The international board of the Association of Independent Creative Editors (AICE) has formally adopted Camp Kuleshov as the name for the trailer editing competitions sponsored by its regional chapters each fall. The moniker stems from Lev Kuleshov, the Russian filmmaker and film theorist behind the film editing montage/juxtaposition of images technique known as “The Kuleshov Effect.”
“By adopting the name Camp Kuleshov across all our chapters, it provides us with a single brand identity for this very popular competition,” related Burke Moody, AICE executive director. He noted that while each chapter’s competition has its own creative brief and requirements, the common challenge calls for assistant editors to choose from a list of feature films and create a trailer–an advertisement, in essence–that changes the genre or narrative of the film in an unexpected way. In the process, they’re creating an ad for a film that doesn’t exist.”
For example, the top winner at last year’s New York competition–which has been under the Camp Kuleshov banner since 2008–was a trailer (edited by Stacey Peterson) based on the warm-hearted ’89 movie Field of Dreams, which instead advertised the picture as if it were a brooding, introspective Bergman film.
The competition–designed to showcase the editing prowess of assistant editors–was originally known as Trailer Park. In response to a trademark infringement claim, the Trailer Park name was dropped and a vareity of names emerged: Splice Capades, Filmspotgting, The Winnebago Awards, Trailer Blazin,’ and Trailer Wars.
The idea for a trailer editing competition for assistant editors originated with editors/partners Kathryn Hempel and Steve Stein of Chicago-based Cutters. They saw it as an event which would involve not only assistant editors but the entire AICE community. Hempel conceived the idea for the competition while Stein came up wiht the name. With help from the late Katy Maguire, then at Optimus, and Nadav Kurtz, then at Outsider but now also with Cutters, Hempel and Stein brought the event to life. They saw the event as a way to challenge and honor talented assistant editors.
“Being an assistant can often be thankless and unrewarding–it’s the nature of the job,” said Stein. “The light very rarely shines on an EDL, dub or posting. This gave the assistants an opportunity to show off their mad skills.” Since spreading from Chicago to additional chapters over the past eight years, the event has produced trailers that have become viral sensations such as the Robert Ryang-cut ’05 take on The Shining, which transformed the horror flick into an upbeat, family-fun romantic comedy.
The 2010 round of competitions kicked off recently when the AICE N.Y. chapter hosted a meeting at MPE to review the brief for this year’s Camp Kuleshov New York competition.
Chris Franklin, editor/owner at Big Sky Editorial, and Lin Polito, an editor at jumP, led the meeting, which was attended by several dozen assistant editors from AICE member companies in New York. Franklin has run the New York chapter’s competition in partnership with Polito since ’04, and said he loves the new identity.
“I like the fact that if you don’t get it, you have to figure it out,” Franklin said of the contest’s namesake. (The Kuleshov Effect was an early demonstration of the power of juxtaposed images to radically alter the audience’s emotional response to a film.) “In the process you learn about Kuleshov and how he played with editing to influence people’s perceptions of film. It’s a fascinating story.”
Franklin said the Camp Kuleshov competitions are good for assistants because they give them “confidence that they can brainstorm around a problem and try to figure it out, and that they can work through the brief to come up with a solution. This is a daunting task, what we’re asking them to do–it would bring a lot of veteran editors to their knees. We’re basically asking them to pick apart a movie and turn it into something it’s not. And they have to do that on top of what’s already a full workload.”
Hempel related, “I would love for the festival to stay fun, inclusive and supportive of all the assistants as well as the editors, producers, librarians, receptionists, accountants–in short, all the women and men of post, younger and older, who work so hard in this crazy industry. It’s a great time to have a party and appreciate the power of editing.”
With the launch of the 2010 Camp Kuleshov New York call for entries, the work of the entrants this time around wil be based on a slate of films ranging from Blacula and Mommie Dearest to The African Queen and Freaky Friday. Entries are due October 13, and all entries will be screened and awards presented during an evening event on Oct. 21. Calls for entries for additional AICE chapters will start to roll out over the next few weeks.
For Documentaries At Sundance, Oscar Nominations (and Wins) Often Follow
The Sundance Film Festival welcomed back three Oscar-winning documentary filmmakers to help kick off the annual independent film showcase in Park City, Utah.
On Thursday night at The Ray Theater, "20 Days in Mariupol" filmmaker Mstyslav Chernov, who won the Oscar last year, debuted his latest dispatch from Ukraine, "2000 Meters to Andriivka," a harrowing journey to the front lines of a 2023 counteroffensive. A few hours later, at the Eccles, Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, who won an Oscar for "Summer of Soul" in 2022, unveiled his Sly Stone portrait, "SLY LIVES! (aka The Burden of Black Genuis)." Earlier, "One Day in September" filmmaker Kevin MacDonald also showcased his film "One to One: John & Yoko," which debuted last year at the Venice Film Festival and will get an IMAX release on April 11 before hitting Max later this year.
Some critics reflected that "2000 Meters to Andriivka," a joint production between The Associated Press and PBS Frontline, was even more powerful than "20 Days in Mariupol." "SLY LIVES!" (on Hulu Feb. 13) was called "sublime" and "illuminating" in its examination of an underappreciated, shapeshifting genius.
"I've been coming here since 2000 and I thought the coolest thing you could do would be to DJ an after party," Thompson said before the screening. "I never dreamt this for my future, so this is really humbling."
It was a full-circle end to a day that began with a slate of documentary Oscar nominations all connected to the Sundance Institute in some way. Some were supported by the Institute, some debuted at the festival as recently as last year.
"Black Box Diaries," in which a Japanese filmmaker investigates her own sexual assault, had its premiere in Park City last year and was supported by the... Read More