A trip to a park is sometimes full of surprises.
For two best friends, a trip to this Renton “park” brought them face-to-face with a lurking “siff lord.”
Their story, as told in the four-minute film “Girls in Ghostland” is the winner of the People’s Choice Curvee in Renton FilmFrenzy V, determined by online voting at rentonreporter.com
The film was produced by Lief Zimmerman of Renton, who will receive the People’s Choice Curvee at the Renton City Council meeting on Nov. 19 from the Renton Reporter.
The Best Picture Curvee and other top awards were presented at the Curvee Gala on Oct. 23.
The Zimmermans attended the gala; Lief Zimmerman said his daughters were “upset” that they didn’t win. He told them, “We did this for the fun.”
And then he pointed out there was still the People’s Choice Curvee.
He attributes the victory to the final job of a producer – marketing. He used all the social media tools available to reach out to friends, family and co-workers. The film received more than a third of the 278 online votes cast.
“The job wasn’t done when the film was done,” he said.
Zimmerman shot the film in the Victoria Park greenbelt, with behind-the-scenes support and food from his wife Angela. Their daughters Abigail and Emma, who spent the four minutes trying to vanquish the ghost, the siff lord, were the stars.
Lief Zimmerman’s father James held up the wire on which a four-foot Barbie, representing the siff lord, traveled through the greenbelt.
This is how Zimmerman describes his film:
“The stage where their life and the life of their imagination plays out becomes frightening when the paranormal is exposed – a siff lord is lurking.”
The reference to siff – the Seattle International Film Festival – was one of “curveballs” thrown at filmmakers in the 50-hour competition in early October.
The Zimmermans are already trying to decide what film to make next year.
“I want to make it a little easier,” he said. The girls wrote the film the first night and he worked on its “continuity.”