Local filmmakers prefer Baltimore for practicing their craft

BALTIMORE - It seems almost obvious that if you’re an aspiring filmmaker you go to New York or Los Angeles, but one group of local filmmakers are just fine in Baltimore, thank you very much.

 “Many times if you have a little success, you go the flashy route (LA, NYC), and there is nothing wrong with that,” said 2010 Academy Award winner Errol Webber.

But Webber has chosen to live in Baltimore, and says that film directors and producers will fly him to wherever he is needed.  He doesn’t have to live there.

He stays in his native city to be around family, to keep costs low, and because of Baltimore’s cultural arts in Baltimore and its people.

“It isn’t so big that you get swallowed up in the bustle of the big city.  It has the type of people that you want to be around, who don’t introduce themselves by what they do,” he said.

Webber has met many of that type of people in the Charm City DSLR Film Makers, a group of local film makers that regularly meet up to collaborate and inspire each other.

          Check out a slideshow of the group's Oscar party here

The members are as diverse as their city, with filmmakers who work day jobs in finance, IT or communications, and full-time filmmaking.

One of those members, Jeffrey L. Gangwisch is filmmaker and video producer and graphic designer.  Gangwisch was a Fulbright Media Scholar who has worked at the BBC, WBAL-TV, and is now the filmmaker in residence at the Creative Alliance.

Gangwisch is currently working on “Dusty Electro” with the Yellow Sign Theater in Station North and is running the last in the recent cinema series at the Alliance.

He loves living in Baltimore for the art, but also for the thriving community, and its people.

Gangwisch said the group is a wonderful way to celebrate a common goal, not necessarily an award, but a cinematic experience.

“Errol has an Oscar, and some people (in the group) have never touched a camera, but we all strive together to create original narratives for a public audience,” he said.

Upcoming Film Events in Baltimore

Final Cut Pro Workshop (Learn how to make those movies!) at the Creative Alliance on March 2, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. $75 for non-members, $65 for members.  Sign up here .

Cine Salon: Horror and Scary Films, at the Creative Alliance , March 4.  Doors open at 7 p.m., screening starts at 7:30 p.m..

South West End ,  A film by Gangwisch that follows the Rough Coast Theatre Company as they launch an original play on the rocky state of the world-famous Minack Theatre. A  Q&A will follow with Gangwisch.  The event starts at 7:30 on March 21.  Cost is $12 to public and $7 for members.