Press Kit for The Empty Playground

The Empty Playground

4:30 minutes/ Super 16mm/color/NTSC/ HD CAM

SYNOPSIS

A man struggling with inner demons entertains a young girl on a playground.

CAST AND CREW

Marty Lodge- JACK

Skyla Schreter- AMANDA

June Rose- LYDIA

Phil Giordano- Writer/Director

Adam Mcdaid- Cinematographer

Flavio Alves- Producer

Jodi Gibson- Editor

Robb Williamson- Composer

Director’s Statement

Children scare me. I always feel like danger looms over them-that at any moment something bad could happen and they're defenseless. Anytime I see a little kid, they’re always about to run into the street or fall down. To me, it’s not that they’re helpless, it’s that they’re not equipped to battle the world yet.

I wanted to tell a story about a young girl that is slightly past that age, she is 12, and has the budding mental complexity of an adult, but the vulnerability and fragility of a child.

Like the fierceness of the world, Jack is the looming danger. Literally, he looms over Amanda and tries to lure her in, like a little kid running after a bouncing ball that heads towards traffic. It’s scary, but this scenario happens every single day. The question I wanted to pose is: What are you going to do about it? What can you do about it?

Production Notes

THE EMPTY PLAYGROUND was shot over two days at J Hood Wright Park on the upper west side of Manhattan. Featuring chilling performances from Marty Lodge and newcomer Skyla Schreter, the film marks the first collaboration between writer/director Phil Giordano and cinematographer Adam Mcdaid. Dan Clifton and Flavio Alves produced this effort as Jodi Gibson (editor) and Robb Williamson (composer) filled out the team.

About the Filmmakers

Director - Phil Giordano

In 2008, Phil co-wrote the script Wednesday's Farewell which won the 'Best Of' screenwriting competition on Francis Ford Coppola's website zoetrope.com.

Most recently, Phil directed The Empty Playground which was awarded The Golden Palm at the Mexico International Film Festival. 

Cinematographer - Adam Mcdaid

Adam Mcdaid completed his training at the American Film Institute with an MFA in Cinematography in 2006 and recently had the opportunity to hone is craft under Janusz Kaminski as his camera intern on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

He shot Una y Otra Vez, which was accepted into the Slamdance film festival in 2009 and won Best Narrative Short at the Los Angeles Film Festival.

Producer – Dan Clifton

Graduating from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2008, Clifton wrote, directed and produced the short film For All Mankind, a dedication to the action-adventure films he loved growing up. A Wasserman Award nominee for Best Picture at the NYU First Run Film Festival in 2009, For All Mankind was later screened at the Director’s Guild of America in Los Angeles.

Composer – Robb Williamson

In 2005 Robb composed the score for Joshua Leonard’s Sundance accepted film The Youth in Us starring Lukas Haas (Brick, Inception) and Kelli Gardner (Lars and the Real Girl).

After working on several successful short films, Robb stepped up to score his first feature film: GAMER starring Michael C. Hall (Dexter), Gerard Butler, and Ludacris. 

Editor – Jodi Gibson

Jodi Gibson is a graduate of the New York University Film School, MFA program. She has edited two short films that have screened and won awards at Sundance. The first was Michael Burke’s Fishbelly White, which won the special jury prize and the next year she directed and edited Friday, which won the Short Filmmaking Award-Honorable Mention.

About the Actors

Marty Lodge

Jack

Marty first garnered attention for his role as Banisky on HBO’s THE WIRE playing a newspaper reporter who uncovers Major Colvin’s “Amsterdam” operation and threatens to expose it all. Marty continued his television work with appearances on Gilmore Girls, Cold Case, and Boston Legal; but his most reputable role comes from his performance on Grey’s Anatomy. Regarded as the quintessential episode of Season 2, which showed after the Super Bowl to over 50 million viewers, Marty as Dr. Milton, explains to Christina Ricci’s character Hannah, what happens when a bomb explodes inside a human being.

Skyla Schreter

Amanda

Skyla Schreter comes to "The Empty Playground" from a lengthy career as a young ballerina. A student at the School of American Ballet since age 10, she has appeared with the NYCB at Lincoln Center in over two hundred productions choreographed by such luminaries as George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Christopher Wheeldon and Susan Stroman. Other venues include Jacobs Pillow, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim Works and Process series, Good Morning America, Lincoln Center Live, the dvd series Prima Princessa, and the TLC series My Life as a Child. The Empty Playground marks her debut performance as a dramatic actress.

Contact and Sales Information

Philip Jude Giordano

philipjgiordano@aol.com


BUY THE FILM: http://www.indiegogo.com/Goodnight