BLAST!

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Website

http://www.blastthemovie.com

Topics

Human Development: Education, Youth
Information & Media: Science

Identity Niches

Budget

Raised to date: $150,000.00
Estimate to complete: $300,000.00
Total Estimated Budget: $0.00
The budget numbers above are accurate as of 12/18/2008

Status

Distribution

Media Type

Video

Project End Use

Theatrical

Key Personnel

Paul Devlin
Filmmaker

A five-time Emmy winner for his work on NBC's Olympics and CBS's Tour de France, Paul Devlin's films include Power Trip, which screened in 60 countries, theatrically across the United States and on PBS's Independent Lens, was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award and has won 10 film festival awards, including top prizes at Berlin, Hot Docs in Toronto, and Florida.

Paul also made the award-winning film SlamNation, which follows the fierce competition at the National Poetry Slam and helped popularize the dynamic genre with its release in theaters and on HBO/Cinemax and Encore/Starz. Paul's current projects include BLAST! and Super Star Dumb.

BLAST! was presented at the 2006 IFP Market and 2007 Toronto Documentary Forum attracting co-production partners BBC Storyville, Discovery Channel Canada, SVT/Sweden, and YLE/FST Finland. Paul was awarded the 2007 New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) Individual Artists Grant for $25,000 through IFP fiscal sponsorship.

Other credits include his fiction film The Eyes of St. Anthony and his work as producing editor on the Organic Film FREESTYLE: The Art of Rhyme, broadcast on VH1 and winner of the Special Jury Award for Documentary Filmmaking at the Florida Film Festival.

As an editor, Paul's extensive credits include commercials, music videos (Elvis Costello, Cyndi Lauper, Kenny G), television shows and major sports broadcasts, including CBS's Super Bowls and ABC/ESPN's World Cup Soccer.

Paul is a New Jersey native and graduated with a degree in English Literature from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. There he assisted Robert Altman on his film Secret Honor and took a screenwriting seminar with Lawrence Kasden. Paul has visited over 40 countries, professionally and aimlessly and has exhibited photographs of his travels. He has contributed to The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, The Independent, and Cineaste, among others.

Claire Missanelli
Producer

Claire Missanelli is the producer of BLAST! which was presented at the 2006 IFP Market and 2007 Toronto Documentary Forum attracting co-production partners BBC Storyville, Discovery Channel Canada, SVT/Sweden, and YLE/FST Finland. BLAST! was awarded the 2007 New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) Individual Artists Grant.

Claire also co-produced Power Trip, which won 2 jury awards at the prestigious Berlin film festival and was screened in over 60 countries. It was broadcast on PBS's Independent Lens, nominated for a 2004 Independent Spirit Award, and garnered 8 other film festival awards including best documentary feature at the Hot Docs International Film Festival in Toronto. She is currently working as producer on the documentary Super Star Dumb.

Other films include SlamNation, a documentary that illuminates the vibrant slam poetry movement, which broadcast on HBO/Cinemax and Encore/Starz, and Jasmine Dellal's Gypsy Caravan: When the Road Bends, for which she worked as an outreach project manager. Claire works as a consultant and outreach producer for documentary projects.

Outreach/Engagement Plan(s)

Project Summary: This international campaign has been developed to promote and further science education and interest in careers in science, particularly among young audiences. Utilizing the innovative science-adventure film BLAST! – a 74 minute documentary by Paul Devlin - as a valuable teaching tool in theaters, classrooms, planetariums, and science centers, this project will encourage excitement for scientific studies in audiences around the world. Through community engagement featuring discussion panel events, written and interactive online supporting materials, and public screenings of BLAST! as part of the International Year of Astronomy in 2009, this project will work to inspire discussion and improve science education, awareness, and support.

If granted funding, this multi-tiered outreach effort will ultimately lead to BLAST! engaging the widest possible audience by:

*Organizing a partnership between the IFC Center in Manhattan and the 2009 World Science Festival, to facilitate maximum exposure for science films - including BLAST! A panel discussion with prominent scientists at the BLAST! premiere will engage audiences and make this a newsworthy event. This will inspire theatrical opportunities in other cities, maximizing press exposure and awareness in ancillary markets including educational.

*Partnering with the International Year of Astronomy 2009 as an official “Special Project” in order to engage over 135 “National Nodes” around the world for screening opportunities, including those in developing countries with little financial resources. Part of this effort will include language translation services.

*Developing resources to support outreach, screenings and discussion panels at museums, planetariums, and observatories. Interested partnering science organizations include the Chabot Space and Science Center and the Franklin Institute.

*Developing supplementary educational materials including: a teacher’s guide and printed materials, an interactive educational website, and educational DVD.

Intellectual merit: BLAST! presents a modern image of scientists as tenacious adventurers and world travelers. By depicting the lives of the men and women engaged in scientific pursuit, BLAST! focuses on the humanity of scientists. As in Director Paul Devlin’s film Power Trip, BLAST! de-emphasizes talking-head interviews and dispenses with anonymous narration in favor of capturing the action as it happens – something rarely seen in most science programming. This suspenseful narrative alongside NASA animations allows concepts of sub-millimeter astronomy to be conveyed in an easily accessible and entertaining way.

Broader Impacts: The BLAST! campaign has been specifically designed to appeal to a broad audience, increasing scientific awareness for the general public and exciting young people about science and pursuing scientific careers. International screenings will reach audiences around the world, including those in third world and developing countries. The BLAST! film and educational materials will allow science educators innovative and creative ways to introduce classrooms of all ages to key concepts of astronomical study. Public screenings and discussion panel events will increase understanding of the nature and importance of scientific study and careers.

Funders

Name	Amount	Date
SVT Sweden (Co-Production Partner)	$10,000.00	08/15/2007
YLE Finland (Co-Production Partner)	$5,000.00	08/15/2007
New York State Council of the Arts (NYSCA) Individual Artist Grant	$25,000.00	08/01/2007
Discovery Canada (Co-Production Partner)	$35,000.00	08/01/2007
BBC Stroyville (Co-Production Partner)	$65,000.00	11/08/2006
Esrange Space Center	$5,000.00	06/01/2005

Location

5490 South Shore Drive Apt 7S
Chicago, IL, 60615

See Google Maps

Short Synopsis

BLAST! is astrophysics Indiana Jones style, a risky adventure story that takes you on an exciting and enlightening journey around the world and across the Universe to launch a revolutionary new telescope on a NASA high-altitude balloon in an effort to understand the origins or our Universe.

Description/Treatment

Welcome to Astrophysics Indiana Jones style!

Five time Emmy winner Paul Devlin follows the story of his brother, Mark Devlin PhD, as he leads a tenacious team of scientists hoping to figure out how all the galaxies formed by launching a revolutionary new telescope under a NASA high-altitude balloon.

Their adventure takes them from Arctic Sweden to Inuit polar bear country in Canada, where catastrophic failure forces the team to try all over again on the desolate ice in Antarctica. No less than the understanding of the evolution and origins of our Universe is at stake on this exciting escapade that seeks to answer humankind's most basic question, How did we get here?

BLAST! is about the crazy life of scientists. Their professional obsessions, personal and family sacrifices, and philosophical and religious questioning all give emotional resonance to a spectacular and suspenseful story of space exploration.

BLAST! has been received very well at international film festivals, generating spectacular reviews:

"The magic formula for a successful mainstream science movie. You'll laugh, you'll cry, and you'll walk away astounded."
-- Discovery Space http://tinyurl.com/discovery-blast

"An adventure tale with twists and turns, lively characters, and some lessons about life, the universe and everything. It's the character-driven approach that guarantees that we care whether they succeed."
-- Doc-a-Day http://tinyurl.com/Doc-blast

"One could be forgiven for mistaking BLAST! as a drama and getting lost in the plot. We may still be some distance away from a scientifically literate public, but this film is at least a thoughtful step in the right direction. A refreshing take, not only upon scientists and the practice of their art, but also on humanity as a whole."
-- Culture Wars http://tinyurl.com/Culture-Wars-Blast

"In a rare combination of content and storytelling, BLAST! treats the viewer not only to the fruits of cosmic discovery but to the fits and starts of dedicated scientists who navigate paths of research that enable it."
-- Neil deGrasse Tyson, Astrophysicist, American Museum of Natural History and Host of PBS NOVA science NOW

However, by far the most remarkable review we received came from a teenage girl at the Telluride Mountain Film Festival. She and her sister loved BLAST! so much they saw it twice!

"BLAST! was about an interesting subject which immediately got me hooked. There wasn't a single point during the movie in which I wished I was doing something else, which is how I usually feel about science movies. Kids should really be able to watch this in schools, it's important."
-- Claudia Dimick, age 16 Thanks for sending us your ideas.

STATUS

BLAST! premiered at the Hot Docs film festival in Toronto, the largest documentary film festival in North America. It is now playing at film festivals around the world (http://www.blastthemovie.com/screenings.html).

BLAST! has co-production partnerships with BBC Storyville, Discovery Channel Canada, SVT Sweden, and YLE/FST Finland. The movie has also been acquired by VPRO-Netherands and DR2-Denmark and has interest from many other broadcasters around the world. Broadcasts have started on these stations and will continue through 2009.

Director Paul Devlin was award the New York State Council of the Arts (NYSCA) Individual Artist Grant for BLAST!, totalling $25,000.

BLAST! has been shortlisted for a prestigious Grierson Award at the Sheffield Doc/Fest, UK.

The ongoing distribution goals of BLAST! include reaching universities and high schools across the world to inspire young audiences to explore the exciting developments in science and to pursue scientific careers.