Imagineer Systems, creators of the Academy Award-winning mocha planar tracking technology, is again on the lookout for the year’s most horrifying, or most hysterical, Halloween short film. The Halloween-inspired videos will win a number of software prizes from Imagineer Systems and contest partners Boris FX, FXHome, Rampant Design, Red Giant and Digital Anarchy.
Eligible videos must include the use of mocha Pro, mocha Plus, mocha AE, or mocha HitFilm features, such as planar tracking, rotoscoping, screen inserts, 3D camera solve and object removal – the more creative the use, the better. Submissions will be judged on creativity and quality of visual effects. Enter before Halloween (by midnight, Thursday, October 30th) for a chance to take part in the frightening fun!
For more information, and for video inspiration and hints, click here.
How to Enter
Create a short Halloween-inspired video using mocha Pro, mocha Plus, mocha AE or mocha HitFilm, no longer than five minutes. Submissions can be scary, spooky or silly!
Upload the video to YouTube or Vimeo, and tag it with “mocha Halloween 2014.”
Email the video link, full name and email address to mocha@imagineersystems.com.
All submissions must be received by midnight on Thursday, October 30th, 2014.
The Prizes
mocha Pro 4: Academy Award-winning visual effects tool (Imagineer Systems; retail: $1495)
Continuum Complete 9 AE: Adobe After Effects CC and Premiere Pro CC’s most comprehensive VFX plug-in suite (Boris FX; retail: $995)
HitFilm 2 Ultimate: Essential editing package including 150+ effects and groundbreaking 3D compositing (FXHome; retail: $399)
Rampant Design Tools: Simple drag-and-drop QuickTime-based effects (Rampant Design; retail: $399)
Beauty Box: Digital makeup artist quality skin retouching video plug-in for After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro and OpenFX (Digital Anarchy; retail: $199)
Red Giant Universe: One-year subscription. A community with access to an ever-expanding library of new FREE tools for filmmakers, editors, VFX artists, and motion designers. (Red Giant; retail $99)
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More