Open Source Pinball in the Windy City – Expo 2012

Posted on October 19, 2012 by pinballdonutgirl

The 28th annual Pinball Expo is off and running in Chicago.

photo by Mark Czarnowski

PBDG cast member Mark Czarnowski is hard at work behind the scenes and it looks like things are really coming together.

photo by Mark Czarnowski

Mark got to play Cactus Canyon Continued — a CC game running with P-ROC, a cool board that lets you mod pinball games via a pc over usb. Mark reports:

“In our repair room, we have a Cactus Canyon, running custom software on a P-ROC controller and a PC. The new custom version, dubbed Cactus Canyon Continued, is programmed and overlaid on top of the original. The pic shows the CCC software creator on the left, and the P-ROC hardware guys, center and right.”

Photo by Mark Czarnowski

“The P-ROC version has many new features, including a mode called Drunk Multiball, best played by crossing your arms, since the flipper buttons are reversed.”

photo by Mark Czarnowski

Don’t forget that Pinball Donut Girl will be screening at the LTG show Friday evening at 10:00 with Mark hosting!

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Best 5 Days of September

Posted on October 1, 2012 by pinballdonutgirl

A few photos from the Pacific Pinball Expo, definitely my favorite five days of September!

Charlie Kuttner and I filmed the whole load in, an amazing 2 day transformation of an empty room to a pinball wonderland, and then of course I got to meet and talk to a lot of you, play pinball, see cast and crew members, eat donuts, and screen my films. It doesn’t get any better than that.

Thank you to everyone who came out to the show and to the amazing volunteers of the Pacific Pinball Museum who make the magic happen!

child plays pinball at pacific pinball expo 2012

photo by Charlie Kuttner

pbdg preview screening at pacific pinball expo 2012

photo courtesy Matt Walsh

photo by Charlie Kuttner

And congratulations to Jeri Ellsworth on her 2012 Maker Hero award!

Wade Krause film opens Pacific Pinball Expo

Posted on September 18, 2012 by pinballdonutgirl

Hope you’re coming on Friday to the Pacific Pinball Expo; the first festival event in the Sausalito room will be Wade Krause: Pinball Artist. Wade himself will be there to talk about his work and help me answer questions about the film.

image from Wade Krause: Pinball Artist, photography courtesy Joe Bansuelo

Get behind the backglass with Wade! You’ll learn about his restoration work and his collaborations with artists like Dirty Donny on the Metallica game, Beatniks, Hellacopters and other cool games.

Date: Sept. 21, 2012
Time: 11:00 AM
Where: Sausalito Room, Pacific Pinball Expo, San Rafael, CA
Directions: http://www.marincounty.org/Depts/CU/Directions

Hope to see you there.

PS: Stay for the whole weekend so you don’t miss seeing Pinball Donut Girl on Saturday.

Frank Lloyd Wright meets Pinball Donut Girl

Posted on August 27, 2012 by pinballdonutgirl

On Sept. 22, Pinball Donut Girl will have an advance screening of the full featurette at the 2012 Pacific Pinball Expo, held at the Marin County Civic Center Exhibition Hall in San Rafael, California.

Frank Lloyd Wright, who designed the Marin Center would surely be pleased. I mean, look at the detail on one of the buildings in the complex and tell me Lloyd Wright didn’t love pinball!

Marin Civic Center building

Behind the Scenes of PBDG

Posted on July 24, 2012 by pinballdonutgirl

TJ Beyer will be joining me at California Extreme this weekend to talk about working with the games on the set of Pinball Donut Girl.

TJ and Baily Hopkins. Photo by Matt Walsh

TJ looks pretty happy considering we are about to start exploding his AFM…..

Photo by Matt Walsh

PBDG Trailer playing at CAX this weekend

Posted on July 23, 2012 by pinballdonutgirl

It’s all come full circle! A year ago this month I shot our first footage for PBDG at California Extreme 2011 with Brian J. Patterson.

And now thanks to your generous support, this weekend we are screening the PBDG trailer at the very same show. I’ll be talking about some of the techniques we used to film inside the AFM playfield to capture the amazing stunt play of Jeri Ellsworth (we got your bang back right here on camera, baby!) and how we worked with the games on set, including blowing up some backglass.

Does a year seem like a long time to make a short film? Maybe so, but I’ve also been working on pinball documentaries about the Visible Pin project at the Pacific Pinball Museum and a second film about Wade Krause, who worked on that game and many others — I’ll be showing excerpts from Wade’s film as well.

Come by and say hi!

PBDG musicians in new rockumentary

Posted on July 2, 2012 by pinballdonutgirl

Gretchen King and the Phantods are the subject of a new feature length documentary releasing later this month! gretchen-king Meet the Phantods follows the band over more than a year as they perform and tour, honing their act.

The Phantods have been huge supporters of Pinball Donut Girl, and their music is featured along with Ten Ton Mojo, Lisa’s Big Night Out, and Clint Baker.

If you will be in the Columbus area on July 20, definitely head to the Grandview Theatre for the premiere of Meet the Phantods.

Thank you, Disco Volante!

Posted on December 28, 2011 by pinballdonutgirl

Huge thank you to TJ Beyer and Disco Volante for letting us film some pickups yesterday. With TJ saving my bacon on the off camera flipper, I even got to do a little stunt play myself. Jeri — your job is still safe

PBDG filming today at Disco Volante in Oakland

Posted on December 27, 2011 by pinballdonutgirl

Leaving in minutes for Disco Volante in Oakland, CA to film some pickups. Disco Volante is not only a fantastic club and restaurant (LURVE me the tamarind crab), it’s the usual home of PBDG’s beloved AFM machine.