When the Association of Imaging Technology and Sound (ITS) shuttered its national operations in the summer of 2001, former ITS staffer Tracy Murley began to contemplate the fate of the organization’s International Monitor Awards. The annual show, which honors excellence in postproduction, had long been a treasured event at ITS, with a history spanning over two decades. Now, in its 23rd year, it appeared that the Awards would be a casualty of ITS’ closing, until Murley decided to take control.
Over the two and a half years that Murley was the director of conferences and government affairs at ITS, the Monitor Awards program had become one of her main projects. Last spring, she managed to get the judging completed for the 22nd annual Monitor Awards, and to notify winners by mail in spite of ITS’ impending closure.
With that completed, she launched her own company, The International Monitor Awards, LLC, South Riding, Va., with the attitude that the show must go on. "As time went on and I thought about it, I felt that the [Monitor] awards really is a viable program. It’s still well entered and well respected," notes Murley. "It was just a matter of seeing whether it was possible to separate" the Monitor Awards from ITS as an organization.
That separation does, indeed, seem possible. The Awards, which began in 1979 in New York City, continue to garner widespread support from the television postproduction community. A trip to the company’s new Web site, www.monitorawards.com, gives quote after quote from industry professionals talking about the importance of the Awards. Additionally, the Monitor Awards are the only honors giving special recognition to those who strictly work in postproduction—in areas including television commercials, episodic television, made-for-TV movies, PSAs, and music videos, to name just a few categories.
According to Murley, the transition was feasible because the Monitor Awards as a program could maintain itself financially. "Even though it had been supported by ITS, the Monitor Awards had always been self-sustaining," explains Murley, stating that the money gathered from entry fees was enough to support the costs associated with running the program. Judging had always been done on a volunteer basis, and the gala event each year was paid for through ticket sales, factors which helped to maintain a reasonable overhead for the program.
For now Murley is running the operation herself, though she anticipates that she will need volunteers once the judging starts. So far, no gala ceremony has been planned for ’02, but that is something that could easily change "based on interest," Murley points out.
At press time, The Monitor Awards’ call for entries had gone out, with a deadline set for March 30, and an early entry date of Feb. 28. Murley plans to send a follow-up e-mail as a reminder in the next few weeks. Meanwhile, the process of picking judges will start at the end of February. As in the past, they will be culled from various segments of the industry from all over the United States.
"We’re most likely going to pick a location in several different cities and bring the judges together on a week-night evening," says Murley, adding that in past years, judges have hailed from major cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and Chicago. Generally, one post house is picked per location to sponsor the judging at its facility.
Murley feels that although ITS is no longer associated with the awards show, not much about the program will change. The categories honored will remain the same, and Murley anticipates receiving about the same number of entries as in the past—typically that number is around 1,000. "The only thing that’s different is that the Monitor Awards is now its own company," she says. "And the fees have gone down slightly."
Indeed, the cost of entering the competition is now $150 for each early entry, and $175 for each submission by the regular deadline. This is roughly $25 less than when the program was run out of ITS. "Before, there were [ITS] member and non-member fees, but since that is no longer relevant I thought it could be a bit lower," explains Murley. Interested parties can download entry forms at the aforementioned Web site. The site also offers extensive information about the awards, including a glossary of terms, rules of entry, judging, and a list of last year’s winners.
