Assistants at By the Booth and Relish earn top honors for their inspired trailers
The first AICE Chapter to hold a 2015 Camp Kuleshov trailer competition for assistants has selected its winners. First place went to assistant editor Jes Frigon of By The Booth for his trailer that recasts “Office Space,” the classic Mike Judge 1999 comedy about cubicle drones, into a foreboding thriller.
Second and third place honors both went to assistants at Relish. Assistant Scott Edwards took second place for “Weird Science,” in which he re-imagined the 1985 John Hughes classic about two nerds who attempt to create their perfect woman as a Quentin Tarantino film. Finishing third was assistant Julian Papas for “The Johnny Utah Affairs,” which turns the Keanu Reeves – Patrick Swayze 1991 crime and surfer thriller “Point Break” into a love story about two buff surfers.
The Camp Kuleshov awards presentation and party took place at the production company Cinecycle in Toronto on Tuesday, Oct. 20. Winners took home a number of prizes: First place winner Frigon won a Media Composer, courtesy of AICE Corporate Partner Avid, while second place winner Scott Edwards won a gift certificate from the royalty-free stock video, photo and image library Pond 5, another AICE corporate partner. All three of the top winners–-first, second and third place–also won $200, courtesy of the AICE Toronto Chapter.
Coming up next on the 2015 International Camp Kuleshov competition circuit are events taking place on Oct. 28 in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco, with additional Camp Kuleshov events set for Detroit on November 3 and Dallas, sponsored by the Texas Chapter, on November 5. The Dallas event will coincide with the association’s semi-annual International Board Meeting being held there.
AICE announced in August that its Camp Kuleshov competition had gone international, with a unified format that has all assistants taking part in the various chapters working from the same creative briefs, entry rules and source films.
By the Booth’s Frigon is now eligible to be voted the overall International Camp Kuleshov winner, which will be announced once all participating chapters have named their top winners. In addition to taking home an iMac–donated by Avid resellers AVI, CineSys-Oceana, Cutting Edge, HB Communications, KeyCode Media, Melrose MAC, T2 Computing, TM:Television and Vintage King Audio–as well as local bragging rights, the chapter winners and the overall winner will be feted at the 2016 AICE Awards presentation in Chicago, where the AICE’s first trailer competition was held.
Rom-Com Mainstay Hugh Grant Shifts To The Dark Side and He’s Never Been Happier
After some difficulties connecting to a Zoom, Hugh Grant eventually opts to just phone instead.
"Sorry about that," he apologizes. "Tech hell." Grant is no lover of technology. Smart phones, for example, he calls the "devil's tinderbox."
"I think they're killing us. I hate them," he says. "I go on long holidays from them, three or four days at at time. Marvelous."
Hell, and our proximity to it, is a not unrelated topic to Grant's new film, "Heretic." In it, two young Mormon missionaries (Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher) come knocking on a door they'll soon regret visiting. They're welcomed in by Mr. Reed (Grant), an initially charming man who tests their faith in theological debate, and then, in much worse things.
After decades in romantic comedies, Grant has spent the last few years playing narcissists, weirdos and murders, often to the greatest acclaim of his career. But in "Heretic," a horror thriller from A24, Grant's turn to the dark side reaches a new extreme. The actor who once charmingly stammered in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and who danced to the Pointer Sisters in "Love Actually" is now doing heinous things to young people in a basement.
"It was a challenge," Grant says. "I think human beings need challenges. It makes your beer taste better in the evening if you've climbed a mountain. He was just so wonderfully (expletive)-up."
"Heretic," which opens in theaters Friday, is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of "A Quiet Place." In Grant's hands, Mr. Reed is a divinely good baddie — a scholarly creep whose wry monologues pull from a wide range of references, including, fittingly, Radiohead's "Creep."
In an interview, Grant spoke about these and other facets of his character, his journey... Read More