Sunday, January 24, 2010
Dan Mizicko’s film production company is called Stuck In Ohio, but his work is definitely not.
The Vienna native traveled to Salt Lake City, Utah, this weekend, where his film “Long Weekend” was screened at the X-Dance film festival. X-Dance focuses on extreme-sports films. It runs concurrently with the prestigious Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.
Mizicko shot “Long Weekend” in 2008, mainly in Ohio, but with segments in New York and Pennsylvania. The documentary-style film follows several extreme sports participants who head out on weekends for skateboarding, snowboarding, wakeboarding, BMX riding and other sports.
“[The film] highlights the ups and downs that come with being an action sports athlete here in the Midwest,” said Mizicko. “Crummy terrain and lackluster weather conditions are just a few of the setbacks. This area, geographically, isn’t very keen to the action-sports market and few people know the ins, outs and hard work that it takes for athletes to progress themselves and their abilities.”
Mizicko and his older brother, Ken, are both extreme athletes themselves, who engage in snowboarding and skateboarding. The two made up the entire crew for the film.
“I was the main videographer and Ken was the main photographer,” said Mizicko. “Which sports or athletes we would shoot depended on the time of year. No budget or sponsors, just hop in the van with all our gear, drive to a spot, and do our best to come away with some good footage.”
“Long Weekend” premiered in May at Great USA Cinema in Niles. It has already won the Jury’s Prize award at the Georgian Bay Extreme Sports Film Festival in Ontario, Calif.
Mizicko said he was stunned when he learned that his film had been accepted by X-Dance.
“There were over a thousand submissions and I was one of 30 selected in the feature film category from around the world,” he said. “Being selected was definitely a longshot, amongst some of the most prominent names in the action- sports world. But we’ve had a lot of good feedback from people, so we knew had something.”
Mizicko graduated from Youngstown State University in 2008 with a degree in telecommunications. He works at Accent Media in Youngstown as a videographer and editor.
His next goal is to get his film into wider release.
“I’ve already been in contact with a few distributors and I’m hoping that the recognition [of X-Dance] brings about a few more. There will be representatives from a bunch of them out in Utah for the festival, so I’ve set up a few meetings to discuss it with them.”