The movie I wrote and created with my team Gorilla With a Mustache Films just won the big prize for "Joint Effort". 

Below is the official announcement
**********
The wait is over! Here are the Awards for the 2013 National Film Challenge! 

Best Film – ‘Joint Effort’ by Gorilla with a Mustache Films
...
Audience Choice Award 2nd Runner Up - 'Joint Effort' by Gorilla with a Mustache Productions
...
Best Actor – David Ostergaard for ‘Joint Effort’ by Gorilla with a Mustache Films
...
Best Writing – Tie 
Eruch Adams, Will Eill for ‘Joint Effort’ by Gorilla with a Mustache Films
and
Paul Jenkins, Adam Dukes, Daniel Montgomery for ‘Farmer and the Fold’ by Whisper Productions
...
Best Use of Genre – Comedy – ‘Joint Effort’ by Gorilla with a Mustache Films

And our prize is:
Best Film of The National Film Challenge

• $3,000 USD
• Award Trophy
• Screen at 48HFP Filmapalooza in 2014
• Screen at the Cannes Film Festival Short Film Corner
• Free registration in the 2014 National Film Challenge

**************************
We're all very excited and at least some of us will make it to Cannes Film Festival. So many talented filmmakers, actors, and talent in general. I'll keep you posted on developments.

I've had this Christmas story kicking around in my head for a year now, and I put it into a 35 page short-story and e-published it on Amazon--to see how that works. This story has a lot of my deepest feelings about magic and the way Santa works in my life. Hope you enjoy this holiday season.

NOW on Amazon - "Spirits of Christmas"
Fantasy short story, by Eruch Adams


Santa is the greatest wishing spirit, but he doesn't work alone. He employs a host of elves, fairies, sprites, and magical creature to read, interpret, and fulfill the deepest wishes of humanity. Twenty-two years ago Santa broke all the rules and allowed one clever young boy to see him. But to grant Timmy Mars his deepest wish, it'll take two of Santa's fairy-sprite agents and 22 years to bring the pieces together to reveal what his physicist father's unfinished work really was and heal his deepest sadness. 

This is a story of magic, love, family, Christmas, and quantum physics. 
Warning: Some secrets of the Universe revealed herein. 

Recommended age: 8 - Adult 
"Spirits of Christmas" is an ebook short story equivalent to 35 novel pages.

Purchase it now for a magic lover in your life.

Here is the latest movie I wrote (with Will Eill) and the Gorilla With A Mustache, "Joint Effort". For us to win, you have to click the thumbs-up button on the Youtube page (If you have gmail, just log in beforehand--otherwise create a Youtube account).

If we win any prize money, it goes towards post production costs for our feature film (One Hell Of An Angel). Just to be selected for this audience choice contest is a win, because we had to beat out 90% of the international pool of talented filmmakers.

Make sure to watch on YouTube and click the "thumbs-up" button before December 18th at midnight.
Those votes will be counted by the National Film Challenge judges, not the number of views.

Thank you and I'll keep you posted about the other prizes that will be announced on Dec. 23.

BACKSTORY
This was a fun project. From the writer perspective, this was an unusual process. We brainstormed as a group for several hours. In that time we went from one wildly different idea to another. What was a poker game between superheroes, took a sharp left turn into crazy true stories. One person had a situation where their parents left a wedding late and got into the wrong (yet identical) rental car…and the key worked.
The next day they went to put their bags in the trunk, only to discover it was full of drugs. Not theirs. 

So we went along with this idea, and many thought it was too far fetched, despite the fact that it was true! We didn't want to waste our limited screen time on explaining how the key worked on the wrong car.

Then I remembered a story of a friend who was housesitting for a friend and decided to have a big pesto dinner party. But lo, they ran out of pesto and more people showed up. Luckily my friend found some frozen "basil" in the freezer and threw it into the giant pot, added some pine nuts,parmesan and viola! Except, that was frozen pot and they were unintentionally stoned for 2 days.

The basic elements of our story were there, and various great suggestions were made on how to marry them. Then Will and I kicked everyone out and hammered away on my computer until 3 am. We wrote, rewrote, cut, we laughed, we cried until it was done. Then, as happens with talented comedic actors, they made improvements and improvisations that only made the movie better.

My only regret is that Mathew's backstory was cut due to lack of time. Maybe I'll post that here some day.