SPTLGHT is a feature from LVHRD.ORG where members venture out into the world to experience something new, exciting, and share it with you. SPTLGHT will offer insight into new ways of living, playing, and enjoying your world.

We followed LVHRD member Logan Antill of the Studio Rêver Motion Picture Company up the coast last weekend to Portsmouth, NH, a steepled town by the sea, for the premiere of the short film Neptunus Rex at the New Hampshire Film Festival.

Antill wrote the film with Director Robert Scott Wildes, a senior in the film program at SUNY Purchase College.

credits: Settlement Heart for LVHRD

Studio Rever

(from left) Logan Antill, Joseph Comeau, Chase Bailey, Robert Scott Wildes, Daniel Brodie, Aleks Gezentsvey

credits: Settlement Heart for LVHRD

Logan Antill

On the balcony of the 100 Club looking out over Portsmouth

The NHFF is one of the largest film festivals in New England. In the seven years since its inception the number of entries has doubled every year. In 2007, 500 films entered; 60 were chosen; 6500 people came to Portsmouth for a weekend of cinema.

Neptunus Rex kicked off the festival on October 11th inside the the gilded Music Hall as part of the opening night ceremonies. Antill had not seen a final cut of the film; he and Wildes were visibly nervous, walking into the theatre with three glasses of whiskey between the two of them.

credits: Settlement Heart for LVHRD

Inside the Music Hall in Portsmouth

Neptunus Rex had an Old World premiere.

credits: Settlement Heart for LVHRD

Portsmouth in the rain

Seaside rockabye

Afterwards, we asked Antill what he thought of the screening: “I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t think I could have enjoyed it if I’d tried. I was too busy looking for the mistakes.”

Neptunus Rex is part magic and part history, an adventure story about two scientists, Beliveau and LaFontaine, disciples of Nubiology, the science of cloud collecting.

The film chronicles the 48 hours leading up to the first launch of their cloud-harvesting balloons.

credits: Studio Rever

Beliveau and LaFontaine on French TV, Avec Jean

Still from Neptunus Rex

credits: Studio Rever

Beliveau and LaFontaine, Nubiologists

Still from Neptunus Rex

Four days of screenings in Portsmouth were just the beginning. Every afternoon and every night we went to parties and open bars, a chance for filmmakers to meet producers to meet actors and hopefully come away with a new collaboration.

The process of self-promotion, of constant face-time looked exhausting, but spirits were high.

The resilience paid off. The jury at the NHFF gave Neptunus Rex the award for Best Student Film. The award itself, a 10 pound chunk of New Hampshire granite, called a Granny, seemed more like a punishment than an award, but Studio Rêver touted it proudly at the after-party well into the night.

credits: Settlement Heart for LVHRD

Neptunus Rex, Best Student Film, NHFF, 2007

Writer Logan Antill, Writer & Director Robert Scott Wildes, Producers Daniel Brodie and Aleks Gezentsvey

credits: Settlement Heart for LVHRD

A Granny

Ten pounds of New Hampshire granite: impress your friends with a hard-won doorstop.

We returned to NYC smelling like sea salt and loam, tired but happy. “We’ve submitted Neptunus to nearly 30 festivals around the country,” said Antill. We won’t know about most of them until next year.”

The thought of going to five film festivals in a year is daunting. 10? 20? “We’re just happy to have people see our movie,” said Wildes. “We’re going on tour. Like a band.”