Assistant editor David Rubin of Cutters in Chicago has been named the International Grand Prize winner in the Editing category of the 2015 Camp Kuleshov competition, AICE’s annual contest for assistant editors, audio mixers and graphic designers.
Rubin, who topped the Editing category competition at Camp Kuleshov Chicago, won for “A Life Exposed: Behind Steve Zissou,” his documentary version of the Wes Anderson film, “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.” Rubin’s entry beat out Editing winners submitted by assistant editors working at AICE member companies in Toronto, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Detroit and Texas. To view Rubin’s winning entry, click here.
In the Graphic Design category, the Grand Prize winner was Michael Marciano of P.S. 260, who created an original title sequence for the quirky David Lynch film “Eraserhead.” To view his winning entry, go here.
In the Camp Kuleshov Audio category, the Grand Prize winner was assistant audio mixer Mike Regan of Another Country in Chicago, who remixed, re-scored and created a new sound design track for the dramatic opening scene of Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey.” To view his entry, click here.
All the 2015 Camp Kuleshov chapter winners can be seen on AICE’s Camp Kuleshov page here.
This was the first year that all AICE chapters participating in Camp Kuleshov worked from the same creative briefs, entry rules and source films to either reposition or recast existing films as being of another genre or directed by a different director, to create an original sound design and audio mix for a ninety-second sequence or an existing film or create an original title sequence for a film that conveys what the film is all about.
The Camp Kuleshov chapter winners were judged locally by juries consisting of editors, senior audio mixers and motion graphics and effects artists. For the international judging, AICE convened a curatorial committee that included Jonathan Flookes of Umlaut in San Francisco; Chris Franklin of Big Sky in New York; Patrick Griffin of jumP in Los Angeles; Michael Irving of 3008 in Dallas; Craig Lewandowski of Utopic in Chicago; Steve Manz of Relish in Toronto and Rich Smith of Hudson Editorial in Detroit.
“For any Camp Kuleshov entry to rise to the top, it not only has to be unique and well thought-out, but it also has to be equally well-executed,” said Lewandowski about the work the jury reviewed. “That was certainly the case with each of our winners.”
“It says something that the winning editorial piece stood out among its competition, given how great they all were,” Lewandowski added. “The pacing, the titles, the graphics, the photos, the color, the audio mix and the music choices – they all blend perfectly to sell this as a documentary I’d very much like to see.”
“We were all really impressed with the work this year,” said Franklin. “David took a really imaginative approach with his trailer. It was beautifully put together and made a compelling piece of advertising for a non-existent film.”
Franklin said the jury was equally impressed with Marciano’s winning entry in Graphic Design for “Eraserhead.” “We were blown away with Michael’s darkly dynamic approach to creating an opening title sequence for this film. He really had a clear understanding of what he was doing, and nailed the tone of the film perfectly.”
As for the Audio winner, Franklin says of Regan’s entry that “he recreated the sound and music for a pivotal scene in ‘2001’ seamlessly. There really wasn’t a moment in his entry that didn’t feel like it belonged in the picture. I think I can speak for the entire Camp K Curatorial Committee in saying that all three winners displayed a great maturity of craft. We're really proud of their work.”
Rubin, Marciano and Regan will each be presented with 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. They’ll also be saluted at the 2016 AICE Awards presentation in Chicago.
On the chapter level, each winner in the Editing category was presented with an Avid Media Composer for their First Place finishes, courtesy of AICE’s Corporate Partner, Avid. Second place winners won gift certificates from the royalty-free stock video, photo and image library Pond 5, another AICE Corporate Partner. Audio winners took home Avid Pro Tools software packages, also courtesy of Avid. Additional prizes were handed out to winners of the Graphic Design categories.
