A feature-length film produced by two Penn State faculty members has been accepted for the FirstGlance Film Fest Philadelphia, with its screening set at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 18, at the Franklin Institute Theater.
Tickets are available the day of the show at the theater box office, and passes for the entire festival are available for purchase at the FirstGlance website.
“Ripped!” focuses on a group of 1960s British pop rockers who mistakenly get launched into space. Norman’s Normans, a mop-topped quartet that work at the British Space Agency, get blasted into space when a trained chimp accidentally punches in a launch code and they land on a planet populated entirely by women.
On the faraway planet they meet women wary of anything male, although the queen’s daughter falls in love with the band’s music and its lead singer, Norman. At the same time, officials back on Earth are working to help the band return home.
Some groovy craziness follows in the latest feature-length comedy produced by a husband-and-wife filmmaking team in the College of Communications at Penn State. TRAILER
The film is the third feature-length film Rod Bingaman and Maura Shea to be selected for screening at FirstGlance. Bingaman and Shea are both senior lecturers in the Department of Film-Video and Media Studies.
“FirstGlance knows we can draw a pretty good crowd since many of our cast, crew and film-video alumni are from the Philadelphia area,” Shea said. “They also usually have nice venues for screening.”
Their previous two movies featured at FirstGlance were “Hooray for Mister Touchdown” (2004) and “A Holiday Affair” (2000).
“Ripped!" was produced with professional actors in lead roles but with dozens of Penn State alumni, students and community members playing vital roles in making the production possible.
Photos of the cast and production crew and more information about “Ripped!” may be found at rippedthemovie.com online. In addition, Norman’s Normans have their own Facebook fan page, which includes an interview with the band about the film.
Bingaman has more than 20 years of industry experience, including work on feature films, broadcast television, commercials and corporate communications as a writer, director, cameraman and editor.
Shea boasts experience as a sound designer and editor on projects ranging from independent feature films to award-winning documentaries such as “Malcolm X: Make it Plain” and two segments for “Sesame Street.” She teaches nonlinear editing and beginning and advanced film-video production.
Created in 1996, FirstGlance aimed to give moviegoers in Philadelphia a chance to watch brave and innovative indie films while giving the filmmakers an audience and a voice. It started in a basement of a small theatre in Center City Philadelphia, showing about 20 projects to about 150 people.
A sister festival opened in a 35-seat screening room in California. Since its humble beginnings, FirstGlance has conducted 25 festivals and shown more than 1,500 award-winning films to more than 100,000 attendees.