Movie Tunes usually spends Friday nights playing one full movie soundtrack front to back. This time, host Timmy Good Tunes packed up the mics and took the show on location to the Jersey Shore Arts Center in Ocean Grove for the AP'N3 Short Film Challenge premiere screening, broadcasting live on Radio Garden State as the room filled up with filmmakers, cast, crew and fans.
AP'N3, presented by the Asbury Park Arts Council, challenges filmmakers to make a film of three minutes or less, shot in Asbury Park, built around a set of required prompts. This year that meant the theme "time flies," a paper airplane, and a scene at Deal Lake Park. The top ten finalists in the Short Film and Student Film categories screened on the big screen, a panel of judges awarded the top three in each category, and the crowd voted for an Audience Award. Radio Garden State is proud to be a sponsor.
Before the lights went down, Timmy pulled nearly every filmmaker who walked through the door into the hot seat and asked them the same things: What's your film about? What went wrong on set? What did you learn? What's the dream? And, because this is Movie Tunes, what's your favorite soundtrack or needle drop?
Hit play above for the full broadcast, or read on for the highlights.
The Filmmakers
Karly Abraham
Karly, a songwriter from Eatontown, came to AP'N3 through the New Jersey Film Academy at Brookdale in Lincroft. Her classmates started with a simple "let's make a music video," and when a friend challenged her to write a song about time flying by, she did exactly that. The result is an original song and her first film. The biggest hurdle was the usual first-timer one: getting everyone's schedules to line up while learning the craft on the fly.
Her takeaway is a big one. She has always wanted to put her songs out into the world and to make a music video for something she wrote, and this project checked both boxes. Her dream is writing music for film and TV. (Timmy could relate: his own senior thesis at Fairleigh Dickinson was a music video for his band.)
Follow: @Seal_ove26, @KarlyJadeMusic, and her song "Distance" on Spotify.
Amanda Lehman, Mysterious Captor
Amanda, from Belford in Middletown, is another New Jersey Film Academy student. She came to AP'N3 last year just as a spectator and was amazed that someone could tell a whole story in three minutes, so this year she and her classmates made one. Mysterious Captor is a romantic comedy (she let that slip, so consider it the hook), with three actors and an original score by Anthony.
The plan was to shoot on the boardwalk until a sports event's loud music made that impossible, so the crew relocated toward the water. Her lessons: sound issues are real, always record ambient sound, and editing takes longer than filming. Her dream is to write and direct a feature, and she's part of a writers group in Bound Brook.
Ashley Woolsey Greene and Patrick Greene, When You're Having Fun
The Greenes grew up in North Jersey and now live in Howell, and this one was a family affair with both of their kids on screen. The story centers on a paper airplane competition with some rather unscrupulous competitors, and underneath the fun it's about how fast life goes by while you're busy living it.
With five competitors, two commentators and one more surprise character, this was their biggest cast yet. When a few PAs didn't show, Patrick pulled double duty, and the lesson was to build in backups and get everyone on the same page early. Ashley's tip: run the whole scene through once on set so the performers feel the full space and story, not just the few seconds you're shooting.
Patrick has a finished feature script: a slasher set at a film festival celebrating a long-running slasher franchise. Their soundtrack pick: John Carpenter's Halloween theme. Their six-minute film The Last Piece, which grew out of one of these challenges, is making the festival rounds, including the New Jersey Horror Con Film Festival and the New Jersey Crime and Mystery Film Festival.
Follow: @PatrickGreeneCreative
Jaka Doherty and Alex Greaney, On the Wings of Time
Monmouth County natives with Howell roots, this team took the prompt literally: a clock riding a paper airplane around Asbury Park, zapping people and aging them up. It started as a simple, funny idea and turned personal along the way, drawing on that post-graduation feeling of getting older without knowing what comes next, and learning that it's just part of life.
They shot the whole thing in one day with a ten-person crew. Most passersby were supportive. One shirtless gentleman was not, wandering into a take at Sunset Park and then following them to Deal Lake Park to complain. Luckily the film's lead is a big guy, and that settled it both times.
The dream job is film editor, which the director described as building with Lego on the timeline. Soundtrack pick: a version of "Beggin'" from Clayface, watched on Halloween. They also shouted out lead actor Ernesto, who makes micro horror shorts on YouTube.
Follow:‍ ‍You Tube - EJ The Nerd Productions
Jay Morales, Time Flies
Jay, from Old Bridge, describes his film as "an aerodynamic temporal comedy of hijinks and chaos." His enemy was a July that would not stop raining. A self-described perfectionist, he waited for clear skies until he finally decided to just shoot it. Lesson learned: work around the weather, or write in more indoor locations.
His soundtrack picks run from one extreme to the other: the droning opening of The Shining and the fun, campy energy of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, which he says inspired his project. He directed and edited this one, but at heart he's an editor and wants to cut big movies.
Follow: @PossumLight.Productions
The Let's Start a Podcast Crew
Two guys decide to start a podcast so they can quit their jobs and get rich quick. That's the setup for this comedy about the monotony of everyday life, made by a group of friends (one of whom drove in from Pennsylvania). They were hoping for golden hour near the train station and made it work with the light they had. The lesson: start with a plan, then be ready to throw it out. A few moments that came up on the fly made the final cut.
This crew brought the deepest needle drop list of the night: the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy, "Dirty Work" in One Battle After Another, the church scene in Kingsman, "Midas" by Wunderhorse closing out an episode of Lanterns, and the Joker soundtrack.
Follow: gxg.jpg (photography), @77FilmHouse (narrative, brand, commercial and wedding work), and the Substack The Weekend Tote.
Matt Scheffler and Jimmy Cerbone, You'll Miss It
This student film looks at our relationship with technology, how phone addiction takes over, and what life might look like without it. Late in post, the team was stuck on music until Matt found two pieces he had composed about ten years ago that fit the theme perfectly. The obstacle became a happy accident, and the lesson was that limitations open the door to more interesting creative conversations.
Matt wants to act, and his advice for anyone getting into film right now is to diversify and learn everything. He could talk film scores for hours, naming Lalo Schifrin, Jerry Goldsmith's Chinatown, John Williams and Hans Zimmer. Matt was also days away from moving to Los Angeles. Break a leg.
Follow: @Just_CreateProductions
Josh Chea, Time Flies
Josh wrote, directed and edited this one. A man who wants everything around him to change is visited by a mystical fairy who takes him through time, from the 1800s to the 1920s, 1940s and 1970s, so he can see how fast things change and learn to appreciate what doesn't. With each era, his costume and the filmmaking style change too.
The transitions between eras ride on a paper airplane flying across the frame, which meant fighting the wind and a lot of retakes. As Timmy put it: don't work with children, animals, or paper airplanes. His picks: composer Ramin Djawadi (Game of Thrones, Westworld) and Star-Lord dancing to "Come and Get Your Love" in Guardians. Writing has been his passion since age four, and he's developing a fantasy TV pilot about seven heroes taking down an evil king.
Follow: Josh Chea on Instagram and YouTube
Darcy and Gigi, Jersey Girls Script to Screen
These two New Jersey Film Academy students worked on Carly Abraham's music video and are launching Jersey Girls Script to Screen, a podcast about the New Jersey film and media industry from the ground up. The goal is to spotlight the people working behind the scenes and the up-and-comers, and to show that there's a place in the industry for everyone, whatever your background. Look for it in audio and video on all major platforms.
Tom Cavanaugh, Flight Time
Tom, from Edison, is on his third AP'N3. His film follows a file clerk who hates his job and dreams of flying. His mom finds him in a park and tells him he can fly on his breaks, by folding a paper airplane and sending it off. He gets hooked and builds a whole fleet of bomber-style planes that take flight at the end. It's a story about the mind overcoming anything, and families supporting each other.
Shooting next to the train tracks meant timing every take, and doing it on iPhones without enough hands on deck was a challenge. But he loves shooting in Asbury Park, says the town makes it easy, and appreciates the longer production window that takes the pressure off. He also gave a shout out to the welcoming AP'N3 community and its quarterly meetings, which are open to anyone.
His soundtrack pick is Warren Beatty's Reds and its use of period music. Next up is Barkley, a play he's developing with Vincent Piazza, who plays a talking service dog.
Gary Hanna and Adam Nelson, BUSE!
Back for their second year, Gary and Adam made a film about humanity making itself extinct through artificial intelligence. Production lesson: the conveyor belt they bought worked right up until the end of the shoot. Thank goodness for return policies.
They see AP'N3 as a love letter to Asbury Park, from Springsteen to the Warren and Wetmore architecture on the boardwalk (the same firm behind Grand Central). Adam is itching to make an AI horror story about smart devices, including a refrigerator that can read your thoughts. The team also just launched the book Huckleberry Jim, a tribute to Mark Twain, at the Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum in Hannibal, Missouri, after five and a half years of writing. Soundtrack picks: Rocky, Run Lola Run and Wings of Desire.
Follow: @Workhouse_PR
Lizzie Finn and Meredith Avakian, My Sweet Melody of Asbury
Meredith wrote the spoken word poem, Lizzie directed, and Meredith's daughter stars. Both work with young people, and they wanted to remind audiences that children live in Asbury Park too. They juggled weather, day jobs and schedules, pivoting late when an earlier plan with high school students fell through. Lesson: start planning earlier.
Lizzie is a longtime screenwriter and screenwriting teacher whose dream is to run her own TV show. Meredith's dream is a TED-style talk combining poetry with radically honest storytelling, which she believes can change the world. Both are instructors with Project Write Now, the literary arts nonprofit in Red Bank, which brings working screenwriters like Robert Siegel (The Wrestler, The Founder) in for workshops.
After the Screening: The Big Winner
After the films screened and the awards were handed out, Timmy came back on the air to catch the night's big winner. Noel Marazziti took home both first place from the judges and the Audience Award. His advice for anyone sitting on an idea: put a date on the calendar and hold yourself accountable, or the film never gets made.
For inspiration, he lays other soundtracks over his edits while he works, citing the piano-driven beach scene in Challengers and the 2005 thriller Stay with Ewan McGregor. His next project might trade romance for a psychological thriller.
Follow: @nolansvidz
That's a Wrap
While the crowd spilled out of the theater for photos, Timmy kept the vibe going with a best-of mix from two years of Movie Tunes, including Rex Manning's "Say No More (Mon Amour)" from Empire Records. Then everyone headed to Taka in Asbury Park for the after party, where, who knows, the next AP'N3 film might already be in the works.
Have a film festival, premiere or screening coming up? Let us know, and Timmy will be there.
Catch Movie Tunes every Friday at 8 PM on Radio Garden State, streaming on Live365 and at RadioGardenState.com.