In the lull between Oscar season and summer blockbusters, there's a new film in town. OK, it's not in town exactly. It's on www.youtube.com. And it's actually a promotional video more than a movie.
Called “95959google,” it premiered at last week's Nevada City Council meeting. 95959. That's the Nevada City zip code. Google. That's perhaps the best single exemplar of the Internet's worldwide chemistry.
“95959google.” That's the film written, produced, and directed by Suzanne Warren of Grass Valley. OK, that's 95945, but Grass Valley and Nevada City are fraternal twins cajoling giga-giant Google to choose Nevada City as a “googlebit” fiber optic locus.
The nine minute film stars Nevada City Mayor, Reinette Senum; Steve Monaghan, Chief Information Officer of Nevada County; Ray Baldock, Chief Technical Officer of Grass Valley Group; Dan Castles, CEO of Telestream; and a cast of thousands.
OK, maybe the locals who showed up to rally and parade around Nevada City only numbered in the hundreds. But Warren's Silver Avenue Pictures did well to symbolize the vitality and interest in an event staged for Google's and Nevada County's benefit.
Cleverly, the film spruces up the talking heads with animated chalkboard text and illustrations. Of David Nicholson -- the film's head of photography, editing, music, and graphics -- Warren says: “I asked if he knew he was taking on many more hours of work [to make his ideas for the animation come together] and he went for it.” Nicholson has been a co-conspirator in maturing the Nevada City Film Festival.
Streamed with snippets of other locals, Lance Armstrong is there, winning the 49th Nevada City Bicycle Classic. Patrick Stewart (“Star Trek”; “X-Men”) is shown as the celebrity highlight of Nevada City's 8th Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival. These align with flashes of the South Yuba River; KVMR sponsoring music at the Nevada County Fairgrounds; California's longest running live-theater venue, the Nevada Theatre.
This smart pitch knew to throw in one of those increasingly familiar “Google Earth” zooms. The world is smaller than you think. Nevada City is bigger than you think. Think “95959google.”