His Take On "Braveheart" Tops Camp Kuleshov Toronto Contest; Entries From School, Rooster, Panic & Bob Score Honorable Mentions
Assistant editor Sandy Coles of Toronto editorial house Relish Editing was the Grand Prize winner at the 2010 AICE Camp Kuleshov Toronto trailer editing competition. His winning entry, “Braveheart: Party in the Highlands,” met the brief of the competition, which was to cut a trailer for a well-known Hollywood drama, horror or suspense film which promotes the picture as a comedy.
For his creative editorial efforts, Coles received a cash prize of $1,000, which was presented at the Camp Kuleshov awards event held on November 23 at the Cadillac Lounge in Toronto.
Coles’ version of Braveheart envisions its hero, Billy Wallace (played by Mel Gibson), as the leader of history’s first gay pride parade. With a deft mix of comic timing, a great soundtrack of classic and contemporary pop tunes and a joke-filled voiceover narration, the trailer turns the movie into something more akin to American Pie than an historical epic.
Taking honorable mention in the AICE Toronto competition were entries from assistants at School, Rooster Post Production, and Panic & Bob. Assistant editor Kyle McNair of School won for his comic take on Deliverance, which he imagines as the story of four guys going on a zany canoe trip. Also earning honorable mention was assistant editor Even Salusbury of Rooster Post Production for Amadeus, which he re-engineered as a buddy/road movie about two crazy musicians from Vienna who just happen to be Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri. The final honorable mention slot was grabbed by assistant editor David James Findlay of Panic & Bob for his finger-snapping take on David Lean’s classic The Bridge on the River Kwai, which he turned into “POW Camp Musical,” a parody of the Disney High School Musical franchise.
To view the 2010 Camp Kuleshov Toronto winners, click here.
The competition judges included editors Jason Grebski of Rooster Post Production, Peter McAuley of axyz, Greg Edgar of Stealing Time, Chris Murphy of Relish Editing, Grant Pye of Rogue Editorial, Jackie Roda of School, Stephen Sora of Posterboy and John Evans of Panic & Bob, along with Mary Beth Odell, president/executive producer of Adaptable. The judging session was hosted by Notch, a commercial color correction boutique in Toronto.
Looking To Make Video Games More Immersive, Some Studios Turn To AI For Increased Interaction
For decades, video games have relied on scripted, stilted interactions with non-player characters (NPCs) to help shepherd gamers in their journeys. But as artificial intelligence technology improves, game studios are experimenting with generative AI to help build environments, assist game writers in crafting NPC dialogue and lend video games the improvisational spontaneity once reserved for table-top role-playing games.
In the multiplayer game "Retail Mage," players help run a magical furniture store and assist customers in hopes of earning a five-star review. As a salesperson — and wizard — they can pick up and examine items or tell the system what they'd like to do with a product, such as deconstruct chairs for parts or tear a page from a book to write a note to a shopper.
A player's interactions with the shop and NPCs around them — from gameplay mechanics to content and dialogue creation — are fueled by AI rather than a predetermined script to create more options for chatting and using objects in the shop.
"We believe generative AI can unlock a new kind of gameplay where the world is more responsive and more able to meet players at their creativity and the things that they come up with and the stories they want to tell inside a fantasy setting that we create for them," said Michael Yichao, cofounder of Jam & Tea Studios, which created "Retail Mage."
The typical NPC experience often leaves something to be desired. Pre-scripted interactions with someone meant to pass along a quest typically come with a handful of chatting options that lead to the same conclusion: players get the information they need and continue on. Game developers and AI companies say that by using generative AI tech, they aim to create a richer... Read More