<p>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE</p><p>CONTACT: John Romeo John Romeo Productions Phone: (804) 314-7413 Email: [email protected]</p><p>A SHORT FILM 52 YEARS IN THE MAKING Local director revives his grandfather’s movie and presents it online</p><p>RICHMOND, Va. (May 4, 2006) – Last winter, John Romeo was digging through his grandfather’s bevy of 16mm films. He finally found what he was looking for: a group of unique sound films that no one had seen in over 30 years.</p><p>His grandfather, Paul Kimaid, was an amateur filmmaker in Buffalo, NY. Kimaid belonged to a cinema club in the 1950s, where he and other film hobbyists would present their movies and discuss various filmmaking techniques. At a time when all home movies were silent, Kimaid engineered a technique in which he recorded dialogue and sound effects onto a reel-to-reel tape to sync up with his movies. Using this method, he made close to a dozen sound films.</p><p>Until recently, the films and audio reels were buried in a box in Romeo’s uncle’s basement. “When my grandfather passed away in 1989, my family transferred a bunch of his home movies to VHS tape. They transferred mostly birthday parties and holidays, but the story-based sound films were left behind.”</p><p>Romeo began transferring the films and audio tapes to digital formats that he could sync together on his computer. “It wasn’t nearly as easy as I thought it would be,” Romeo said. “It didn’t sync up perfectly because of the fast speed used at the film transfer facility. I had to digitally slow down the films, at various speeds throughout each movie, to match the audio recordings.”</p><p>One of the films he transferred stood out in particular to Romeo. Shot in 1954, Short Pants is the story of a simple sewing alteration gone wrong. “My grandfather owned a men’s clothing store,” Romeo explains. “It’s no wonder that one of his best films was about tailoring!” The film won an award at his grandfather’s cinema club that year.</p><p>“It’s a very fun movie, but it would be considered a little long by today’s standards.” After restoring the film to its original form, Romeo decided to make an alternate version using some modern editing techniques. </p><p>“The story and the dialogue were kept in tact,” Romeo is careful to explain. “Without giving away too much of the story, I merely shortened some of the non-dialogue scenes, and added some visual transitions.” Romeo has a free show online called “The Romeo Theater,” available at http://www.romeo-theater.com (note the hyphen). Each week he presents a short movie and tells a little bit about the story behind it. This week’s show features Short Pants, and includes an introduction by Romeo. It’s also available for download along with past shows as a free video podcast.</p><p>What would his grandfather think of all this? Romeo hazards a guess: “I think he would be absolutely thrilled that over 50 years later, his film lives on through the Internet. He would love that.”</p><p>EDITORS NOTE: You can view Short Pants for free online at http://www.romeo-theater.com. For photographs to use with this story, go to www.romeo-theater.com/press.html. For interviews with John Romeo and to receive broadcast-quality video excerpts from the show, please contact John Romeo directly at (804) 314-7413.</p><p>About the Romeo Theater: The Romeo Theater is a free, weekly video show available online at www.romeo-theater.com. It showcases independent short movies and the stories behind them. The show is also available as a downloadable podcast via Apple iTunes and other podcast directories. The Romeo Theater was created John Romeo, a videographer and art director in Richmond, Va. He’s president of John Romeo Productions (www.romeo-dvd.com).</p>