Definition Media (HDM) began principal photography on July 5th, 2010. The film was shot on location in Kern County, where the incredible true life story of Donald P. Bailey is recreated by writer and director Elizabeth Waite. Waite remakes the endearing character driven story of her father; a man whose optimistic personality and discipline lead him through the Great Depression, WWII, and set him apart from the average father as he and his wife Emogene raised nine children with the love of music and his golden voice.

HDM headed to Hollywood, where auditions were held for two weeks with talent from across the country. The cast includes: Jarin Stevens as Donald P. Bailey, and Jennica Schwartzman as his wife Emogene. Their teenage counterparts are played by Gabriel Myers and Tina Mirka. Jules Hartley plays Elizabeth, narrator of the story. The nine talented children are: Christopher Slaughter, Madeline Penn, Alana Hamilton, Cody Sullivan, Blythe Butler, Carsen Warner, Jadon Sand, Cole Sand, and Jaden Melashenko.

Andrew Waite, owner of HDM, produced the film. Also working on the film is production manager Amber Waite. A large crew, including some local members, was pooled for the six weeks of shooting. The original musical score was composed by talented local composer Briana Sorkin-Lee.

On Friday, January 14th, 2011, the shooting was officially wrapped and post-production began. The film is scheduled for it’s Premiere at the historic Fox Theater in Bakersfield on Friday, March 25th, 2011. Tickets are available for $12 at the Fox Ticket Office and through Vallitix.com. The Fox Theater will also have a Matinee showing on Saturday, March 26th at 2:00pm.

HDM offers the largest inventory of feature film equipment rentals in Kern County and produces commercials, wedding films, television shows, and full-length feature films.

Zombie High – The Premiere!

Amber — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 07:17:01 +0000

The Arts Council of Kern, the Kern Regional Center and Joey Travolta’s Inclusion Films teamed up to offer a creative arts workshop for citizens with disabilities. As a result, disabled filmmakers were able to write and direct a 30-minute feature entitled Zombie High.

HDM was able to help in the production of Zombie High by providing audio recording and editing for the film. It was such a great experience. It was an honor to work alongside Joey and also the students of the workshop. They were great and had such big hearts and bright personalities.

On Oct. 22 Zombie High premiered at the Fox Theater and we were more than happy to attend the special event and support the film. All the people involved worked really hard and everyone did a really great job. The film was very entertaining! I can honestly say “I loved it”! A mix between a zombie flick and the 80’s movie “The Breakfast Club” the movie turned out brilliant! It was funny and clever and left me wishing it was more than a short which made the announcement that a full-length feature film was soon to be in the works even more exciting. I can’t wait to see what more comes from these inspiring young actors and filmmakers and hope to be involved in their upcoming projects.

New Movie Stamped! Hits Close to Home | Bakersfield Voice

Amber — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 05:54:32 +0000

Posted by ThisCatsLegit Saturday, February 28, 2009

Stereotype as defined in the dictionary is a person, who is regarded as embodying or conforming to a set image, otherwise known as being labeled, termed, or just plain stamped. As a sophomore in high school I know exactly what it’s like to be stamped. It happens everyday, to the best of us, and high school is always the place were stereotypes are born and bred.

New movie Stamped! portrays what every high school student goes through, and I was invited to attend the Sneak Preview of this inspiring and hilarious movie at the Fox Theater.There are so many things that make this movie extra special, the fact that it was filmed right here in Bakersfield, on the campus of Frontier High, the fact that one of Frontier’s very own Bryce Hatch wrote and directed the movie, and the fact that this movie has to be the best independent film I have ever seen.

Stamped! is about five teenage high school students who make-up a Saturday state mandated test, teenage “misfit prankster”, Mitchell (Brian Kubach) annoys and takes apart Tori (Lindze Letherman) a “stuck up cheerleader”, Cody (Matt Thompson) a “dumb jock”, DeShawn (G. Lane Hillman) a “smart homeboy”, and Vanessa (Kaitlynn Lerma) a “quiet Latina”. After giving them a bad time about their roles and so called stereotypes in life they begin to understand they have more in common than they think. Mitchell and his classroom shenanigans and Jim Carey facial expressions really bring the humor front and center.

This movie touches on the racial and social divides at every school. Mitchell says later in the movie, “you may think I’m a freak but you don’t know me.”

As the movie goes on all five teenagers gradually become closer than ever before, you learn Mitchell lives in a foster home, and hides his broken household with loud and obnoxious behavior. Vanessa is in America illegally, and takes shelter in her quiet and shy behavior. Cody is just a “big baby that does what ever daddy tells him” as described by DeShawn who loves comic books and doesn’t express who he truly is to his friends. My favorite quote of the night spoken by Cody to DeShawn, “man your just as white as I am, or maybe I’m just as black as you—it doesn’t matter we’re brothers.”

What people should get from Stamped! is a chaotic journey through the harsh realities of teenage life, and that just because someone is labeled as the skater, nerd, ADHD kid, stuck-up, or jock, that’s not who they are—you don’t know them unless you break down the racial divide.

Read the entire article on the Bakersfield Voice website HERE.

Stamped! Red Carpet Premiere at the FOX Theater

Andrew — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 01:06:57 +0000

The night was a huge success, about a thousand people showed up for the premiere! It was a lot of fun and I want to thank everyone who made it out, I know I was running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off that night, so I didn’t get to talk to a lot of you, but THANKS for supporting the film! Anyway, here are some pictures…

It’s ALMOST HERE!

Andrew — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 21:15:36 +0000

It’s almost here… I’m ready for it to be over already.

Anyway, the Bakersfield Californian wrote a wicked sweet article on the film today so go grab a paper and check it out!

See ya on Friday!

Now playing: Local film ‘Stamped!’ gets red carpet treatment at Fox | Bakersfield Californian

Amber — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 23:49:14 +0000

BY LOUIS MEDINA, Californian staff writermailto:lmedina@bakersfield.com

Tuesday, Feb 24 2009 6:12 PM
Last Updated: Wednesday, Feb 25 2009 7:52 AM

It was shot in two weeks at Frontier High School in the middle of summer 2007, with no air conditioning and security alarms going off from time to time, among other production problems.

“Stamped!” is a feature-length film shot entirely on location at Frontier High School. It involved the work of English and filmmaking teacher Bryce Hatch and about 30 students who volunteered to work on the production. A red-carpet sneak preview will be held Friday at the Fox Theater downtown. Admission is $6 and proceeds go to the Frontier High film department.

“Stamped!” tries to show the difficulty high school kids have in breaking down the social barriers and stereotypes with which they are often labeled or “stamped.”

The filming of “Stamped!” The filmmaker is eager to spread a family-oriented message with his art.

It spent a year in post-production, as cinematographer/producer/film editor Andrew Waite worked alone on getting it down to its final 97-minute length on evenings and weekends — between his bread-and-butter jobs of filming local television commercials. “Going into it, I thought it was going to be a lot easier,” Waite said. “Now that it’s over, I can’t believe the day has finally come that it’s being premiered.”

That day is Friday at the Fox Theater downtown, where, Waite said, “searchlight, paparazzi, press board and red velvet ropes, limos, the whole nine yards,” will be ready for a public sneak preview screening of “Stamped!” a local labor of love written and directed by Frontier High English and filmmaking teacher Bryce Hatch.

In the film, Hatch tries to show the difficulty high school kids have in breaking down the social barriers and stereotypes with which they are often labeled or “stamped.” “I’ve been teaching for 13 years,” the 35-year-old said, “so all the ideas pretty much came from everything I’ve seen.”

Some 30 Frontier students from the school’s film department volunteered as crew members, extras, even caterers — with the help of some of their moms and dads, who brought food to the set. A grateful Hatch called them “home-grown volunteer people who wanted to help make a movie.”

The biggest expense was paying for the movie’s main actors, most of them Los Angeles-area Screen Actors Guild members.

According to Hatch, when movie executives consider buying a film for distribution, “they don’t really focus on the storyline … or the special effects. They focus on who’s in it. It was smart for us to go with as big of a name as we could find, with the limited funds that we had, to try to be able to make the film sell.”

And Hatch, a Mormon who has written some eight other family-friendly screenplays free of what he calls the “formulaic” sex, nudity and excessive violence common in mainstream Hollywood films, is committed to making “Stamped!” sell.

“The film ‘officially’ goes on the market (after the premiere) to be sold to the highest bidder,” Waite wrote in an e-mail. “It has a good chance of being ‘picked up’ by a distribution company such as Lionsgate, Fox Searchlight, IFC, Castle Rock, etc. Most likely a straight-to-DVD release, but you never know.”

Hatch and Waite also hope that among those attending Friday night’s screening of “Stamped!” will be potential investors of other projects on which the two are teaming. That includes “R&J”, also written by Hatch, which Waite describes as “a modern-day ‘Romeo and Juliet’ set in today’s high school.”

Shooting is set to begin locally in July, Waite said.

To read the full article on the Californian website check it out HERE or http://www.bakersfield.com/619/story/699871.html

“Stamped!” Is “Breakfast Club With a Modern Twist | Facenews

Amber — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 01:53:58 +0000

It’s not the same script as “The Breakfast Club.” But “Stamped!” is a fresh take on the old John Hughes genre and it uses an actor the audience will recognize from such television shows as “Hannah Montana” and “Wizards of Waverly Place.”

(The film premieres at the Fox Theater at a red carpet event Friday, Feb. 27. Actors will be attending!)

Fans of 80s movies like the “The Breakfast Club” (1985) or newer high-school themed TV shows like “Camp Rock” and “Hannah Montana” are going to want to see ”Stamped!” The film appeals to two generations of film and TV lovers, which is nice for those who miss the rawness of 1980s John Hughes flicks. Today’s Disney-made high school themed productions seem too afraid to dig into certain themes and rarely allow an actor like Kubach to literally turn the screen into a series of hilarious comedy routines.

While “Stamped!” doesn’t dig too deeply into teenage angst, it does hint at what teenagers face: tough talk from peers on issues that involve stereotypes and ethnic divides.

The film actually takes a brave stance on race as a black character, Deshawn is confronted by the goofy albeit sarcastic realities coughed up by the film’s white main character, Mitchell. The only uncomfortable scene in the film doesn’t come from Mitchell, but rather another student, played by Matt Thompson, who asks Deshawn race questions.

Mitchell is played by the hilarious up-and-coming actor Brian Kubach. Every class clown who sees the film will want to one-up Kubach who is able to take classroom shenanigans to bizarre levels. His Jim Carey-style facial expressions, slapstick humor and zany off-the-cuff acting carries the film, which uses six Screen Actors Guild actors and lots of Bakersfield extras.

Created by Director Bryce Hatch of Frontier High school, “Stamped!” was shot on location at the school. “As cute as the script is, the actors made the film,” Hatch admits. And he’s right. Kubach’s on-screen improvisations are a hilarity to watch throughout the movie, which begins with the actor in a rather uncomfortable scene involving about a dozen pencils.

Hatch said Kubach originally tried out for the part of the jock Cody in the film. But after Hatch and editor Andrew Waite met the actor, Kubach was asked to read for the part of the main character: the bizarre-humored Mitchell who is out to disrupt class while doing a make-up test.

ABC (not in Bakersfield) lighting equipmet to use during the two-week shoot. Waite said actress Lindze Letherman, who plays Tori, one of the film’s troublesome teens, helped get the equipment donated.

Hatch wrote the screenplay in about two months time in 2006. There was a film crew of about 35 people for a July and August shoot in 2007. Waite has been editing the film ever since.

What people should get from “Stamped!” is a chaotic journey through the harsh realities of teenage life.

The make-up test the students work on and their goofball actions, led by the crazy Mitchell, is a microscopic peek at how order comes out of the chaos of high school life. While the film doesn’t have Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson or Ally Sheedy, what the movie does have is a formula that works and Kubach, who is a delight.

David Peres who plays the student’s dorky teacher giving the test also has some funny scenes in the film.

Hatch said that ”Stamped!” doesn’t get excessive. He leaves those trademarks for the rest of Hollywood as he said he wants people to leave the theater with a happy feeling inside. Anyone who watches the film will not only leave the theater laughing, but trying out some of Kubach’s facial expressions.

The film also stars Matt Thompson, G. Lane Hillman, Kaitlynn Lerma and has a guest appearance by Bakersfield’s George the Giant, who was recently featured on “America’s Got Talent.”

“Stamped!” is premiering on Feb. 27 at the Fox Theater. Any kid obsessed with Disney television should be in attendance.

Tickets: $6; Purchase tickets here or at box office.Where: Fox Theater
When: Friday, Feb. 27, 7 p.m.
Watch Trailer: View
IMDB: More on the film

Read the article on the facenews website at HERE.

Director Bryce Hatch

Editor: Andrew Waite

Goofing around the set of Stamped!