Oh My God! It's Harrod Blank!

 Biography of David Silberberg:

David Silberberg
 Biography  July 2009

  David Silberberg  born and raised in California, and graduated from Livermore High School class of 1980. His main interests were photography and music.  He spent a semester at San Francisco State taking courses in their experimentally oriented film department and eventually transfered to UC Santa Cruz where he graduated in 1987 with a degree in Theater Arts with an emphasis in film-making.

  Silberberg spent 3 years working with Harrod Blank on Harrod's film about Art Cars-- cars that are decorated or otherwise transformed into rolling sculpture. That film was Wild Wheels, released in 1991. Wild Wheels was well recieved and aired on PBS in 1992 nationally. Silberberg contributed to the project as a location sound recordist, sound editor, narration writer, additional cinematographer, and editorial consultant.

  During this period Silberberg also worked as an assistant film editor and sound effects editor.  He worked on the Les Blank films Sworn to the Drum (1995), The Maestro: King of the Cowboy Artists (1994), My Old Fiddle (1994), Julie: Old Time Tales of the Blue Ridge (1991), Puamana (1991), Innocents Abroad (1991), and Marc & Ann (1991).

  Also through this period and beyond Silberberg had been accumulating 16mm and video footage documenting the life and career of the artist and filmmaker Harrod Blank. The footage was later released as a feature documentary film entitled            Oh My God! It's Harrod Blank! (2008), produced, directed and edited by David Silberberg, and premeired at the Slamdance Film Festival 2009. It's also screened at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival (2008), Athens International Film and Video Festival (2009), Woods Hole Film Festival (2009).

  Throughout the 1990s into the 2000s David Silberberg has been employed chiefly as a location sound recordist and mixer, and his skills have been in demand by a wide variety of productions, from feature films, documentaries, television news and sports, television shows, corporate communications, website video and commercial advertising.  Clients include: Comcast, Cannodale Bikes, Animal Planet, Siemens, NBA, Met Life, Wachovia. Some film credits include: Automorphosis (2009),
The Singularity Is Near (2009), The Harimaya Bridge (2009), One Way to Valhalla (2009), All About Evil (2009), All In This Tea (2007), Bukowski: Born Into This (2003).

 David Silberberg currently resides in Berkeley California with his wife and daughter. He plays swing and jazz music in his spare time. His hopes for the future are to be useful working on good and important projects.

 

 

 

 

 

 Oh My God! It's Harrod Blank!

  250 word synopsis -BEST

Explores the life and adventures of the eccentric artist and entrepreneur Harrod Blank, a creator of spectacles such as the Camera Van-- a Dodge van with 2000 cameras attached to it – and The Flash Suit- a man’s suit festooned with hundreds of photo flash bulbs going off. The film follows Blank from his youth spent in the woods with chickens, to his current multi-faceted career as filmmaker and art-car maven extraordinaire. A tireless champion of self-expression, Blank chases dreams and attacks obstacles with a creative vigor that is refreshing to witness. Directed by filmmaker David Silberberg, Oh My God! It’s Harrod Blank! uses footage spanning two decades to celebrate the man just as it exposes his naivete, and the particularly trying effects his extroversion has on those around him. Blank's family, friends, and girlfriends take turns criticizing, advising, and explaining a guy whose uncommon openness and resilience can tolerate such a forum, even as viewers laugh and squirm. Rounding out the film's point of view is Blank's own painful, often hilarious examination of his personal life and challenges, from his need for attention to such obsessions as encroaching baldness.
Blank's spirited outlook is undeniably inspiring, and the film embodies a contagious affection for him as both bigger-than-life and so very human. 'The pressure to conform is incredible,' says Blank, 'but I don't care what other people think. The reason I'm alive is to create.' With special appearances from Harrod Blank’s film-making father Les Blank, revealing details of his early career..

 

99 word synopsis:

Documentary featuring the life and adventures of the eccentric Art-Car artist and entrepreneur Harrod Blank, creator of spectacles such as The Camera Van and The Flash Suit, following him from his youth growing up in the woods with  chickens to his current multi-faceted career as filmmaker and art-car maven extraordinaire, with appearances by his father, documentary filmmaker Les Blank. Harrod Blank's spirited outlook is undeniably inspiring, using his creative energy to rail against society's mass-produced mentality.  "The pressure to conform is incredible, " says Blank, "but I don't care what people think. The reason I'm alive is to create."

 

 50 word synopsis :

Explores the life of the eccentric artist, filmmaker, and entrepreneur Harrod Blank,  creator of spectacles-- such as the Camera Van and The Flashsuit.  Blank's spirit is inspiring,   "The pressure to conform is incredible, " says Blank, "but I don't care what people think. The reason I'm alive is to create."

 

25 word synopsis:
Documentary featuring eccentric Art-Car artist, entrepreneur and filmmaker Harrod Blank, who says, “I don't care what people think. The reason I'm alive is to create."