Entries from Cutters, Optimus, Hootenanny also score honors
An adorable singing shark becomes the darling of a seaside community until bad guys plot to capture it and put it on display in “Shark Song,” the feel-good story that takes place in a little town called Amity. And the sweet, affectionate trailer for this fictional film, created by assistant editor Caleb Hepler of The Whitehouse, Chicago, won the top prize at AICE Chicago’s Camp Kuleshov trailer editing competition. The winners were announced at a party and awards show held at the Volcano Room of the Bottom Lounge on West Lake Street last week.
The assignment for the competition, now in its 10th year in the AICE Chicago chapter, was to select either one or any combination of the films Jaws, Lost in Translation and What About Bob and cut a 90-second trailer for an original new film, be it a mashup or of a new genre. Hepler’s take on Steven Spielberg’s 1975 classic Jaws swayed the jury. For his efforts, the assistant editor won an Avid Media Composer 5. In addition, he will be flown to Los Angeles to attend the 2012 AICE Awards Show.
First Runner Up honors went to Michael Lippert, an assistant editor at Cutters, who mashed up all three films for “Learning to Stand.” In this frightening drama, Bill Murray plays a creature who takes human form while on land but becomes a shark whenever he’s in the water. Lippert won a Pro Tools 9 audio system.
Second Runner Up honors went to assistant editor Aaron Porzel of Optimus, whose campy “Were-Shark” combines Jaws and What About Bob to tell the story of a shark that’s terrorizing a summer camp, conveyed in the style of a schlocky, black & white 1950s-era horror film. Porzel’s prize was pair of M-Audio Studiophile Q40 headphones.
All prizes for the Chicago Camp Kuleshov winners were provided by Avid.
Honorable Mentions went to two assistants at Optimus: Max Holste for “Siggy Marvin and the Summer of the Shark” and Lucy Radtke for “This Is Water.”
The Chicago Camp Kuleshov competition also has a division called Tent City, which is open to anyone employed at an AICE member company who’s not an assistant editor. The Grand Prize in this category went to Tiffany Dotson, an intern at Hootenanny, for “Faded Intent,” her re-casting of Lost in Translation as a psychological thriller in which Bill Murray plays an assassin and Scarlett Johansson his intended target. Dotson won a $50 Amazon gift card for her efforts.
Honorable Mentions in the Tent City category went to Optimus’ Marco Rosas for “The Ungiven Chance” and Max Mooney for “Bob Van Winkle,” and to Angelica Carlson of The Colonie for “Escape to Tokyo.”
The judges for the Camp Kuleshov Chicago competition included Brian Gannon of the Whitehouse, Sean Berringer of Beast, Laura Madalinski of Red Car, Keith Kristinat of Utopic, Randy Palmer of Optimus, Adam Purcell of The Colonie, Matthew Hane of Daily Planet, Chris Hafner of Cutters and Jerem Sloan of Hootenanny.
To view all the winners of the 2011 Chicago Camp Kuleshov competition, check out its page on the AICE web site here.
SAG-AFTRA Calls For A Strike Against “League of Legends”
"League of Legends" is caught in the middle of a dispute between Hollywood's actors union and an audio company that provides voiceover services for the blockbuster online multiplayer game.
The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists called a strike against "League of Legends" on Tuesday, arguing that Formosa Interactive attempted to get around the ongoing video game strike by hiring non-union actors to work on an unrelated title.
Formosa tried to "cancel" the unnamed video game, which was covered by the strike, shortly after the start of the work stoppage, SAG-AFTRA said. The union said when Formosa learned it could not cancel the game, the company "secretly transferred the game to a shell company and sent out casting notices for 'non-union' talent only." In response, the union's interactive negotiating committee voted unanimously to file an unfair labor practice charge against the company with the National Labor Relations Board and to call a strike against "League of Legends" as part of that charge.
"League of Legends" is one of Formosa's most well-known projects. The company provides voiceover services for the game, according to SAG-AFTRA.
SAG-AFTRA has accused Formosa of interfering with protections that allow performers to form or join a union and prevent those performers from being discriminated against — a move the union called "egregious violations of core tenets of labor law."
Formosa did not immediately respond to a request for comment. "League of Legends" developer Riot Games said that the company "has nothing to do" with the union's complaint.
"We want to be clear: Since becoming a union project five years ago, 'League of Legends' has only asked Formosa to engage with union... Read More