Audience Favorite (The Date - 2006 Baltimore 48 Hour Film Project), Audience Favorite (Shutter - 2004 DC 48 Hour Film Project), Best Cinematography (6:412003 DC 48 Hour Film Project) Best Cinematography (m.o.s. 2005 DC 48 Hour Film Project) Best Cinematography (The Date 2006 Baltimore 48 Hour Film Project) Best Production Design (The Date - 2006 Baltimore 48 Hour Film Project)
Festivals
Full Circle: 2006 Maryland Film Festival, 2005 Annapolis Film Festival, 2005 Frederick Festival of Film Matchbook: 2004 Annapolis Film Festival, 2004 Frederick Festival of Film Shutter: 2004 Frederick Festival of Film
Professional Affiliations
Lucky Dog Productions, Beyond Sight Pictures, MBC Precision Imaging, Asteros Filmworks
Dobler's Pen's Interests
Music
Wes McDonough (featured in Full Circle), The Eric Byrd Trio (featured in Full Circle), Peter Gabriel (featured in Where's Duff)
Movies
6:41 (2003) Shutter (2004) Matchbook (2004) m.o.s. (2005) Full Circle (2005) Die+anetics (2006) The Date (2006) Where's Duff (2007) Studio vs. Indie (2007)
About me: In Spring 2003, Matt Mickelson and Dan Franko, who had met in an acting class in Northern Baltimore, decided to team up and put together a team for that year's 48 Hour Film Project in Washington DC. Both had done prior 48 Hour Films with other teams, and were looking to put together a group on their own.
They recruited Gerry Paradiso, Jennifer Robers, and Bethany Hoffman from that acting class...and Chester Stacy, a college friend of Dan's for that first project. Chester and Dan then brought in co-workers Steve Graf and Steve Morris...and Dobler's Pen Productions was born.
"What's a Dobler's Pen?" We got our name from the John Cusack character, Lloyd Dobler, from Cameron Crowe's Say Anything. It's one of those movies that everyone relates to. You hear "In Your Eyes" and you picture Lloyd Dobler standing there, boom box raised above his head, trying to win back his girl. In the film, a heartbroken Lloyd tells his best friend that he "gave her my heart and she gave me a pen." Thus...Dobler's Pen.
Dobler's first film, 6:41, made it into the Best Of DC that year, and won an award for Cinematography. More importantly, it was such a positive experience, that the group decided to stick together for the long haul.
Since then, Dobler's has gone through some line-up changes. Some members have moved on, and other's have joined...Chris Mueller and Kasandra Bibaz came on in 2004, just after Shutter was completed...and most recently, long-time collaborator, and friend Cucillo Consad became a full-time member of Dobler's Pen.
Dobler's Pen has gone on to compete in the 48 Hour Film Project five times. Their most recent film, The Date was named as the Audience Favorite for their screening group. In addition, Dobler's non-48 Hour films, Matchbook and Full Circle have been accepted into several film festivals, including the Annapolis Film Festival and the Maryland Film Festival.
The eighth Dobler's Pen film, Where's Duff? premiered in March of 2007.
Our latest project is a parody of the popular Mac vs. PC ads. Ours are Indie vs. Studio. We shot four of these in August, and will be premiering them on our website, You Tube and right here on our My Space...and are working on getting them onto a high-profile website. We're also hoping to partner with the Maryland Film Festival and have them run in between the films at the various screenings. They will be hitting the web in the Fall of '07.
Thanks for being my friend! Make sure you check out Be More Film's myspace and be their friend. They are the ones I did Run Down with for the 48-Film Project.
Anyway, take care and can't wait for what you guys do next. hopefully I'll be able to work with you sometime.
