Director of Photography, Director, Producer, Editor, Lighting Designer, Audio /Sound designer
Emil J. Novak
Owner/Manager – Queen City Bookstore
President/Owner – Buffalo Nickel Productions, LLC
Owner – Buffalo Nickel Graphix
An artist and filmmaker for many years, Emil is well known and recognized in the community.
A native Buffalonian, Emil grew up during the popular American culture times of the 1960's and 1970's, an intense and outspoken period of influence for artists and creativity. Influenced by art and literature from an early age, Emil quickly understood the harmony that could exist between them, when as a young boy, his father, who started the original Queen City Bookstore, gave him comic books.
That led to an interest in fine arts, where Emil began, and continues to this day. In 'art circles' Emil is noted as a professional freelance artist, comic book penciler, inker and colorist, graphic artist, as well as an art designer and illustrator. His work has been influenced by the German expressionistic movement, light & shadows, psychedelic/progressive imagery, 1900's illustrators, and the comic book art of Jack "The King" Kirby, N.C. Wyeth, and Franklin Booth, among others. His artistry on paper has appeared on the front cover of Artvoice as well as numerous covers for the Buffalo's Bison Baseball magazine. He also served as past publisher of Buffalo Nickel Comics for three years.
Merging his ability for art with a desire to do more led him to spend several years in the theater as a set designer for the Towne Players. Being an avid movie-watcher and somewhat of a "movie buff," Emil realized movies were the medium that he could immerse himself in and satisfy his craving to create.
For the last several years, Emil has been extremely involved and busy in the local film production business. He was the cinematographer for the 2006, Red Scream Films' movie, "Frightworld" and was the production designer for the 2009 production of Greg Lamberson's, "Slime City Massacre".
Under his own production company, Buffalo Nickel Productions (BNP), Emil has created, developed, written and produced:
* "So You Want to be a Rock-N-Roll Star" a documentary, in post-production
* "Tesla, The Accumulator" a drama about Nikola Tesla, the inventor, in post-production
* "Banshee" a horror-suspense movie filmed in the Central Terminal, scheduled to premiere in Oct 2010. More info
* "Something Dark" suspense-horror movie; limited release in 2008, revised version will premiere in 2010. More info
* "Decayed" suspense-drama, currently filming.
Buffalo Nickel Productions also co-produced three films with local filmmakers:
* Red Scream Films' feature film, "The Eldritch: Dark Spawn," a horror movie, currently in post-production.
* Ollagnod Films' short film, "Mary's Christmas," a 2009 entry into Buffalo's 48-Hour Film Festival (the film won the Best Acting Award)
* Challenge Films' feature film, "Henry's Future, " a romantic-comedy-drama, scheduled to premiere in 2010
After wrapping production filming on Henry's Future, Buffalo Nickel Productions completed development of and began production on its newest project, "Decayed". The suspense-drama-thriller, about what happens when an infectious disease spreads around the world, is apropos in today's HINI environment. The movie will continue filming into 2010, and will premiere in late 2010 or early 2011.
Emil currently serves as President of the Buffalo Movie-Video Makers (BMVM) a local filmmakers' organization, that has been around since 1934. He invites anyone interested in attending a meeting to visit http://www.myspace.com/BMVM or contact him at ENovak3178@aol.com.
