AICE’s International Camp Kuleshov Competition took another major step forward this week with four major chapters holding their awards presentations and parties. The AICE San Francisco chapter ceremony took place on Thursday (Oct. 29), a day after Camp Kuleshov festivities unfolded for the Chicago, New York and Los Angeles chapters.
Camp Kuleshov is the event that challenges assistant editors, audio mixers and graphic artists to re-imagine feature films as either works from a different genre via editing, or to create original sound design or title sequences for existing films.
For the first time, all AICE chapters taking part in Camp Kuleshov were working from the same list of source films and creative briefs, creating a level playing field for all entrants and transforming Camp Kuleshov into a truly international showcase of the creative skills of up-and-coming artists.
Among the top winners across the four chapters were entries from assistants working at Cutters (Editorial), Another Country (Audio) and The Colonie (Graphic Design) in Chicago; jumP (Editorial) in Los Angeles; PS 260 (Editorial and Graphic Design) and Plush NYC (Audio) in New York; and Umlaut (Editorial) and One Union Recording (Audio) in San Francisco.
To view all Camp Kuleshov winners, click here.
The assignment for assistant editors was to select one of over two dozen films and cut a trailer that promotes the film as a picture of a different genre or by a different director. They could also select two films from the list and cut a trailer that promotes the ‘mashed up’ film as a picture of a third genre. The assignment for audio mixers was to take any continuous section up to 90 seconds from one of a range of films and create an original sound design for it. For graphic artists and designers, they were to create an opening title sequence from a list of films and create one that reflects their interpretation of the film.
Chicago
Chicago’s Camp Kuleshov Editorial Winner was assistant editor David Rubin of Cutters for “A Life Exposed: Behind Steve Zissou,” his documentary take on the Wes Anderson picture. First Runner-Up was assistant Jimmy Helm of The Colonie for “Maniac.” Second Runner-Up was assistant Ben Winter of Optimus for “The Punisher.” Honorable Mentions in Editorial went to assistants Christina Bolanos of Hootenanny for “Peter” and Dustin Kaufman of Cutters for “Attack of the Iron Mullet.”
Graphic Design Winner was Ben Pokorny of The Colonie for his graphics-driven title sequence for Terry Gilliam’s dystopian fantasy “Brazil.” First Runner-Up was Danny Noren of Optimus for “The Matrix.” Second Runner-Up was Justin Harenchar of Protokulture for “Donnie Darko.”
The Sound Design Winner was Mike Regan of Another Country for his otherworldly sound design for the opening sequence of “2001: A Space Odyssey.” First Runner-Up was Jordan Stalling of Particle Audio, who chose “Un Chien Andalou.” Second Runner-Up was Alison Ho of Another Country for her sound design for a scene out of “Star Wars.”
Chicago also awards entries in a section called Tent City, which is open to anyone working at an AICE member company. The Tent City Editorial Winner was Michael Dowdle of The Colonie for “Devil’s Due,” a horror movie take on “Daredevil.” First Runner-Up went to Brandon Danziger at The Colonie for “8 Horrible Bosses.” Second Runner-Up went to “Dorothy” from Austin Andries of Cutters for “Dorothy.” The Tent City Graphic Design Winner was Jacob Wilson of Flavor for “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” and the Tent City Sound Design Winner was Jordy Wise of Particle Audio for “Star Wars.”
The event was held at Headquarters Beercade, and over 150 people attended. Among those from the local chapter who helped organize the event, including the judging, the preparation of certificates and prizes and the awards presentation itself, were Jon Desir of Optimus and Joanna Woods from Beast, along with Brian Sepanik from The Colonie. Desir and Woods hosted the awards presentation.
Also pitching in a variety of capacities were Jenny Grede of Optimus, Adam Weibe from Earhole, Katy Mindeman from Particle, Kendall Flash of Beast and Tom Brassil and Craig Duncan of Cutters. Last year’s Editorial winner, Aaron Porzel, created the poster, and Hootenanny created the titles for use during the presentation.
New York report
Once again, the New York Camp Kuleshov event was held at Bar M1-5 in Tribeca, where Big Sky editor and Camp Kuleshov Committee co-chair Chris Franklin presided. Joining Franklin in presenting awards were mixers Tom Jucarone of Sound Lounge and Steve Rosen of Sonic Union, who presented for the Audio category, and editor Clayton Hemmert of Crew Cuts, who presented the Editorial winners.
First Place in Editorial went to assistant editor Sara Sachs of PS 260 for her take on “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou” as a super hero movie. Second Place went to assistant Maggie Glass of BlueRock for her rendition of “Twister” as a horror film. Third Place went to Andrew Blake of WAX for his trailer promoting “Point Break” as a film directed by Wes Anderson. Honorable Mention in Editorial went to Colin Edelman of PS 260 for recasting “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin” as a propaganda film.
In Graphics, First Place went to assistant Michael Marciano of PS 260 for his original opening title sequence for “Eraserhead.” Second Place in Graphics went to assistant Bernadette Mahoney of Northern Lights for her animated sequence for “Boogie Nights.”
In Audio, First Place went to assistant John Nathans of Plush NYC for his sound design for a pivotal scene in “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Second Place went to assistant Ben Conlon of Sonic Union for his original sound design for a climactic scene in “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” Third Place went to Drew Campbell of audioEngine for his sound design on a key scene in “Psycho.”
On hand in New York were reps from many AICE corporate partners, including Avid, T2 Computing, HB Communications and CineSys-Oceana. Handing out the trophy to Sara Sachs from PS 260 was last year’s Editorial winner, assistant editor Tommy Button of Crew Cuts.
L.A. report
The L.A. event took place at Beast in Santa Monica, whose junior producer, Krista Staudt, helped organize the judging as well as the awards presentation, assisted by members of the AICE L.A. chapter board.
First Place in Editorial went to assistant Michael Wolfe of jumP for his creepy horror movie twist on “Tootsie.” Second Place went to last year’s winner, assistant Ramon DeSouza of Cosmo Street, for “A Sexy Mistake.” Third Place went to assistant Reena Mangubat, also of jumP, for “The Itch.” Fourth Place went to assistant Libby Kigar of Beast for “Deep Search.”
San Francisco rundown
The San Francisco event took place on the 29th and was hosted at Beast. First Place went to assistant Michael Pavoni of Umlaut for “Adrian,” in which he mashed up several flicks from the “Rocky” series into one Thriller. Second Place went to assistant Stu Barnes of Misfit for “Two To See.”
In Audio, First Place went to Isaac Olsen of One Union Recording for his sound design on a battle scene from “Star Wars.” Second Place went to assistant Declan McBride of M Squared Productions for his sound design on “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
Conor McDonald at Beast led the local chapter team that organized the event, with judging assistance from Robbie Proctor at Bonfire, Nathan Petty at Little Moving Pictures, Phil Lantz at M Squared Productions and Matt Zipkin at One Union Recording.
On to the International Winner
With five of the seven participating chapters so far having held Camp Kuleshov competitions, the committee chairs, Chris Franklin of Big Sky and Kathryn Hempel of Cutters, are impressed by the overall quality of work and the sense of community that these competitions foster, both on a local and now on an international level.
“It was fantastic to celebrate the assistants, up-and-coming designers, audio mixers and future editors at the Chicago event,” said Hempel. “The breadth of work we saw was very impressive! It is rewarding to see Camp K evolve to include the audio and design categories while maintaining the passionate enthusiasm and the support of the post production community, which we’ve been lucky to have here in Chicago since our first festival, fourteen years ago.”
“The involvement we get from the assistants at in our various chapters is really the backbone of Camp Kuleshov,” added Franklin. “That’s historically been what makes this event special. Being an assistant is perhaps the hardest job in all of post production, and this is an opportunity for them to take center stage and show what they’re made of. And winning a Camp Kuleshov event–even being a first or second runner-up – can have a truly positive impact on their work and their careers. It’s really great to see this competition expand and mature the way it has.”
The first AICE chapter to hold a 2015 Camp Kuleshov trailer competition for assistants presented its awards at Cinecycle on Oct. 20. 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: Scott Edwards won for “Weird Science”; and Julian Papas won for “The Johnny Utah Affairs.”
All First Place winners won a Media Composer, courtesy of AICE corporate partner Avid, while Second Place winners won a gift certificate from the royalty-free stock video, photo and image library Pond 5, another AICE corporate partner. The 2015 International Camp Kuleshov competition concludes with events in Detroit on November 3, and Dallas, sponsored by the Texas Chapter, on November 5.
Once all the competitions have been announced, a special Camp Kuleshov curatorial jury will name an overall winner from the First Place winners in each category among the participating chapters. The overall Camp Kuleshov winner will be honored at the 2016 AICE Award event to be held next May in Chicago, and will 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.
