"Ball of Wax"
is available
on DVD NOW!!!
"Short Careers"
Eric Bachmann's
soundtrack album for
Ball of Wax is available on CD
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Daniel Kraus writer/editor/director Kraus shot his first film, the 60-minute, 16mm documentary Jefftowne when he was 20 years old and a senior at the University of Iowa. Jefftowne, the story of a 40 year-old, beer-drinking, pornography-consuming, wrestling fanatic with Down's Syndrome, was made for $6000 and was an unexpected film festival hit. Jefftowne premiered in the Feature Film Competition of the 1998 Slamdance International Film Festival. It won the "Festival Choice Award" at the New York Underground Film Festival, and went on to play at dozens of international film festivals, including Atlanta, Leeds (UK), the Chicago Underground, Tulsa, Iowa, Connecticut, Clair-Obscur (Switzerland), GAGA (Berlin), and the 2001 Cannes Film Festival market. Jefftowne received rave reviews from Details, Spin, CNN, the Village Voice, Filmmaker, Film Threat, Behind the Scenes, Indiewire, and will be released this year on VHS and DVD. Kraus has written a dozen screenplays, optioned one, and is a frequent contributor to Maxim magazine, Salon.com, and Gadfly On-line. He is the winner of two Associated Press Awards for documentary videography and recently completed the feature documentary Sheriff. Kraus began the script for Ball of Wax in 1998, and for two years it languished inside the proverbial desk drawer under the title American Pastime. It was polished up after an inspirational trip to the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. "I saw so many different kinds of films there," says Kraus. "Films I loved, films I hated, but it proved to me that that there was a real market for this dark, challenging baseball story I had written." Although Kraus enjoys baseball in general, he is not an avid fan, and perhaps his traumatic Little League experiences contribute to that. "In the beginning of the film, Bret Packard's wife tells all these humiliating stories about Bret as a little kid playing baseball. Those stories are all true - they happened to me." |
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Michael Caporale director of photography For over 30 years, Caporale has been on the cutting-edge of motion picture technology, including being one of the original developers of the Avid editing system. He is the founder of Cincinnati's Caporale Studios, which handles audio and post production, still photography, web design, documentaries, and national and regional TV commercials - with clients such as Newsweek, Coca-Cola, and Wal-Mart. In addition to serving as the cinematographer for the feature films Tattered Angel (starring Linda Carter) and Four the Roses, Caporale is an accomplished musician, painter, writer, and photographer. Based in Ohio, Caporale met the filmmakers of Ball of Wax at a "new technology" expo at Frank Capra Jr.'s Screen Gems Studios in Wilmington, North Carolina, and was immediately taken with the project. Currently, Caporale is being featured in full-page color ads for Panasonic in magazines like DV, RES, and Filmmaker. |
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Eric Bachmann composer Bachmann was the front-man singer/songwriter for the seminal Chapel Hill rock band Archers of Loaf, with whom he released five hugely popular albums from 1993 to 1998. Some of these albums - like Icky Mettle, Vee Vee, and The Speed of Cattle - are considered rock-and-roll classics. These albums include such radio hits as "Web in Front", "The Greatest of All Time", and "Harnessed in Slums". Meanwhile, Bachmann recorded two critically acclaimed instrumental albums under the alias Barry Black. Currently, Bachmann is recording and touring with his new band, Crooked Fingers. The "Short Careers: Original Score to the film Ball of Wax" is currently available worldwide on Merge Records. "Eric is one of my all-time music heroes," says writer/director Daniel Kraus. "He was really our first and only choice. When he called and said he had watched the rough cut and wanted to do the film, I was speechless." The end result is a score that mixes beautiful violin and cello orchestrations with less-traditional elements like guitar loops, toy music boxes, and Hoover vacuum cleaners. |
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Lars Fisk art director In addition to serving as director of the enormous multi-media stage shows for the legendary rock band Phish, Fisk is one of America's most acclaimed young artists. His "Balls" sculptures (real-life objects such as barns, trees, and UPS trucks re-imagined as perfect spheres) have appeared in shows at Dartmouth College, the Firehouse Gallery, the DeCordova Museum, the Franconia Sculpture Park, the Berkshire Botanical Garden, and New York's Socrates Sculpture Park. |
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Jason Davis producer Aside from acting roles in Ball of Wax, Dawson's Creek, Summer Catch, and Showtime's Going to California, Davis has worked behind-the-scenes on such major motion pictures as MGM's upcoming Mary Jane's Last Dance, and The Pavilion, starring Richard Chamberlain. |
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Damian Lahey producer Damian is a product of The North Carolina School Of the Arts. Upon graduation, he worked as a producer on the independent films Ball of Wax, Ding-a-ling-less, and the Last Summer as well as on several shorts, commercials, and rap videos. He is currently living in Jacksonville, Fl. where he is preparing for his first annual rattle snake round up. |
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Allen Serkin producer Allen Serkin worked for two years as Locations Manager for the TV show Dawson's Creek, as well as many other major motion pictures, including Domestic Disturbance, starring John Travolta. Serkin also heads up the Cucalorus Film Festival in Wilmington, NC. |