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.
Utah Leaders and Locals Rally To Keep Sundance Film Festival In The State
With the 2025 Sundance Film Festival underway, Utah leaders, locals and longtime attendees are making a final push — one that could include paying millions of dollars — to keep the world-renowned film festival as its directors consider uprooting.
Thousands of festivalgoers affixed bright yellow stickers to their winter coats that read "Keep Sundance in Utah" in a last-ditch effort to convince festival leadership and state officials to keep it in Park City, its home of 41 years.
Gov. Spencer Cox said previously that Utah would not throw as much money at the festival as other states hoping to lure it away. Now his office is urging the Legislature to carve out $3 million for Sundance in the state budget, weeks before the independent film festival is expected to pick a home for the next decade.
It could retain a small presence in picturesque Park City and center itself in nearby Salt Lake City, or move to another finalist — Cincinnati, Ohio, or Boulder, Colorado — beginning in 2027.
"Sundance is Utah, and Utah is Sundance. You can't really separate those two," Cox said. "This is your home, and we desperately hope it will be your home forever."
Last year's festival generated about $132 million for the state of Utah, according to Sundance's 2024 economic impact report.
Festival Director Eugene Hernandez told reporters last week that they had not made a final decision. An announcement is expected this year by early spring.
Colorado is trying to further sweeten its offer. The state is considering legislation giving up to $34 million in tax incentives to film festivals like Sundance through 2036 — on top of the $1.5 million in funds already approved to lure the Utah festival to its neighboring... Read More