Area short film to receive prime time spot on Iowa Public Television

BY BROOKS TAYLOR

Mt. Pleasant News

WINFIELD ? Despite being in the county for nearly a decade, Grasshorse Studio of Winfield probably would not rank as one of the well-known businesses in the area.

That doesn?t mean, however, that the studio isn?t familiar to some state agencies and national firms.

Recently, Kathy Buxton and Steve Jennings, co-owners of Grasshorse, were notified that their short film ?The Sacrifice? has been selected to appear on Iowa Public Television?s (IPTV) upcoming program ?The Film Lounge.? The program will premiere this winter and ?The Sacrifice? is one of 13 films that will air in two one-hour episodes in February.

?I was absolutely thrilled when I found out,? Jennings said. ?I have been wanting some work on IPTV for some time.?

Buxton agreed, saying the selection was ?pretty neat.? She said the Iowa exposure would be good and somewhat rare for the firm. ?Our interaction with Iowa is fairly limited because a lot of our work is on the national scale, so this is pretty special.?

Jennings said the IPTV opportunity came as the result of answering a call for open submissions and ?The Sacrifice? was the only film submitted by Grasshorse. The film runs just two-and-one-half minutes and is a hand-illustrated, animated film inspired by the story of Saint George and the dragon.

According to the Golden Legend, the narrative episode of Saint George and the dragon took place somewhere he called ?Silene,? in Libya. The town had a small lake with a plague-bearing dragon living in it and poisoning the countryside.

To appease the dragon, the people of Silene fed it two sheep every day. When they ran out of sheep, they started feeding it their children, chosen by lottery. One time, the lot fell on the king?s daughter. The king, beset by grief, offered the people all his gold and silver and half his kingdom if his daughter could be spared. The people refused. The daughter was sent out to the lake, dressed as a bride, to be fed to the dragon.

Saint George, by chance, rode past the lake. The princess sent him away, but he refused to leave. As the two spoke, the dragon emerged from the lake. Saint George sprang to action, charging the dragon on horseback and seriously wounding the creature with his lance. He then called to the princess to throw him her girdle, and he put it around the dragon?s neck. With the girdle around its neck, the dragon followed the princess like a meek beast on a leash.

The princess and Saint George led the dragon back to Silene, and Saint George offered to kill the dragon if they consented to become Christians and be baptized. Some 15,000 men, including the king of Silene, converted to Christianity. Saint George then killed the dragon.

Grasshorse Studio was launched in 2002 in California where Jennings and Buxton, who are siblings, were living at the time and relocated to Winfield in 2007. The two had roots in Iowa as Jennings grew up in the Ames area and Buxton was born in Mt. Pleasant before moving to Ames as a child.

?We were trying to grow the business larger which is tough in Los Angeles,? admitted Jennings. ?We could never afford headquarter there like we have here.?

Buxton said the move was also good because she had a child and believed Iowa was a better place than California to raise children.

Most of Grasshorse?s work is doing animation for advertising agencies for spots, which run on the Internet and television. They said they have done about 30 videos and work with six advertising agencies.

Grasshorse won awards at the Wild Rose Festival in Des Moines in 2010 and at the Dragon Convention the same year.

?It has been terrific being back in Winfield,? praised Jennings. ?We couldn?t have grown the business without southeast Iowa. In Los Angeles, you don?t see the same attitude you see here.?

An interesting twist is how the studio became named Grasshorse. Jennings said he and a friend from Poland were traveling back to Iowa from Chicago when a grasshopper flew into the car. ?A grasshorse!? the Polish friend exclaimed. Jennings corrected the Polish friend, saying it was a grasshopper. The friend said in Poland, the insect is called a grasshorse. Jennings, after some thought, figured that grasshorse would be a catchy handle for the name of the studio.

Business has been good, Jennings and Buxton said. ?This year we are booked the entire year. It?s been pretty steady,? noted Jennings. ?We have had several jobs at the same time, which hasn?t happened before. That makes it pretty nice. We are eternally grateful,? remarked Buxton.

Dates for the showing of the movie in February have not yet been set by IPTV.