Camp Kuleshov, AICP’s annual trailer competition for assistants and junior-level employees at its member companies, has announced its 2019 winners in the categories of Editing, Audio and Graphics. Once again, the work reveals a depth of talent and imagination, coupled with a surprising mastery of the tools of the postproduction arts.
Camp Kuleshov challenges entrants with re-imagining or re-working films by creating new trailers that cast the movie in a different genre than originally released; creating new title sequences that reflect the movie’s overall theme or plot; or creating sound design passages that change the creative direction of the scene for which they’re created. The assignments are designed to test the entrant’s creative thinking, craft capabilities and understanding of what makes for a good ad for a movie.
This year’s winners were presented at recent awards celebrations in Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Dallas and New York. All 2019 Camp Kuleshov winners and runners up can be seen on the AICP Camp Kuleshov Vimeo page here.
All First Place entries in Editing, Audio and Graphics will now compete head-to-head later this year for The Lev, the competition’s Grand Prize. Winners of The Lev in each category will be announced at the 2020 AICP Post Awards ceremony, which takes place in New York next May. Each Lev winner will receive $1,000, courtesy of Camp Kuleshov sponsor Musicbed.
Chicago Winners
The Chicago Camp Kuleshov awards celebration was held at the Rock Bottom Brewery. First Place in Editing went to Magdalena Hernandez of Cutters for “Goodbye John,” her re-telling of the 2014 action film “John Wick” as a Memory Loss Film. Second Place in Editing went to Ben Winter of Optimus for remaking the nature documentary “Grizzly Man” as a Psychological Manipulation movie. Third Place went to Jenny Schaye of Optimus for “Kalokaíri,” her version of “Mamma Mia!” as a Psychological Manipulation movie.
There were five Honorable Mention winners in Editing: Steve Kroodsma of Whitehouse Post for “The House on Friendly Hill”; Jacob Schwartz of Cutters for “Bechdel Test”; Jack Taylor of Cutters for “Men After Midnight”; Spencer Schael of Optimus for “Bloodthirsty Bessie”; and Caralyn Moore of Optimus for “Desperately Stalking Susan.”
In Audio, First Place went to Logan Vines of Another Country for his sound design of a suspenseful sequence in “First Blood,” the first of the Rambo films. Second Place went to Cathryn Stark of Another Country for her tension-building sound design on a fight scene in “Salt.”
First Place in Graphics went to Kathryn Schade of Optimus for her black and white animated opening to the teenage horror picture “Donnie Darko.” Second Place in Design went to Christina Chin of The Colonie for her title sequence for “The Matrix.”
L.A. Winners
In Los Angeles, the Camp Kuleshov awards celebration was held at Flavor. First Place in Editing went to Rich Gonzalez of Cosmo Street for his Parody version of “John Wick” as a reality TV show titled “Extreme Survivor.” Second Place in Editing went to Alexandra Jimenez of Cosmo Street for her rendition of the goofy 2010 family comedy “The Tooth Fairy” as a ‘50s Paranoia film. Third Place went to Natalie Hill of NoMad Edit for her comic twist on “John Wick” as a Buddy Film.
In Graphics, First Place went to Mireille Smeen of Union Editorial for her trippy, hallucinogenic title sequence for “Donnie Darko,” while First Place in Audio went to Michael Pacis of Swell Music + Sound for his sound design that mashed up bits of “Star Wars” into the action film “Salt.”
Atlanta & Dallas Winners
Entries from Atlanta and Dallas were combined to form a Southeast region pool of work, with awards celebrations announcing winners held in both cities. The Atlanta event was held at Beast Editorial and the Dallas event took place at Lucky Post.
First Place in Editing went to Evan Goodell of Hero Post for his Stalker Film mash-up of “Romy & Michelle’s High School Reunion” and “John Wick.” Second Place in Editing went to Kat Kerr of Lucky Post for her Stalker Film take on that ‘80s classic, “Desperately Seeking Susan.” Honorable Mention went to Juan Vargas, also of Lucky Post, for his Stalker Film take on the Korean action thriller “Oldboy.”
The First Place winner in Graphics went to Jake Odgers, again with Lucky Post, for his jarringly electronic opening title sequence for “The Matrix.”
New York Winners
The New York Camp Kuleshov event was again held at Bar M15, where entries from assistants at Whitehouse Post did particularly well. Devin Stevens of Whitehouse Post won First Place in Editing for “Harvesters,” his Alien Invasion take on “The Tooth Fairy.”
Second Place in Editing went to Pay Hayes of Final Cut for “Oldboy” re-imagined as a Wes Anderson Parody. Third Place went to Spencer Roth-Rose, also of Whitehouse Post, for his reimaging of the nature documentary “Grizzly Man” as a Stalker Film.
In Graphics, Katie Covino of Whitehouse Post won First Place for her updated titles, featuring a fresh, contemporary type design, for the 1902 silent film classic “Le Voyage Dans la Lune” (“A Trip to the Moon”).
In Sound Design, First Place went to Seth Brogdon of Heard City for his hilarious reworking of the chase scene in “First Blood” as a cartoon race. Second Place in Sound Design went to Samuel Bellingham of Yessian for “Woman on the Moon,” while an Honorable Mention in the category went to Matthew Orlando of Sonic Union for “Twilight Zone.”
Named for the Russian film theorist Lev Kuleshov, Camp Kuleshov is open to assistants, junior creatives, admin and entry-level employees at AICP member postproduction and production companies as well as freelancer assistants and support staff sponsored by member companies. Students and interns who are sponsored by a member company were also eligible to enter Camp K. In each category, entrants were provided with a source list of films and genres to draw from and are presented with briefs tailored to each discipline.
A number of companies have provided national support for the 2020 Camp Kuleshov competition. This includes Musicbed, which allowed entrants free use of up to three songs from its catalog per entry, in addition to providing the cash prize for the Lev winners. Filmsupply, the stock footage house, offered winners a 20 percent discount on their next purchase. Avid, a longtime Camp Kuleshov sponsor, donated copies of Pro Tools to the First Place winners in Audio and Media Composer to the First Place winners in Editing and Graphics for all the competitions. And Manhattan Edit Workshop is providing $500 scholarships to its online editing courses to all of the Lev winners, and a discount on their course offerings for all Camp K entrants.
Locally, the New York Camp K competition was sponsored by Big Sky Edit and in L.A. by Cosmo Street. Additional organizational support for Camp Kuleshov in Chicago was provided by The Colonie and Optimus and in Atlanta by Nine Mile Circle.
