Live Show/Event Creation
PJ Gaynard has created and been involved with live event creation since he was sixteen years old. Plays, film festivals, film screenings, shadowcasting films, panel discussions, table reads, technology show and tells, conferences, teaching events, wedding and dj-ing/music events; he’s done it. Below is a smattering of events he has produced.
2020 - Present Pittsburgh 48 Hour Film Project
PJ Gaynard produced all efforts for the 2020 - Present editions of the Pittsburgh 48 Hour Film Project as well as the 2021 - Present Pittsburgh 48 Hour Film Science Fiction Horror Project.
Icebreaker events
Special guest speakers and industry veteran judges
Kick off events
Multiple streamed screening blocks through the Eventive app with audience balloting of over 200,
Multiple in theater screening events!
Over 400 filmmaking teams made short films in 48 hours each and had an incredible time.
Press:
Student filmmakers and members of their teams at one of the screening events.
Film focussed events for The Community College of Allegheny County
From the fall of 2016- Spring of 2020 PJ Gaynard created live events for CCAC while coordinating their Film Technician programs including:
Student Film Screenings with large audience each semester
Group casting events for fifteen to twenty student films with community actors
Black Magic Design technology event in coordination with Black Magic Design
Craft of scene Writing Book Signing and Release Party with Jim Mercurio and Carnegie Screenwriters
Beyond the Frame event with leading women in Pittsburgh’s film industry
Several student enrichment focussed movie screenings
Emcee and logistics representing CCAC for the Pittsburgh Film and Media Educators and the Pittsburgh Film Office.
Have A Chat for Humanitiy: PJ Gaynard
Have-A-Chat for Humanity was a YouTube-based open call to the community to participate in the Pittsburgh Humanities Festival. This Core Conversation was selected by a Festival panel and took place on March 26, 2017 at the Harris Theater.
The panel consisted of a screening of PJ Gaynard’s “How To Make a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich” and a lengthy interactive audience discussion. PJ Gaynard considered how much philosophy lies within every tiny decision. For example, how far we can tease out what’s involved in making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?
Full Fledged Angel table reading with actors
In 2019 PJ Gaynard, Jerry Pietrela and Carnegie Screenwriters produced a table read event for the feature length script Full Fledged Angel (written by Jerry Pietrala and PJ Gaynard).
The reading cast included Carrie Collins Zenkevich, Jerry Pietrala, Amy Lyn, Ken Bolden, Marianne Bayard, Brian Ceponis, Samantha Angelina Franzi, Bob Scott, David Ogrodowski, Joe Hnath, Vincent Bombara, Wali Jamal, LaMar Darnell Fields and the musical stylings of James Andrzej Rushin.
View from the back of the room at the Third Street Gallery from our sold out event.
Some of the filmmakers who screened at the first ever Fudgefest.
Fudgefest
Twice (in 2009 and 2014) PJ Gaynard four-walled a theater in Los Angeles and premiered his short films along with premiering many of his friends short films. All the music was friends music. Everything was focussed on them. Over 200 guests attended each time and Goat Milk Fudge Productions gave away a thousand pieces of goat milk fudge.
The Okapi: A play in three parts
PJ Gaynard produced and directed a full length play in Los Angeles at the Next Stage Theater that was written by our good friend Rahn S. D'Agostino.
Synopsis:
Shattering Dreams, Walking on Eggshells, Flat out Lying, and Brutal Rudeness; the best words to describe family. This is the world premiere of the twelfth finely crafted play by Rahn D’Agostino. Darkly funny, “The Okapi” is the story of Jason, a thirty-year-old family recluse, and his search for a reason to keep trying life. A comedic yet honest commentary on a “normal” American family and what it means to be “the baby”, no matter how old you are. It brings new meaning to the phrase, “It’s funny how the mind works.” A wild, lucid dream.
PJ Gaynard performing as Doctor Frank-N-Furter as Ronald McDonald. This image was shared a thousand times online so far. Photo credit: Jen Springel
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
PJ Gaynard performed with Rocky Horror Picture Show Shadow Casts across the country for roughly twenty years. For two years he produced and directed the Rochester NY shadowcast. He four-walled movie theaters and an actual theatre. He set up shows at colleges for up to 800 people. He produced shows at private and alternative venues including bars and nightclubs. He scheduled and worked with bands to double bill. In 2014 he and Jackie Briggs set up and executed a giant sold out Rochester reunion show with cast members from every generation of it’s history.