345 “WALLACE” LOOKS FOR LOVE, KUDOS FROM FILM LOVERS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 9, 2007
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Gina Logue, 615-898-5081


MTSU Movie Mavens, Professor Craft Independent Film Hit

(MURFREESBORO) – “My Name is Wallace,” an independent movie filmed in Murfreesboro and winner of numerous awards at film festivals worldwide, will be screened at 9 p.m. Tuesday, April 24, and at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, April 26, at the Nashville Film Festival.
“Wallace” tells the story of an odd, lonely, socially challenged man who looks for love through a phone sex advertisement following the death of his mother.
The film was written and directed by Dr. Bob Pondillo, an associate professor of electronic media communication at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU). Many members of the crew are MTSU students or alumni. They include director of photography Matthew Pessoni, cinematographer Scott Pessoni, sound designers Mark Duvall and Dave Wagner, and editor Jessica Berryman.
Murfreesboro’s Carriage Lane Inn, which was built in 1899, served as the home Wallace shared with his mother. The Victorian-style bed-and-breakfast also housed the cast and crew for the two intense days of shooting.
“Wallace” has been entered in more than 270 film festivals, and it has been accepted by 38 of them.
“It’s most encouraging,” Pondillo says of the positive reception for his work. “I’m delighted people find it interesting and entertaining. I think the reason is there’s a little bit of Wallace in all of us.”
David Lawrence, a Los Angeles-based actor and host of “The David Lawrence Show” on XM Satellite Radio, is the executive producer and stars as Wallace. Nashville singer-songwriter Leslie Ellis portrays Tiffany, the phone sex operator. Pondillo has a small role as Wallace’s neighbor, Larry.
Lawrence developed the character in the 1980s for a radio comedy bit titled “The Personals,” a sketch about the tapes of people who just didn’t make the cut at a dating service.
“I think the character was very one-dimensional at one time,” Pondillo says. “You know, when we did the radio thing, it was just a funny voice saying … goofy things.”


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Lawrence, who spent only $15,000 to make the motion picture, said he poured his funding into the equipment necessary for the crew to make a quality film instead of blowing it on actors’ salaries and incidental expenses.
“To have those tools at their beck and call really makes the difference for them in terms of how well they can produce the film,” Lawrence says. “And I wanted them to have the very best tools possible. And, in Nashville, it is far less expensive to shoot with those good tools available to you because they charge less than they do in Los Angeles.”
Because “Wallace” swept the major awards at the Trail Dance Film Festival in Duncan, Okla., Pondillo and Lawrence won a distribution deal to have their film featured on a compilation DVD that will be rentable at more than 150 Hastings Book Store locations across the country.
A separate DVD totally about “Wallace” ultimately will include not only the movie and interviews with the cast and crew but also a pop-up video version of “Wallace” and a feature that will allow viewers to create their own comic book adventures for the main character. Pondillo says a feature-length version of “Wallace” is in the works, as well.
Pondillo’s initial independent film, “Would You Cry If I Died?,” captured third place in the Best Short category at the Southern Fried Flicks Film Festival in Augusta, Ga., and second place in the Narrative Faculty Video category at the 2006 Broadcast Educators Association Festival of Media Arts.
To order tickets for the showing of “My Name is Wallace,” go to http:///www.nashvillefilmfestival.org. The festival will take place April 19-26 at the Regal Green Hills Stadium 16 Theater, 3815 Green Hills Village Drive in Nashville.
For more information about “My Name is Wallace” and to view the trailer, go to http://www.mynameiswallace.com.

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ATTENTION, MEDIA: For color photos of shots from “My Name is Wallace,” or to arrange interviews with Dr. Bob Pondillo and David Lawrence, contact Gina Logue in the Office of News and Public Affairs at 615-898-5081.

SPECIAL RECOGNITION AND FESTIVAL HONORS TO DATE
FOR “MY NAME IS WALLACE”

“Best Short Comedy”—San Fernando Valley International Film Festival, North Hollywood, Cal.;
“Best International Short Film”—Okanagan Film Festival, British Columbia, Canada;
“Best Short Film”—Spokane Film Festival, Spokane, Wash.;
“Best Short”—Muskegon Film Festival, Muskegon, Mich.;
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“Silver Medal of Excellence for Use of Music in a Short Film”—Park City Film Music Festival, Park City, Ut.;
“Best Short Comedy of the Year”—Gem City Film Festival, Palatka, Fla.;
“Best Actor,” Best Screenplay,” “Best Short Comedy,” and “Best of Fest”—Trail Dance Film Festival, Duncan, Okla.;
“Best Short”—Short Films of India Film Festival, Chennai, India;
“Honorable Mention”—Beverly Hills Hi-Def Film Festival, Beverly Hills, Cal.;
“Special Selection” and “Finalist”—Very Short Movies Film Festival, Hollywood, Cal.