Film

The Danville Lawn Chair Film Festival will feature winning films shown under the stars. The program will run 8:30-10:30 p.m. Thursday behind Morley’s Wheel Service, 243 E. Walnut. In the case of rain, the festival will move to West T. Hill Community Theatre.

An annual class at Asbury University took a project to the next level over the weekend as professor Doug Smart led his sitcom-production class in filming the pilot of Smart’s “Friends Like You” in the new Andrew S. Miller Center for Communication Arts. Smart, who worked in professional television for 22 years and has taught at Asbury for the last four, said Asbury is the only school in the nation that teaches a regularly scheduled class in sitcom production. Each year, class members function as the crew for a pilot Smart writes, working cameras, props and staging, and serving as assistant directors and associate producers.

I’ve never seen a TV movie that affected me quite like “Temple Grandin,” the true-life story of a woman who doesn’t let her autism stand in the way of achieving her dreams. It’s inspiring and generates the right attention for autism as a disorder. I believe everyone should see the movie, especially those who have questions about autism. The movie follows Temple (Claire Danes) throughout her life, beginning with when she works on her aunt’s ranch as a young girl to successfully graduating college to becoming a successful inventor.

The Community Arts Center will be presenting a special double-feature with Heart of Danville in the Lawn Chair Theatre series that continues Friday with a special viewing of Kentucky film "Cannonball," from Walk Softly Films. It’s a coming-of-middle-age tale as a raucous adventure leads to many discoveries, including what it means to live. Tony Dedman, age 35, and his friends are set adrift when their backyard wrestling careers are brought to an abrupt end. A despised former classmate reveals his goal to live on a Mexican beach and Tony finds misguided purpose in beating him to the punch.

LIBERTY - Casey County was transformed into a film studio over the weekend as a Canadian production company was in town working on a documentary about what people in Liberty think about liberty, freedom and people's rights. The city and six others were selected from 208 towns called Liberty in the United States. Handel Productions of Montreal, Quebec, spent Sunday filming Mennonite families as they traveled in horse-drawn buggies and bicycles on their way to church and the annual Veterans Day service in front of the courthouse.

"House," the new film directed by Robby Henson based on the novel by Ted Dekker and Frank Peretti, will open Friday. It will be shown on 400 screens, including the Regal Cinemas at Hamburg Pavilion in Lexington. It also will be shown in Louisville and Florence. "House" is an 87-minute thriller about a young couple going through marriage difficulties. They find themselves trapped in a guest hotel, where they must endure a deadly fight for survival based on a series of "House Rules" forced on them by a demented killer.

Lights. Camera. Action. Summer school. Asbury College media students spent May 16 to June 15 acting and filming to produce the feature film thriller, "A Beautiful Lie," and earned class credit. The movie, written by junior Deona Bethart from Wilmore, is scheduled to premiere this fall. The film involves Maya who struggles to discover the truth about her life and escape the lie in which she has been living. Despite many twists and turns, Maya preservers because she believes the ugly truth is better than a lie, no matter how beautiful.

LEXINGTON - When he was a star at Lexington Catholic, Winston Guy never really watched any film except for a scouting report on an upcoming opponent. He never worried about studying film of himself to critique his strengths and weaknesses in hopes of becoming a better player. That has changed at Kentucky. "I am working hard in the film room to learn things I need to know to get ready for a big season," said Guy, a sophomore safety. "I like the whole system here where we can come in and watch film anytime that we want.

Film producer, director and Centre College alum Tom Thurman will debut his short film about world-renowned glass artist Stephen Powell at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in Vahlkamp Theater. The screening is free, and the public is encouraged to attend. "There have been several films about me and my work, including a short segment on CBS Sunday Morning with Charles Kuralt in 1988 and another KET film in 1993, but never anything this in depth," said Powell, an art professor at Centre. The 30-minute segment is from an episode of the Kentucky Educational Television program "Kentucky Muse.

Stephen V. Russell gingerly removed a recording from its plastic protector. A quick scan noted "Nat King Cole sings The Song of Raintree County. " "This was a private thing that went to radio stations," Russell explained of the collector's item. "The only way to get the song was to have the 45. " Russell, who has an extensive collection of memorabilia from the film "Raintree County," has eyes all over the United States scouring nooks and crannies for collectibles. The Belle Vernon, Pa., resident has found "Raintree County" keepsakes from contacts, antique shows, and from writing to people.

After two and a half years of planning, filming and editing, “The Impact,” a documentary about the Carrollton bus crash, is now complete and ready for a public screening. “It's been a journey,” director Jason Epperson, a Winchester native, said. The first of two planned screenings took place Tuesday at The State Theater in Elizabethtown, in time for the 25th anniversary of the crash. The private screening was for crash survivors and victims' families. “We wanted to do that first, just kind of in respect for them and give them an opportunity to watch it, kind of as a family, because they are a family that went through this,” Epperson said.

A longtime interest in capturing life on film has led McKinney native Stephen Denham to begin photographing Lincoln County barns, as a means of preservation. “I just enjoy photography,” he said. “I've always got a camera handy.” Denham, who was born the middle of five children, said he was always the one called upon in school to operate the projector when they watched 16 millimeter films. With that knowledge, he moved to the Cincinnati area after graduation and began looking for work.

You don't need to wait for warm weather to start your vegetable garden. Several types of vegetables can be started as early as March. Radishes, spinach, cabbage, broccoli, lettuce, onions and many more vegetables are all quite frost tolerant, and you can seed or transplant them in the garden from mid March to early April.  If you want to get an even earlier start, you could try covering an area with clear plastic film to create a mini greenhouse where plants will thrive. To try this season-extending technique, first work up the soil for your plot and stretch some black plastic over the area for a couple of weeks.

LANCASTER - Rocky Top Log Furniture and Railing, along with owners Tommy and Gwen Mitchell and many of the company's employees, will soon have their television break, being seen nationwide in a new TV show “LogHeads.” “We will show them Kentucky craftsmanship at its best,” Tommy Mitchell said. Media Meld Studios is in production of the pilot episode of “LogHeads,” a docu-series expected to air on DIY Network by summer. It will focus solely on the Lancaster-based company.

Growing up, 17-year-old Autumn Howell was never allowed to ride a bus - not to school, not on field trips and not to ball games. Her mother told her she had been in a bus crash herself as a child, but beyond that, Autumn said details were limited. Saturday, Autumn and her mother, Amy Constant Howell, were standing on the side of the Veterans Memorial Parkway in Winchester, watching as film crew members assembled camera equipment and discussed logistics. A few minutes later, a bus drove down the parkway, with Autumn inside.

LEXINGTON¿ - Coshik Williams is ready to build on his finish last year. The Kentucky senior running back took over as the team's primary rusher seven games into the season and made an impact at the end to his junior campaign. The senior running back started the last five games and finished as the team's leading rusher with 486 yards and three touchdowns. Williams rushed for a career-high 148 yards against Jacksonville State, and added 111, complete with a pair of touchdowns, against Ole Miss.

As part of a video project promoting Winchester, an Eastern Kentucky University student has been getting to know the ins and outs of town. Matt Gordon, an EKU film student, will produce a series of short videos for the Winchester-Clark County Tourism Commission to use as promotional tools on TourWinchester.com and YouTube. The project is also fulfilling a summer co-op internship. He will produce the videos under the advisement of his professor, Emerson St. John, who has appeared on numerous TV shows and directed several early episodes of the popular show “Pawn Stars.” “He kind of handed it over to me for my first project,” Gordon said.

The 2012 Danville Lawn Chair Film Festival will feature shorter entries, resulting in a much shorter evening of films. Festival founder Charlie Cox said about two dozen submissions were received, “which is on par with last year.”  Eight minutes was the suggested time for all films “and most of the submitted are right around there.” “And we are confident that this will be a (less than two-hour) program (this year). ... We're really, really excited,” Cox said.

Robby Henson says he knows period history films cut against the grain of Hollywood - they don't fit nicely into the popcorn-movie category for teen audiences.  “But a good story is what the best screenplays are based on, and history gives us amazing stories,” Henson says.  Henson is the feature presenter for Lunch with the Arts Wednesday and will get into the traditions of oral history and how folktales can be shaped into films.  ...