Announcing the Organ Grinder Documentary Project

[Bob_PDX]

Of Phantoms and Filmmakers

This Saturday at 2pm, at the Hollywood Theatre (Portland, Oregon), the Columbia River Theatre Organ Society is presenting "The Phantom of the Opera" (1925) - a classic silent film with live theatre organ accompaniment by Martin Ellis, who will be performing his original score for the film.

And the CRTOS has graciously allowed me to have an information and merchandise table at the event to promote the documentary!

If you've never seen a silent film in its original mode of presentation - in a theatre, with a live pipe organ performance, this is a terrific opportunity.



Stop by and say "hi" - and if you have Organ Grinder memories to share, I'd love to chat with you. Bring your home videos and photos of the Organ Grinder. I can scan photos on-site, and I can digitize your home videos and have them back to you within a week, along with a digital copy.

There will be Organ Grinder CDs, posters, and postcards for sale at the table, to support the continued production of the documentary.

Saturday October 26th, 2024 – 2:00 pm The Hollywood Theatre 4122 North East Sandy Portland, OR 97212

https://www.crtos.org/events/the-pha...-opera-1925-2/

(CRTOS is not affiliated with the documentary project, and we thank them for allowing the merch table at the event. Please also consider donating directly to CRTOS - they keep the organ at the Hollywood theatre in shape, as well as other important instruments around town, and coordinate concerts and events such as these.)

[Bob_PDX]

When you tally everything up, it's pretty frightening!



But there is much more to do! I simply MUST get to Denver for up to 2 weeks to conduct interviews and do library and TV station research. Your help, as always, is greatly appreciated and greatly needed. If you haven't already, please consider contributing or purchasing merch. The most demanding shoots are yet to come, as travel and spending time away from home & work are unavoidable. Explore the shop! https://www.pipedreamsfilm.com/shop/

[Bob_PDX]

Ed the Builder

This month, we interviewed Ed Zollman at his home in Port Orchard, Washington.

Ed told us about his career as an organ technician, and what led him to become associated with the Organ Grinder, and his work with others to combine multiple Wurlitzer organs to create the instrument at Organ Grinder Denver. Ed also shared his extensive knowledge of how pipe organs work on a technical level.



In addition, Ed spoke of the origins of the "Pizza & Pipe" restaurant format in California, and the work he did for other pizza organ establishments before and after the Organ Grinder.

https://www.pipedreamsfilm.com/blog/ed-the-builder/

[Bob_PDX]

Dress for the Occasion

Mascots at the Organ Grinder restaurant in Portland, Oregon, dressed in red-white-and-blue garb for the 1976 United States Bicentennial celebration.

[Bob_PDX]

The Stars and Stripes Forever at the Organ Grinder

Don Feely performs The Stars and Stripes Forever by John Philip Sousa at the Organ Grinder restaurant in Portland, Oregon.

Includes a special appearance by the mechanical chimp!

Originally recorded early February, 1996 by Ted Welty.

[Bob_PDX]

New Perk!

We are pleased to announce that by special arrangement with the artist, we are offering a limited-run album as a crowdfunding perk.

Veteran Organ Grinder performer Jonas Nordwall shows off the capabilities of both the Portland and Denver instruments, with music from many genres!

https://www.pipedreamsfilm.com/shop/...ordwall-on-cd/



Among the tracks are special recordings made at the Oriental and Paramount theatres in Portland.

The Oriental’s Wurlitzer became the core of the Portland Organ Grinder instrument, and the Paramount’s became the core of the Denver Organ Grinder, so you can compare how the organs sounded in their original setting with their later incarnations in the pizza restaurants.

Packaged in a standard CD jewel box, the album includes a detailed 6-page information booklet with a forward by Organ Grinder co-founder Dennis Hedberg.

17 Tracks, 1hr, 9 minutes on CD.

Track Listing

• Sing, Sing, Sing (Lous Prima) (Denver)
• I Will Wait for You (Michel Legrand) (Denver)
• Theme from “Dallas” (John Parker) (Denver)
• I Can’t Stop Loving You (Don Gibson) (Denver)
• Tantalizing (Charles Magnante) (Portland Paramount – November, 1977)
• La Comparsa (Ernesto Lecuona) (Portland Paramount – November, 1977)
• Chitty Chitty Bank Bang (Sherman/Sherman) (Portland Oriental – November, 1969)
• Nancy (Van Heusen/Silvers) (Portland Oriental – November, 1969)
• Toccata (Gyorgy Mushel) (Portland)
• You Do Something to Me (Cole Porter) (Portland)
• Pomp and Circumstance March No. 4 (Edward Elgar) (Portland)
• Yoda’s Theme / Imperial March from “Star Wars” (John Williams) (Denver)
• Boy from New York City (Davis/Taylor) (Portland)
• Moonglow (Hudson/Mills/DeLange) (Denver)
• Take Five (Paul Desmond) (Portland)
• Wedding of the Winds (John T. Hall) (Denver)
• “Stark Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” Main Theme (James Horner) (Denver)

All performances by Jonas Nordwall, first senior staff organist of the Organ Grinder Restaurants. Recorded and engineered by Dennis Hedberg, co-founder of the Organ Grinder Restaurants.

[Bob_PDX]

Second Contribution made to ATOS Youth Programs

https://www.pipedreamsfilm.com/blog/...outh-programs/



As part of the rerelease of the original "At the Organ Grinder" albums on CD, a portion of the net proceeds is directed to the American Theatre Organ Society's youth programs.

Based on CD sales in October, a payment was sent today to the ATOS in the amount of $105.83 - all thanks to your support of the documentary project.

This contribution was directed toward Scholarships.

The Young Organist Scholarship Program is open exclusively to amateur, young organists between the ages of 12 and 26.

If you are interested in helping the ATOS's mission, please check out their donation page:

https://www.atos.org/donations

And, if you'd like to support the documentary's ongoing production or know someone who would like a CD set, please visit our direct crowdfunding shop.

https://www.pipedreamsfilm.com/shop/3155/

[Bob_PDX]

Attack of the 50-Pound Turkey!

Employees and friends describe the generosity of Organ Grinder co-founder Paul Forchuk, while laughing about the difficulties receiving that generosity would sometimes entail.

Featuring: Vicki Buck, Stan Cadwallader, and Jonas Nordwall, with photos of Russ Cornelison and Jim Nabors.

Music: "The Entertainer" by Scott Joplin, performed by David Lee at Organ Grinder Portland.

https://www.pipedreamsfilm.com/blog/...-pound-turkey/

[Bob_PDX]

The Organ Grinder Christmas Special with Jonas Nordwall

A collection of Christmas carols performed by organist Jonas Nordwall on the mighty Wurlitzer at Organ Grinder Portland.

Restored and Enhanced - With Limited Commercial Interruption

https://www.pipedreamsfilm.com/blog/...onas-nordwall/

[Bob_PDX]

(This was today's intended post before we learned of the sad news about Paul Quarino, but it seems fitting as it also a tale of loss - and a hint of rebirth.)

Before the Dark - The Grandeur and Loss of Portland's Oriental Theatre - Restored Edition

In 1970, a group of filmmakers captured the final days of the Oriental Theatre, a movie palace in Portland, Oregon.

With dramatizations of the glory days of cinema, this documentary captures the wonder that this grand building inspired in patrons, as well as portraying its tragic demolition.

The Oriental Theatre's Wurlitzer pipe organ was preserved by Dennis Hedberg, and became the basis of the instrument at the first Organ Grinder restaurant in Portland.

https://www.pipedreamsfilm.com/blog/...tored-edition/

[Bob_PDX]

Third Contribution made to ATOS Youth Programs

https://www.pipedreamsfilm.com/blog/...outh-programs/



As part of the rerelease of the original "At the Organ Grinder" albums on CD, a portion of the net proceeds is directed to the American Theatre Organ Society's youth programs.

Based on CD sales in November, a payment was sent today to the ATOS in the amount of $93.21 - all thanks to your support of the documentary project.

This contribution was directed toward the George Wright Memorial Fellowship Fund.

The George Wright Memorial Fellowship is a program sponsored by the ATOS to pay for a young person to attend their first ATOS Annual Convention, ATOS Summer Youth Adventure, or ATOS Technical Experience. ATOS covers approved expenses and related travel costs of the recipient.

https://www.atos.org/gwmf

If you are interested in helping the ATOS's mission, please check out their donation page:

https://www.atos.org/donations

And, if you'd like to support the documentary's ongoing production or know someone who would like a CD set, please visit our direct crowdfunding shop.

https://www.pipedreamsfilm.com/shop/3155/

[Bob_PDX]

The Organ Grinder Christmas Special V2 - Ad-Free w/Improved Audio - Feat. Jonas Nordwall

A collection of Christmas carols performed by organist Jonas Nordwall on the mighty Wurlitzer at Organ Grinder Portland.

Restored and Enhanced - Ad-Free presentation with Improved Audio V2, mixed by Nathan Avakian.

https://www.pipedreamsfilm.com/blog/...onas-nordwall/

[Bob_PDX]

Nerding Out About Credits

https://www.pipedreamsfilm.com/blog/...about-credits/

Introduction



This post is a different sort of "behind the scenes" write-up. It relates to the bureaucratic methods that indie filmmakers have to cultivate, as we work without the aid of a studio system or support staff.

When crowdfunding, much like when fundraising for a charity, you want to be sure to thank and publicly-acknowledge your supporters. And, for Uncle Sam, you want to have an accurate accounting of revenue for tax purposes.

It starts off simple enough – receive a contribution, and record it somehow, whether on paper or in a spreadsheet, and then create a list of supporters and post it to a web site.

But soon, that manual process becomes quite unwieldy! Every source of contributions may have its own reporting system and separate records. In the case of the Organ Grinder documentary, contributions have come in via Indiegogo, PayPal fundraising link, the web site’s shop (which could be credit card or PayPal), cash from a vendor table set up at an event, personal checks, Venmo, and Meta Pay. (To the one and only one person who used Meta Pay – thank you for your contribution!)

Of course, this is the kind of problem a filmmaker wants to have – much better than the alternative of no funds coming in! But it does, paradoxically, take time away from making the actual movie.

On top of that, supporters have contributed equipment such as hard drives, memory cards, and camera batteries from the Amazon Wish List, while others have contributed frequent flyer miles, lodging, and services, all of which have a value. Some supporters have contributed multiple times, in multiple ways, with multiple payment methods, making it necessary to keep track of not only how much has been received, but how much from each contributor.

Next, there is the complication that some specific fundraising campaigns also require payments to others. For example, a portion of the net proceeds from sales of the “At the Organ Grinder 3 1/2 Volume Collection” CD Set goes to benefit the American Theatre Organ Society’s youth programs. These sales and their related expenses need to be tracked separately.

Lastly, what seems like simple criteria for acknowledging supporters becomes complicated. Supporters are listed in tiers on the credits, depending on how much has been given, but also listed separately in certain categories for specific fundraising campaigns, such as the aforementioned CD sets. Some supporters have asked to be anonymous, and thus must be omitted from the public list, or to have their own name listed differently. Others have designated different people to be listed – a spouse, as a gift to a friend, or in-memoriam. (As of this writing, there are 91 individual supporters, plus a half-dozen designees.)

I came to realize that as more contributions come in (thank you, everyone!), the amount of time spent manually tracking and calculating everything would grow exponentially, spiraling out of control. And, the risk of error – not tallying a particular supporter’s total correctly, or worse, accidentally omitting them altogether from the credits, is high.

The Project

Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your point of view), I am a computer programmer. Or, as the kids say these days, a “coder”. Last weekend, I embarked on two tasks:

1. Create a centralized database containing every contribution, tracking the supporter, the amount, the type (cash, merchandise purchase, equipment contributions, services, etc.), whether it is anonymous, any designees to name, and the preferred way to display the supporter’s name in the credits. Its basic structure looks like this:



Creating the database and entering all of the transactions took time, but was a straightforward process. Then came the fun, but difficult task:

2. Create a program which tallies up all of the entries, and determines where to display someone’s name in the credits, as well as producing a report that I can use for accounting purposes. A portion of the source code is shown here:



It’s written in a language called PHP. Computer-language snobs may sneer at PHP coders, but it gets the job done. More importantly, it can run on the web server, right along side the WordPress content management system which runs this web site.

This allows the program to generate the credits listing and automatically display it on the site. The program also tallies the latest crowdfunding total and percent of the funding goal, which is displayed in a banner slideshow at the top of the site. That’s two more tasks I no longer have to do manually.

The program works based on a set of rules. For example, one rule that is if someone purchased the special CD set, regardless of how much they may have contributed later, they will always get a mention under the CDs, as those benefit the ATOS and it’s something to be proud of, as well as that supporter being listed in their appropriate tier based on total contributions. The same goes for people who gave wish-list items – the value of those items counts toward the appropriate tier in the credits just like cash, but the supporter also gets listed in the “Hurdy Gurdy Shop” category. (A side effect of this is that some people are listed twice in the credits, but I think it’s important to acknowledge these special categories.)

If a new tier is added, or a new special promotion, I just have to code the new rules into the program and the entire list is updated accordingly.

Now, whenever I receive a contribution, from any source and via any method, I simply enter it into the database and the rest is taken care of in a split-second, instead of taking 15 minutes to an hour the old way.

And, when the final film is edited, I can have my program output the credits formatted neatly for the editing software titling plugins that I use.

The Results

Going through this process already fixed a number of errors that had gone unnoticed. Nine people who should’ve been listed under the CD sets were previously missed, because of the way Indiegogo transactions were recorded (although these people were listed in their correct overall tier), and one who gave a contribution manually was missed as well.

More importantly, many people moved up into higher tiers, such as rising from “Associate Producer” to “Co-Executive Producer”, based on multiple contributions over time, which have added up. And, nobody has gone down a tier – that much was done correctly since the beginning, at least.

Perhaps now that people see their names move up in the tiers, there may be some incentive to contribute more, to reach that next tier? Although specific dollar amounts are not listed publicly, if you are a repeat contributor and would like to know how far you are from the next tier up, please use the Contact Us form and I’ll let you know the total – it’s very easy for me to look up now.

Please have a look at the new, automatically-generated Crowdfunding Credits page – I believe everything is correct now, but let me know if your name should be shown differently, and especially let me know if you don’t see your name, or if you should be in a higher tier.

Thanks for taking the time to read up on this nerdy side-project. It was fun to dust off the old programmer hat and write something completely new and useful.

Now, back to filmmaking!

– Bob Richardson

[Bob_PDX]

Marking a Milestone



This week is the anniversary of the start of the documentary project! In January, 2024, after pestering Organ Grinder co-founder Dennis Hedberg for months about doing an interview, I met with him at his home, and convinced him to share his story with the world.

Our initial schedule was thwarted by January’s big ice storm, but once things got rolling, Dennis had a lot to say. In fact, I’ve now interviewed Dennis three separate times!

Since then, I’ve been working full-time on this project, and it’s taken me on an amazing journey of discovery. Every new person I meet and interview brings forth new, amazing stories, and more leads to chase.

As of today, principal photography is roughly 2/3 complete, with the majority of founder/builder/performer interviews which can be conducted in Oregon and Washington completed. (Most fan/patron interviews are yet to be conducted.)

There have been 32 shoots at 28 locations with 22 interviewees, generating over 40 hours of footage, with over a thousand scanned photos, news clippings, and documents. Not to mention dozens of contributed home videos, hours of digitized music, and five restored films. The interviews so far represent people in three states, and two countries, with a remote interview from a third country planned soon!

https://www.pipedreamsfilm.com/blog/...g-a-milestone/

[Bob_PDX]

On the Importance of Money



I've written a detailed article about the funding challenges faced by the documentary project. However, I don't think it would be appropriate to post the full text here, as it deviates from this forum's primary topic. If you are interested, please read the article on the project web site at the following link:

https://www.pipedreamsfilm.com/blog/...ance-of-money/

Thanks,
Bob Richardson