Spring has sprung and the Fyre is Rising!  The season kicked off on Thursday, April 11 with the highly anticipated Tupelo Premiere of Jamie Hall’s “ColdBlooded” and “The Bag”, written by Jason Perry and directed by J. Lazarus Hawk.

The festivities began when the Rising Fyre family was treated to champagne and a limousine tour of Tupelo, which culminated with the arrival at the red carpet outside the Tupelo Malco 10 theater. With local television news coverage, newspaper coverage, and even a local “society” magazine on hand, we at Rising Fyre could not have felt more humbled, blessed, and grateful to all who helped make the evening’s event a truly special memory.

Look for “The Bag” and “ColdBlooded” on DVD soon.

After such a great start to our spring season the Fyre is burning bright and hot as we push forward on numerous projects.

First on the list is “Grimjack: Damnation Alley,” a fan film project based on the John Ostrander and Timothy Truman comic book. As a long time fan of the character, writer/director J. Lazarus Hawk is looking forward to bringing this project to life and will take on the role of the lead character himself. Click through for more information.

Next up on the agenda is Director Jamie Hall’s short film project, “Afterlife.” Those who have seen Mr. Hall’s first film, “Coldblooded,” are in for a real treat as he takes this opportunity to show a very different side of himself by telling a tale of love, loss, and redemption.

If this makes you worry that Mr. Hall might be softening up, fear not. He continues to guide our “Nature of the Beast” promotional trailer through post production and will begin the budgeting process as he moves toward his first feature film, which is guaranteed to put him back on top of the list of uncompromising directors.

On the topic of feature films, Mr. Hall’s partner at Rising Fyre, J. Lazarus Hawk, continues pre-production of his first feature, “Happy Hour.” This project is proving to have more lives than a cat as Mr. Hawk once more revisits the casting process for most of the roles. Scheduling, financing issues, and other delays have forced a number of individuals on both sides of the camera to pull out of the project. As a result, Mr. Hawk has decided to completely rethink the project as a whole. Everything from budget to cast and crew to what scenes are going to be shot when is being reviewed and restructured with the goal being to create the highest quality project possible. Click through for more information.

Not content to rest on their laurels, the Rising Fyre team has reached out to a number of other creative forces in order to establish new avenues of production. To that end, numerous other projects are currently in the early stages of development. Some of these projects, such as the soon to film feature “Dark Dance,” are co-productions with other companies. Others will be in-house productions that represent new directions that Rising Fyre is branching into, such as documentaries and adaptations of existing material. For further information and a complete list of projects in development simply click through, and be sure to keep your eyes on the Fyre and watch this space for further developments.

Rising Fyre Productions will be hitting the ground running.

Beginning January 6th at 2:00pm you can catch the launch of “In Frame” the new web based talk show that will be looking at the local Memphis film scene on a weekly basis. We will strive to bring you relevant personalities and topics that are of interest to the local Film and Arts Community. Our first show will delve into the history and importance of the existence of Black Lodge Video, so be sure to click the “In Frame” link every Sunday from 2:00pm – 4:00pm.

Also beginning this week is Rising Fyre’s new group Acting Class, “The Inner Fyre”. Classes will be held every Monday Evening from 6:30pm - 10:00pm. We will be serving food every week chosen from the catering menu at Ferraro’s Pizzeria & Pub. Cost of the class is $20.00.

In addition to the weekly classes Rising Fyre will also be offering an exclusive Actors Workshop entitled “From Audition to Screen”. Registration information can be found on the “Inner Fyre” page.

With classes and workshops finalized and scheduled we turn our eyes to the projects that we will be working on throughout the first quarter of 2013…and beyond.

First on that list is Jamie Hall’s first feature film, "Nature of the Beast”. Production on the full feature is still a year or so away but on January 13, 2013 Jamie Hall and Rising Fyre Productions will begin production on a promotional trailer that will be used to raise awareness, interest and investment to fuel the feature production.

 Next we have,  “A Hymn of Absent Samaritans” written and directed by J. Lazarus Hawk. This is a bit of a “faith-based” short film project but still in the familiar voice of its writer/director. Production is tentatively scheduled for February and we are hoping for snow, days and days of snow. Sorry Memphians but for this story we need the cold and we need the wet white mess that is snow. Casting is underway and is being done by personal invite from the director. Sorry, no auditions for this one.

As we move into March, and toward Spring, Jamie Hall will be back in the director’s chair for the short film, “Afterlife”, a heartfelt tale of one man’s rediscovery of the beauty found in life.  Mr. Hall has already begun his advanced pre-production for this one and will be making public announcements soon regarding any cast and/or crew needs.

Rounding out the first quarter of the year (or so) is the fan film, Grimjack : Damnation Alley. Based on the John Ostrander & Timothy Truman comic book, Grimjack, this short film will be an original story celebrating the character and the world he inhabits. This is STRICTLY a fan film and is being done with NO TIES to the current rights holders. We have no intention of profiting from this production. This film is only for the purpose of entertainment. We have the utmost respect for both Mr. Ostrander and Mr. Truman and intend no infringement upon their rights as creators and owners of the property.

That concludes our little sneak peek at what’s coming up with Rising Fyre for now, we will be back soon with additional information on all of the above projects and we will take a look at what’s in store for the Summer. Did someone say it was Happy Hour?

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

2012 was an exciting year for Rising Fyre, filled with successes, setbacks, opportunities and disappointments. We saw the successful launch of two short films, COLDBLOODED (Directed by Jamie Hall) and THE BAG (Directed by J. Lazarus Hawk) and we faced disappointing results with our fundraising campaign for HAPPY HOUR which led to further delays and setbacks on subsequent projects and goals.

            Now, as 2013 dawns, Rising Fyre Productions launches anew, like a Phoenix from its own ashes, with a new plan, a new schedule and even a few new projects, so be sure to watch for us in the coming year and...

RISE WITH THE FYRE!!