AICE, the Association of Independent Creative Editors, is a collection of the nation’s premier commercial editing shops. The very best shops assemble each year at a number of events to promote the craft, and to mentor individual members.
The AICE event formally called Trailer Park, now known as Splice Capades, took place Wednesday night at Bottom Lounge in Chicago. Carl Shumacher from Cutters was this year’s grand prize winner. The prize, donated by Midwest Media Group, included a new 15″ Macbook Pro loaded with Final Cut Pro and a 250 GB hard drive. Additionally, the winner will be flown out (all expenses paid) to the AICE awards show in LA this spring. Second place winners (tie) were Mike Berg and Julie Kravitz of Optimus. And third place went to Brad Tohtz of Optimus.
“My laptop just died the other day,” said Carl Shumacher. “So this is really really really cool! But ultimately it was great experience crafting my edit and seeing everyone work so hard and really getting into it.”
The concept behind this year’s Splice Capades was to splice together The French Connection and The Conversation to create a trailer for an entirely new movie.
"This group of assistants and interns took Gene Hackman’s two great roles and created films that showcased their unbelievable talent. I was blown away," said Michelle Orzechowski of Machete, member of the Splice Capades committee. "When you witness a crowded room chanting and cheering a winner’s name, you know you’re not only part of a great night, but an amazing community."
“There were so many great splices this year,” said James Dierx of Whitehouse. “At the screening I turned to my girlfriend and said, ‘Oh we gotta see that’, but then realized it was someone’s splice and not an actual trailer for a real movie. It was just that good.”
Originally conceived as a chance for assistants to showcase their editorial skills, Splice Capades has taken on a life of its own with editorial houses competing for the honor of hosting the traveling trophy during the year.
“It gives you a sense of pride,” said Michael LaBellarte of Outsider, where the trophy has resided since Laura Madalinski won it last year.
"In addition to the super fine prizes given out to all the winners, and t-shirts to all who participated,” said Kathryn Hempel, Cutters Partner/Editor, (Founding Director of Trailer Park/Splice Capades). “I am delighted we are sending the Grand Prize winner to the national AICE awards show next year in LA. As the one of the main goals of our festival is to celebrate and to foster the career growth of our AICE assistants.”
Tom Duff, president of the Chicago chapter of AICE as well as the International AICE President, agrees, "Splice Capades has become such an internationally renowned event, it’s become an almost cult-like rite of passage for an editor’s ascent into the chair. Some chapters have different twists and concepts behind them, but it’s ultimately the same basic concept and a great occasion for AICE members to come together, meet, and hang out."
Chris Mines, of Outsider, helped a great deal with the organizing of this year’s event. "It’s a great privilege to be a part of this committee! Everyone was easy to work with which made our job trouble-free and a pleasure more than anything else. To work with other companies in AICE on a unique project like Splice Capades; I feel it really does help strengthen our community. I wish we had more opportunities like this to work together.”
"This forum is a tremendous opportunity for all assistants to showcase their talent, for sure, and assistant participation from almost all our chapter houses was overwhelming," said Duff. "We, as companies, all join the AICE to promote the editor, of course, but this is really the one occasion where we are able to give our assistants that same chance to exhibit their creativity. After all, they are our future, and we owe them every chance to shine."
Splice Capades has become something of a scouting event. Heads of the editorial houses pay attention to the cuts and those who created them. It’s not soon after the event that some interns find themselves promoted to assistant.
Matt Egan, of Foundation, was the first winner of Trailer Park in 2001. “It helped my career in the sense that people could see what I was capable of – both my peers and clients. Also, winning bolstered my confidence. I actually cut trailers now, too. The last one was OSS 117: Cairo Nest of Spies.”
Honorable mentions included Charles Moore (Cutters), Kristin Gerhart (Cutters), Stephen Jarvis (Red Car), Michael Lippert (Cutters), and Logan Hall (Optimus). The Hot Chocolate winner (not an actual assistant who wants to participate – intern, receptionist, tape room op, etc) was Joe Burton of Optimus. Runners up included Jason Nebergall (Cutters) and James Dierx (Whitehouse).
