Ben Winter, an assistant editor formerly at Red Car Chicago, won the 2013 AICE Chicago Camp Kuleshov trailer editing Grand Prize with his entry, “Planet of Rocks.” The trailer, promoting a non-existent nature series on the Discovery Channel that studies the fascinating world of rocks, was culled from several Kevin Bacon films, among them The River Wild and Tremors. Winners were announced last night at a party and awards show held in the Volcano Room at the Bottom Lounge in Chicago.
Camp Kuleshov is the annual competition for assistant editors, assistant audio engineers and, for the first time this year, assistant designers. It challenges them, as well as non-assistant staff of AICE member companies (who compete in the Tent City category), to create unique trailers for “original new films” which can be either movie mash-ups or new genres. Assistant audio engineers were asked to create sound designs for Hollow Man and the assistant designers to create a title sequence for the 2013 Chicago Camp Kuleshov competition.
The theme for this year’s competition–which was dubbed “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon”–called on assistants to work with footage from four films starring actor Kevin Bacon: Footloose, Death Sentence, Tremors and The River Wild. Multiple winners and honorable mentions this year went to work from the editorial companies Hootenanny, which won Grand Prizes in the Tent City category for editorial and in the Design category, along with Red Car, the Whitehouse and Beast. Additional winners and honorable mentions went to entries from Cutters, Flavor, Optimus and Earhole.
First Runner Up in the Editorial category went to assistant editor Spencer Sachs of Beast for his trailer titled “Blockbuster 6,” while Second Runner Up kudos went to assistant editor Travis Hockswender of the Whitehouse for “Homeward Bound: The River Runs Through It.” Earning Honorable Mention for their entries were assistants Caleb Hepler, also of the Whitehouse, for “Milk: the High School Years,” and Aaron Kiser of Cutters for “The Saved.”
In the Tent City category for editorial, the Grand Prize went to Kelsey Moher of Hootenanny for her comic take on Bacon’s science fiction thriller Tremors, which became the comic love story “Valentine & Graboid.” Moher’s win was notable for the fact that she works at the company in client service. Honorable Mention for Tent City editorial entries went to Patrick Wong, formerly a production assistant at Red Car, for “The Floor is Lava;” Michael Asmundson, a runner at Beast, for “The Flatulent Man;” and Colin Santangelo, an intern at Hootenanny, for “Footfellas.”
For the Audio-Sound Design category, assistant sound designers were tasked with creating an original sound design sequence for the Bacon sci-fi thriller Hollow Man. The Grand Prize went to assistant audio engineer Ricardo Mondragon of Earhole for his campy sound design and audio mix–in Spanish, with English subtitles, no less–for “Hollow Man.”
The Chicago chapter of AICE introduced a new category, Design, for the 2013 Camp Kuleshov competition. The brief called for assistant designers to create an original opening title sequence that incorporated clips from all of the films used in the competition, as well as the Camp Kuleshov logo and the title of this year’s contest, “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.”
The Design Grand Prize went to Smoke assistant Eddie Loera, also with Hootenanny. Honorable Mentions went to Tyler Nelson, a designer at Optimus, and Elliot Nevills, a finish assistant at Flavor.
Sponsoring the 2013 Camp Kuleshov awards presentation, and providing many of the prizes, was Key Code Media.
For all winners, visit the Camp Kuleshov page on the AICE website here.
The End of The “Rust” Criminal Case Against Alec Baldwin May Unlock A Civil Lawsuit
The conclusion of a criminal case against Alec Baldwin in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer clears the way for a related civil lawsuit by relatives of the deceased woman and efforts to depose the actor under oath, attorneys for plaintiffs in the civil suit said Tuesday.
At a news conference in Los Angeles, victims' rights attorney Gloria Allred said that the parents and younger sister of deceased cinematographer Halyna Hutchins were disappointed that prosecutors won't appeal the dismissal of an involuntary manslaughter charge against Baldwin. The criminal charge against Baldwin was dismissed halfway through trial in July on allegations that police and prosecutors withheld evidence from the defense.
Hutchins died shortly after being wounded during a rehearsal in the movie "Rust" in October 2021 at a film-set ranch on the outskirts of Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Baldwin, the lead actor and coproducer, was pointing a pistol at Hutchins when it discharged, killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza. Baldwin has said he pulled back the hammer — but not the trigger — and the revolver fired.
Allred said Hutchins' relatives are determined to pursue damages and compensation from Baldwin and "Rust" producers in New Mexico civil court, and want Baldwin to answer questions under oath in the proceedings. Hutchins' widower and son previously reached a separate legal settlement.
"With the withdrawal that was made public yesterday, we are now able to proceed with our civil case," Allred said. "Clearly, the rights of Alec Baldwin were protected, but the due process rights of the victims — Halyna Hutchins and her parents and her sister — were violated."
Allred said she's ready to prove that Hutchins had a close relationship... Read More