Photo Courtesy of One Good Pitch
Monty Renfrow as Andrew
A shocking climax and plenty of shot polish ultimately make Parker Hill’s “One Good Pitch†one of the standout student films at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival.
With a great premise, splendid shot selection, a score the sets the scene and solid cast performances, it’s four minutes that goes by incredibly fast and leaves you hungry for more from this student team at NYU.
A conversation between a father (Roger Grunwald) and son (Monty Renfrow) in a field, while tossing a baseball around just doesn’t feel right. Something else is going on. You can feel it. You can almost smell it. They’re talking about baseball, but it’s got to be about something else. This is a feeling you’ll want to ignore, but you can’t. When the big reveal is finally exposed, you’ll understand everything and it’ll all make sense. This “unwrapping of the present†plot development is far from a new idea in film, but it’s done well here.
What also helps “One Good Pitch†are the various bells and whistles every great film needs to thrive. From the beads of sweat rolling down Renfrow’s face to the tight camera work, “One Good Pitch†has top shelf cinematography (Maria Rusche) while James Newberry’s score hits all the right spots and captures the tension like an off-speed pitch that looks like it fell off the end of a table.
The fact that you wouldn’t think this is a student film is, in the end, what makes it even more special. Make no mistake- this film can hang with any short in and around its length at this year’s festival.
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports.
Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders.
His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023.
Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief.
Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale.
Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.
A shocking climax and plenty of shot polish ultimately make Parker Hill’s “One Good Pitch†one of the standout student films at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival.
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