Welcome to the editing competition where everyone knows your name. The New York Chapter of AICE has announced the rules and guidelines for the 2011 installment of its Camp Kuleshov trailer editing competition for assistant editors by introducing a new source of material to be sold as a new genre: the venerable TV sitcom.
This year, for the first time, participants in the Camp Kuleshov competition will be able to choose from episodes of the legendary “Cheers” as source material for their trailers.
The competition, now in its 8th year in New York, is an exercise in creative problem-solving for up and coming assistant editors. From a list of feature films, the entrants create a trailer – an ad that promotes the picture as a film of a different genre. For example a horror film as a comedy. They can also combine two films and create a trailer which promotes the picture as a film of a third genre. In each instance, the final product needs to work as a movie trailer—a commercial—that sells the re-imagined film; simply retelling the story in a condensed format is not enough.
The competition has produced a number of striking winners over the years, and many of the Camp Kuleshov assistants who’ve hoisted the trophy over their heads have gone on to become full-fledged editors working at various AICE member companies. Indeed, Editor Robert Ryang’s “Shining,” which won the New York chapter’s competition in 2005, was recognized as one of 12 viral videos that defined the genre in this article from The New York Times.
Entries for this year’s Camp Kuleshov New York competition must be submitted by 5 PM on Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2011. To be eligible, an assistant must either be a full-time staffer at an AICE member company, or a freelance assistant editor who’s sponsored by an AICE company. Full details on this year’s competition are available on the AICE web site by clicking here.
The list of films and genres that Camp Kuleshov entrants can choose from is typically an eclectic bunch. “Every year we try and come up with a different angle to keep everyone challenged,” says Editor Chris Franklin, Owner of Big Sky Editorial in New York, who’s one of the most-awarded editors in the history of the AICE Awards and the unofficial leader of the Camp Kuleshov New York competitions. The film list this year includes such classics as “The Manchurian Candidate” and “Breathless,” along with popular hits like “Splash” and “Grease,” the Madonna documentary “Truth or Dare,” the Mad Max sequel “Beyond Thunderdome” and even “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls,” the Russ Meyer sexploitation hit from 1970. The genre list includes such familiar categories as Romance/Love Story, Musical, Comedy and Horror, along with more esoteric genres such as French New Wave, Film Noir, Political Thriller and Sci-Fi/Apocalypse.
The addition of “Cheers” introduces the format of the :30 and :60 network broadcast promo to the Camp Kuleshov mix. Assistants can, for the first time, select one of the 12 films on the contest list and cut a commercial that promotes the film as if it were a network TV sitcom, adding laugh tracks and sitcom-style music beds if they wish.
They can also take anything from the 11-year run of “Cheers” and create a movie trailer that promotes it as a feature film of any genre from the list. “It’s wide open,” says Franklin. “They can even use the DVD extras.”
Franklin adds that choice of films from which to choose is carefully calculated to both challenge and intrigue the assistants who choose to enter. “There’s always some oddball title thrown in,” he notes. “The goal is to give them lots of range.” The addition of “Cheers” falls into this category, he adds. “It’s a curveball. We wanted to see how they’d handle it. To take the content of a sitcom and bend it back into a cinema format is a tricky thing. It will be interesting to see how they do it.”
The winners of the competition will be announced at the Camp Kuleshov Show and Awards Presentation, scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 12 at Bar M1-5 in New York.
Hot on the heels of the New York Chapter’s announcement will come details on the next two AICE chapters to host Camp Kuleshov competitions, Chicago and Los Angeles. This will be a landmark year for the Chicago event; the competition originated there 10 years ago, when it first debuted under the name Trailer Park. Details on these competitions will be issued shortly.
About AICE
AICE is an international association whose members are independent creative editorial, design, visual effects and post production companies and their editors, designers and artists. It is dedicated to the advancement and promotion of these companies and the increasingly significant role their editors, designers and artists play in the media creation process. With chapters in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, San Francisco and Toronto, AICE represents a significant segment of the vibrant post production industry, and will continue to maintain its strong collective voice in the commercial advertising and marketing industry. Among its signature initiatives and programs are the annual AICE Awards, which highlights creative excellence on behalf of its member companies; the regular publication of white papers and advisories on relevant trends and developments in post production; and active participation with other industry organizations on the establishment of standards and best practices for the post production process. As a trade organization, AICE will continue to represent the best interests of its members within the advertising and marketing industry as it disseminates information to ad agencies, advertisers and producers on all aspects of editorial, design, visual effects and post production. For more information, visit www.aice.org.
