What do you find when you look through a little pocket of genuine New York Italian in Northeast Minneapolis? At Geno’s, you’ll find Tony, the classic paisan who loves his chicken parm, and Barb, the classic church basement lady who loves her wine slushies. Salut! Enjoy the fun we had, shooting this spot on June 26th- we sure did.
Project Hope. A mission in which a house was built to completion in under three days in order to raise money for a family that suffered a devastating loss. Uptop is proud to be part of helping document this story with our friends at Eclipse Media Productions, and we'll be sure to keep you informed as we do so.
Scholarship America and their corporate partners offer financial support to college students so they can reach their educational goals. Over the past few months, We traveled to six different cities in three different states, documenting the stories of scholarship recipients from Wells Fargo, Houston Livestock and Rodeo and The Mike Rowe Foundation.
We’re grinning from ear to ear about the accolades our short film, Half Smile, received at 2017’s Z Fest Film Festival. Our awards tallied eight, including Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Best Cinematographer. Once again, we’re thrilled to be part of such a creative community in a town that supports the arts.
Unless you were living under a Wookie Mask in 2016, there’s a good chance you caught some sort of live video on social media. Whether it was the Uptop Crew getting blown away by the magic of our friend Tim Gabrielson (we’re pretty sure Jay is still recovering) or that time Joe got a bunch of strangers to sing Happy Birthday to Ryan at the airport, it’s obvious that Facebook Live is taking the interwebs by storm.
Here are 3 tips for when YOU go live!
The Vanis Family has been nominated for the 2014 “Square One Christmas”. When Heather was told in May that she was battling Stage 3 breast cancer, she had an overwhelming peace and the never ending support of her husband Jeff and twin boys Carter and Caleb. Their story is inspiring and they are bringing hope to other’s facing a challenging season of life.
Go do something good for someone else this year. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Uptop Films.
Denver Colorado set the stage for a 2-day shoot with the now resurrected band Five Iron Frenzy. After calling it quits 8 years ago, the band is back together with much thanks to it’s fans for a mind-blowing Kickstarter campaign. Uptop Films captured two music videos for the band. The first music video was to the song “Zen and The Art of Xenophobia”. We took over a local high school auditorium and recreated some famous scenes from American History with a somewhat twisted tale.
Our second music video was filmed during a live performance of the song “So Far” at the famous Ogden Theatre in Denver. Over 700 people from all over the country packed out the theatre. The fans went crazy during the live concert as they showed their love for the resurgence of the band.
Ryan and Joe of Uptop Films actually both grew up listening to FIF, and Ryan took it to the next level as he was a die-hard follower (which made signing up for the gig really easy). While in Denver, our crew spent 4 days doing everything from Pre-Production, Set Design, Casting and Storyboarding/Collaborating with the band.
48 hours to produce a
7 minute film with the help of
14 cast and crew members covering
8 pages of script, shot at
4 Locations, some of which were in the rain with
3 umbrellas
2 cameras
1 original score
AND… ACTION!
The 48 Hour Film Project took place from June 6th – 8th in Minneapolis, MN. “Romance” was the genre we pulled from the hat at the kickoff event. 60+ teams competing all had to incorporate these 3 things:
A Prop: “A Bell”
A Character: “Trey or Tricia Sneaderman; Government Worker
A Line of Dialogue: “I asked you not to do that.”
“Last Goodbye” tells the story of Trey, a man motivated by regret, who traverses time and space for love.
Upton Films had the huge privilege of capturing some amazing stories of HOPE at Faith’s Lodge. Faith’s Lodge is “A Place Where Hope Grows”. In it’s North Woods setting, the lodge provides a peaceful escape for families to refresh their minds and spirits while spending time with others who know what they are experiencing.
A 16-hour day shoot allowed us to meet some great families and hear the most incredible stories of hope. We met Tim and Hope who had lost their son Connor and had several visits to the lodge along their journey through Connor’s illness. We also had the joy of speaking with 5 year old Sophie and her mom Heather. She fights a rare disease every day and her unbelievable story brought tears of hope to our crew’s eyes. All of the families that we met have come to Faith’s Lodge to grieve the loss of their child and or find hope for a child that is seriously ill.
The project was premiered in downtown Minneapolis, MN at the Fine Line Music Cafe during Faith’s Lodge’s event “Hope Thrives”.
