Ben Reiser
The Oak Street Ramblers perform a Bluegrass version of the “Campfire Theme Song” for the 2018 Wisconsin Film Festival trailers.
When Ben Reiser, a former Isthmus freelance videographer, joined the staff of the Wisconsin Film Festival in 2013, he relished the job of creating the trailers, the short films that kick off all of the screenings at the annual festival. That year, he created a spaghetti Western themed trailer starring a cow.
In 2014, with the help of musical friends Matthew Sanborn, Steve Tyska and Leane Tyska, Reiser “went for broke” and composed an original tune about the fest, the “Campfire Theme Song.” He recorded a group singing a catchy tune, which ran under a simple image of a campfire.
In April of 2014, Reiser wrote a piece for Isthmus about the process of creating that trailer, calling it “a real team effort.” The “Campfire Theme Song” was a hit. After seeing the trailer, Reiser says, patrons requested and then printed up lyric sheets, and by the halfway point of the festival, people were singing along. Since then, the festival staff has received numerous requests to bring the song back.
And, he adds, filmgoers don’t always enjoy watching the same trailer. “Sitting through eight days of the same trailer can feel monotonous, especially for some of the hardcore festival patrons who make it their business (and pleasure) to see 20 or 30 films per festival,” Reiser says.
To celebrate the 20th year of the festival, Reiser has undertaken a massive project.
With the help of festival staffer Aaron Granat, Reiser and Sanborn created 12 separate trailers for this year’s festival, which runs April 5-12. Each short film features a local musical act performing the theme song.
“Local musicians — singers, bands, duos, musical acts of all kinds — perform the song in their own style, with updated and individualized lyrics,” says Reiser. “So we’ve got blues, hip-hop, opera, indie rock, jazz, disco and on and on….”
Ben Reiser
Greg "Ginx" Doby and Robert "Big Three" Isabell perform a hip-hop version of the theme song.
The performers who contributed to the trailer project include Goodie Two Shoes, Midnight Voices, Madison Red and the Band That Time Forgot, The Hussy, The Oak Street Ramblers, The Smells, Robert “Big Three” Isabell, Greg “Ginx” Doby, Asumaya and Enanna Sheena. (Full disclosure: I sang on the 2013 Spaghetti Western trailer, in the 2014 “Campfire” recording and my band, VO5, performs a disco version of the song for a 2018 trailer.)
“Every step of the process of creating these trailers was a wonderful exercise in the power of music and community, teamwork and creativity, artistry and entertainment,” says Reiser. “We were thrilled and amazed at the depth of talent and wide range of genres the artists brought with them.”
Reiser says if you want to see all the trailers, you’ll need to attend all eight days of the festival: “Hopefully, you’ll find yourself with a spinning head full of movies, and our campfire songs stuck in your brain the way they have been in ours for the last three months.”
