The Immigrant Garden is now available for screenings in your community ! more info

Film on a Chip
The initial rough cut of The Immigrant Garden first screened at Daryl Lund’s Historic Chehalis Movie Theater, Chehalis, WA, May 19, 2001. The film was digitally projected onto the theater’s 15 x 33 foot screen by use of a Sayno projector. American Production Services, an HDTV center located in Seattle, WA, provided the HDTV 1080i blow-up master from mini-dv master and a WVHS dupe of it was played back on a JVC HD analog VCR. A fundraiser for the Southwest Washington Ballet School, the screening raised $10,525 for the young dancers.

Review
Daffodils and Dahlias are not the only things that blossom in “The Immigrant Garden.” Self-discovery, tolerance, friendship, knowledge, and respect for others grow out of the correspondence between the gentle drama’s two main characters, young Cecily Barnes and 80-year-old Louise Beauchamp, the elderly woman with whom she exchanges letters. --Judy Panteleeff, The Chronicle

IG Survey Scores
On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest, the audience collective response to this movie is 8.4. Of the 770 individuals who responded to a written random survey questionnaire about The Immigrant Garden

35% were male
65% were female
87% were 18 or older
68% were 35 or older
62% saw 1-5 movies per month
20% saw 6-10 movies per month
88% thought the movie was must see, highly recommended, or worthwhile
79% said they would see it again with a friend
72% would pay $14.95 for the home video
68% would give the home video as a gift.

Facts
The Immigrant Garden started as a class project at Centralia Community College in 1999 and eventually grew into a full length feature film involving more than 300 inexperienced individuals living in rural Lewis, Cowlitz, and Thurston counties, WA. Shot in 42 days using a Canon XL1 mini-DV camera, the film was edited and posted on a PC using off the shelf consumer electronics such as Canopus capture cards, Antex digital sound cards, Creative Labs Audigy 5.1 cards, and ATI video cards.

Software was also consumer based such as Adobe Illustration, Photoshop, and Premier as well as After Effects, Boris Effects, Alien Skin, Commotion, Vegas Video3, Sound Forge, and Syntrillium Cool Edit Pro software. Lights and Grip equipment were either homemade; such as our meenie weenie dolly, stedi-cam, and crane, or purchased off the shelf at a local hardware store. Lights were made from construction work lights, florescence shop lights, and simple light bulbs. Flags and nets came from welding rod, household door screens, sailcloth, muslin, black canvas, and used bed sheets.

The entire cast and crew had never worked on a movie set before. This is the first digital film conceived, produced, and exhibited outside the Hollywood movie system The initial goal was to teach young people how to utilize emerging media technologies by making a three to five minute video. The Immigrant Garden was one of 30 scripts submitted that the students chose to produce instead of “more commercial fare”.

C. Tad Devlin, Producer
The Immigrant Garden