Two years ago the Association of Independent Creative Editors’ (AICE) Boston chapter decided to create College Park, an editing competition for the college community with mentoring provided by editors of member AICE companies–Panache Editorial, Editbar, Spot! Editorial, Paul’s Place and Accomplice.
Based on the AICE International Trailer Park Competition, the first competition required students to edit a three-minute trailer from the movie 28 Days Later and change the genre from a horror film to a comedy. But this year the concept for the event, called “Filmspotting 2007,” was to edit a :60 second spot for a real life or fictional product using footage from the films Little Miss Sunshine, Old School and New York Stories.
The clever winning spots included the work of third-place winner Ezra Horne of Emerson College. He used an existing product, Dairy Queen hamburgers, and made a humorous commercial about how the burger can lift you from the doldrums of eating the same boring meals all the time. Horne’s editing professor Daniel Gaucher suggested he give the contest a try. And Horne is glad he did.
“The competition has helped me immensely as a film student because it has given me some great contacts in postproduction. I want to either edit or direct for my career, and before I had no professional editing contacts. Now that I have participated in the AICE competition I have a personal connection with two post-houses in Boston,” Horne said.
Horne was mentored by Panache Editorial on Newbury Street. “I worked pretty closely with Ellen Boldis and Josh Sklaroff on my spot, but also got to know Mark, the IT guy, and Noreen and her husband who own the place. I also got to know Beth at EditBar.
“It was fantastic to be able to get feedback from working professionals. I’ve always been able to rope my friends into watching my work, but they don’t understand the terminology, the technique, so their feedback is often ineffective. Having people who have been editing for some time offer their wisdom for free is a wonderful thing.”
The insight they gave him that made the biggest impact on his work was to keep the interest up and use every frame of video to the best of his ability because of the limited time there is to tell a story.
“In my initial cut, the end of the commercial was slow and lost its pace, but using their feedback, I added more material and made the pacing consistent and strong throughout. I feel that editors are some of the most caring and laid back people in the whole TV/film industry, and I can’t wait to be a part of it professionally.”
In a way, he already is. He’s been doing paid edit work for www.Uppereast.com, editing short form video content for the web for the past six months.
Second place went to Wendy Molle, also of Emerson College, who created a new product called Happillion for the depressed population who want to get happy again.
The first place winner, Kevin McManus, also of Emerson College, created a serious spot using funny footage from the films. He promoted a “Kidnap Decoy Child” to help combat the kidnapping of children. The spot had serious and comical undertones, evoking suspense and laughter at the same time. He took home an Avid Express Pro that was donated by Avid Technologies for the first place honoree.
Last year the competition only recruited students from Emerson College but this year students from Massachusetts College of Art and Boston University also participated in the event. The students had one month to edit their spots.
Organizers changed the format to spots instead of trailers since the longer format proved to be a real challenge for students as they tried to manage their school projects simultaneously. “I believe it became a bit overwhelming for the students so this year we changed the formula,” explained Ellen Boldis, president of AICE Boston and executive producer at Panache Editorial. “We gave students more time to work on their projects and that alone was invaluable. We also changed the timing of the event and held the competition in the spring semester, rather than the fall, because it was better for students and their workloads. It proved to be a good decision to move the timeframe.
“All the students did a fantastic job and were extremely creative. The top three commercials were original in concepts and execution.”
Oscar Nominees Gather For Cocktails, Dinner and The Annual Class Picture
Five days before the Academy Awards, nearly every nominee gathered for a cocktail reception, dinner and class picture shoot that served as an Oscars orientation.
The event Tuesday night at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures was a stand-in for the annual Oscars luncheon usually held about a month earlier but scrubbed because of the Southern California wildfires.
With the voting over and winners determined, contenders got chummy and the mood was cheerful. Best actress favorites Mikey Madison and Demi Moore hugged and chatted. So did best actor front-runners Timothรฉe Chalamet and Adrien Brody.
"Everyone say Oscar nominee!" best actress nominee Cynthia Erivo shouted gleefully from the front row of the museum's David Geffen Theater, where the dozens of nominees sat for their group picture.
Clustered in front with Erivo were three best supporting actress nominees: her "Wicked" castmate Ariana Grande, Monica Barbaro of "A Complete Unknown" and Zoe Saldaรฑa of "Emilia Perez" along with Madison, nominated for "Anora." The five women stood in a circle and talked happily together after the photo, and kept the conversation going as they descended the stairs together to dinner.
In the back of the theater, a trio of best actor nominees sat together: Sebastian Stan of "The Apprentice," Colman Domingo of "Sing Sing" and Brody, of "The Brutalist."
After the photo was taken, Academy President Janet Yang gave the orientation presentation, reminding everyone that the 97th Academy Awards will be held Sunday.
She greeted first-time nominees and acknowledged there were also some with more than one.
Denis Villeneuve, director of "Dune: Part 2" and a four-time nominee, raised his hand. Sixteen-time best original song nominee... Read More