Hey y’all what do you think of our new fancy website?? The fine folks over at Pop Drone designed it and we are tickled pink at the results!
We’re in full Rock lotto-planning stage. In the next two weeks you can expect Rock Lotto OVERDRIVE! We’re going to be doing our band call-out shortly, in fact just shot a vlog inviting people to participate. Our organizer tried not to speak too quickly in it and will be putting it up shortly.
We are shooting a web commercial in the next few weeks with a filmmaker we truly admire and are so lucky to be working with.
We’re also in the design stages of our tshirts and tote bags to be sold at our actual event.
We’ve got a fab event assistant recruit in Miss Aeron who will be helping with our sponsorship organizing and band correspondence so that Samantha, our main organizer, doesn’t go too crazy. (She probably will though.)
For those of you feeling nostalgic, here’s last year’s web commercial!
As many of you know, the founder of the Ottawa Rock Lottery was robbed at the beginning of February. Since then the community has rallied around him already raised about $3,5000 via his indie gogo campaign.
What better way to get revenge though by partying? Please RSVP to this event.
Luca’s Revenge (Party)
With musical guests the PepTides
Special screening of Luca Fiore’s award-winning films
DJ J-Fun spinning beats
Visuals by Hard Science
Photobooth by Byfield-Pitman photography
March 27, 2013, 7 PM Tickets $10 at the door (donations accepted on a sliding scale) Mercury Lounge, 56 ByWard Market Square
Great big bear hugs and high-fives all around to those of you who have shown their appreciation and support for Luca, since his equipment was stolen, about a month ago.
You wouldn’t believe how humbling this has been for him. Only a few weeks ago he was crestfallen, and now, thanks to your generosity, he’ll be back in business in no time.
Sounds like a reason to party, right?! (And possibly embarrass Luca… a whole bunch.)
We got to thinking on this snowy, blustery day, of all the music inspired by and captured in the weather us Ottawans are forced to endure each winter. Here are top picks all released in the last twoyears. All are Ottawa-specific in location or hometown of the artist.
Nothing says crazy Canucks like throwing a punk-rock beach party in the snow at Mooney’s Bay. This video is like a fun Saturday morning cartoon short that makes you long for lazy days on the beach, and quite frankly question the sanity of the White Wires fans. The disclaimer makes enough sense: “Warning: Do not attempt to shoot videos in sub-zero conditions in beach wear.” Impossible to watch without a smile on your face.
Those of us that have grown up in Canada know the right-of-passage dare of stepping onto thin ice. The Acorn take it a step further and lay down their bodies and music in this visually compelling song.
Amanda’s song Better Days Ahead just works so well for inspiring us to move beyond the crappy Ottawa weather that becomes symbolic of how we get stuck in a rut sometimes. You can literally see her breath as she sings in a country barn house. Plus, we love her neon green gloves.
This is actually two songs fit into one video and it’s the second half of the video of the kids throwing themselves down Carlington Hill in the West End that we’re focusing on. Being a government town, plenty of people can identify with being stuck inside a stifling office when there’s clearly an awesome snow-day to be enjoyed. The kids are so full of glee on their sleds and yes, it ‘s OK to laugh when they fall off.
A heartbroken boy wandering through a forest while the snow falls heavily to a dreamy Muse/Radiohead-like tune? Because of the weather you don’t have to wait long to get the feeling of sorrow that goes along with this song. Seriously, CGI needs to catch up on the realness of this snowfall.
With musicians shivering in Russian hats and sipping hot cocoa, Amos the Transparent take you through all four seasons helped out by some cute kid drawings of snowmen and Christmas trees in this fantastic one-take video.
Another group of rebellious office worker are griping (not necessarily about the weather) but surely about the OC Transpo buses they are chasing after in the slush of Slater Street. They head to a bar to do what Ottawans do best to stay warm, share a couple of drinks.
A guy in a costume bear gallivanting in the snow along Rideau Street, checking out Winterlude sights and partying it up with local hipsters along Elgin Street to the tune of new female-fronted indie band The Yips makes for a fun couple of minutes. If anything, who knew that bears could party so hard?
And when in doubt, there’s an Ottawa connection via singer-songwriter Jim Bryson to this Weakerthans song that harkens back to an age of ice and adventure complete with dancing with penguins in giant faux-fur coats.
Hey y’all, just a quick note to let you know that we’re working with the fab folks over at Pop Drone who are currently redesigning our website and logo. Our new logo kind of rocks, just sayin’.
A big bonus for Rock Lotto 5.0 will be that you’ll be able to WEAR it. How? We won’t give away any more.
Thanks for visiting the site and have an awesome day!
Here is Shooter McNally (co-director with Matt Delaney) receiving his award from festival organizer Nina Bains for “Change,” which used music from Shannon Rose and the Thorns, Little Stella and Fevers.
Last Thursday night about 80 supporters of the Ottawa International Film Festival and participants of their 72 Hour Challenge filled the Lieutenent’s Pump on Elgin Street to watch a special screening of the top 10 short films completed in said hours. There was drama to romantic comedies from 3-15 minutes in length all featuring music curated by yours truly. It was great chatting with the different filmmakers and behind-the-scenes-folks who were not anticipating me sitting down with them and talking all things film. (I am and always will be the biggest film geek.) So many wonderful and inspiring people, but moreover watching the reactions of the bands whose music was included and how they were used was amazing.
I love providing that spark to fuel the creativity of the Ottawa arts community. Making money is no matter, the beautiful and thoughtful works speak for itself. This was the winning short by Shooter McNally and Matt Delaney.
As a partner of the event (as Ottawa Rock Lottery) I also judged all of the films and made copious notes as I watched the 28 films. We had a set judging criteria that remains confidential.
Barney’s film festival entry- not included in 72 hr submissions…
Judging all the films on Saturday was tough work (but SO much fun!) There were so many amazing and strong submissions however because of time limitations only 10 could be selected to be screened on Thursday night at the Lieut.s’ Pump. Our organizer studied film for 7 years in post-secondary so she had lots to consider in evaluating and making her choices.
NOW, in NO particular order the TOP TEN FINALISTS for this year’s 2013 OIFF 72 HOUR FILM CHALLENGE:
INDEPENDANCE DAVE
MOTHER OF TWO
WHITE & BLACK
YOU CAN ALWAYS CHANGE THE NAME OF YOUR DAWG
CENTSLESS
CHANGE
LUCKY
HEAVEN SCENT
THE PLAYERS
BREAK
Please come out and celebrate achieving such an awesome film challenge with us.
We were honoured to be able to provide music supervision and creative input towards the shaping of the challenge requirements.
This year theme was Freedom. The prop was the Canadian Penny (especially topical because of the recent retirement). The phrase was “Take a penny, leave a penny,” and the number 5 had to appear in recognition of OIFF’s 5 year anniversary. They could be no more than 15 minutes in length. 3 songs provided by ORL had to be used for 10 seconds or more and a musical “moment” was a requirement.
The most popular song choices were “Wild Wind” by Shannon Rose & The Thorns, “Sleeptalk” by Pony Girl and “Treadmill Race” by the Peptides. The other songs were by Fevers, StillNative, Paul Ross, Robots! Everywhere!, Le R, Little Stella and the Zebrassiers.
The founder of Ottawa Rock Lottery and talented local filmmaker Luca Fiore was robbed on February 7. All of his film gear was taken. This campaign is meant to cover the replacement cost of the equipment. Please consider making a donation or liking the FB page.
Please click on the above to be directed to funding campaign page.
Since Luca’s fateful first Facebook post on Feb. 7, the community response has been overwhelming! So many of you have already been posting about this on social media, which is a big up, since it goes to show how theft affects more than just the victims (boo, theft!).
For years, Luca has worked tirelessly for our local music and film industries (often, for free): launching Ottawa’s Rock Lottery and making videos for local favourites My Dad Vs. Yours, The Love Machine, Zebrassiers, among others.
Not to mention, he’s basically Prozac with legs. It’s hard not to be charmed by his infectious laugh and self-depricating humour. And just as hard not to be impressed by his work ethic.
But don’t take our word for it, see his work for yourself at http://valkaline.com/. Or, visit our Facebook page to see how Luca’s helped plenty of people in and around Ottawa. You can also contribute to that page by making your own short video describing how Luca’s helped you, on-set or off.
Last year I called up the wonderful people at the Ottawa International Film Festival and offered to help with their 72 Hour Film Challenge as the organizer for Ottawa Rock Lottery. That collaboration ended up with me putting together a group of 5 songs from area artists to be included as part of the participant requirements. It was so inspiring to see what the filmmakers did with the music! They had to include 3 songs for 10 seconds or more in each of their films and there was over 20 submissions! This year I’ve had over 30 submissions and have been working on narrowing it down to 10 songs that could work for film. It’s a lot of fun!
This year I’m doing music supervision again for them and will be talking about it on CTV Ottawa Morning LIVE tomorrow morning at 7:30 a.m with OIFF’s fab PR person. Don’t worry though if you don’t get up that early or don’t have cable; a Youtube link will be up by the end of the week. It’s a great opportunity to talk about the whole theme of rock lottery, which is “Why have a scene when you can have a community?” I have a strong background in film (academically speaking I studied it for 7 years) and so many local filmmakers are involved in the music scene too. I’ve recently learned of another collaboration from some people that met at last year’s event in their newly formed band that are now operating a successful creative marketing business together! ORL brings people together! It’s a charity operation so it can be difficult, but what’s come out of it inspires me so much.
These were some films from last year that showed the possibilities of how the music could be used.
Last Friday night was a big success and we’ll be posting photos and a video of the mini-acoustic lotto band (who kicked butt for only having an hour to write a song). In the meantime, our friend and VJ for the night at Valkaline shot this video of Zoo Legacy performing live Friday, January 18 at Raw Sugar. Check it.
Hey y’all what do you think of our new fancy website?? The fine folks over at Pop Drone designed it and we are tickled pink at the results!
Ottawa Rock Lottery 