An adorable singing shark becomes the darling of a seaside community until bad guys plot to capture it and put it on display in “Shark Song,” the feel-good story that takes place in a little town called Amity. And the sweet, affectionate trailer for this fictional film, created by assistant editor Caleb Hepler of The Whitehouse, Chicago, won the top prize at AICE Chicago’s Camp Kuleshov trailer editing competition. The winners were announced at a party and awards show held at the Volcano Room of the Bottom Lounge on West Lake Street last week.
The assignment for the competition, now in its 10th year in the AICE Chicago chapter, was to select either one or any combination of the films Jaws, Lost in Translation and What About Bob and cut a 90-second trailer for an original new film, be it a mashup or of a new genre. Hepler’s take on Steven Spielberg’s 1975 classic Jaws swayed the jury. For his efforts, the assistant editor won an Avid Media Composer 5. In addition, he will be flown to Los Angeles to attend the 2012 AICE Awards Show.
First Runner Up honors went to Michael Lippert, an assistant editor at Cutters, who mashed up all three films for “Learning to Stand.” In this frightening drama, Bill Murray plays a creature who takes human form while on land but becomes a shark whenever he’s in the water. Lippert won a Pro Tools 9 audio system.
Second Runner Up honors went to assistant editor Aaron Porzel of Optimus, whose campy “Were-Shark” combines Jaws and What About Bob to tell the story of a shark that’s terrorizing a summer camp, conveyed in the style of a schlocky, black & white 1950s-era horror film. Porzel’s prize was pair of M-Audio Studiophile Q40 headphones.
All prizes for the Chicago Camp Kuleshov winners were provided by Avid.
Honorable Mentions went to two assistants at Optimus: Max Holste for “Siggy Marvin and the Summer of the Shark” and Lucy Radtke for “This Is Water.”
The Chicago Camp Kuleshov competition also has a division called Tent City, which is open to anyone employed at an AICE member company who’s not an assistant editor. The Grand Prize in this category went to Tiffany Dotson, an intern at Hootenanny, for “Faded Intent,” her re-casting of Lost in Translation as a psychological thriller in which Bill Murray plays an assassin and Scarlett Johansson his intended target. Dotson won a $50 Amazon gift card for her efforts.
Honorable Mentions in the Tent City category went to Optimus’ Marco Rosas for “The Ungiven Chance” and Max Mooney for “Bob Van Winkle,” and to Angelica Carlson of The Colonie for “Escape to Tokyo.”
The judges for the Camp Kuleshov Chicago competition included Brian Gannon of the Whitehouse, Sean Berringer of Beast, Laura Madalinski of Red Car, Keith Kristinat of Utopic, Randy Palmer of Optimus, Adam Purcell of The Colonie, Matthew Hane of Daily Planet, Chris Hafner of Cutters and Jerem Sloan of Hootenanny.
To view all the winners of the 2011 Chicago Camp Kuleshov competition, check out its page on the AICE web site here.
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More