“Rising lights tell tales.” That’s the motto adopted this year by Camp Kuleshov. The annual contest for emerging creative artists in post production has announced its lineup of source films for its 2022 Camp K competition.
Camp K is designed to give emerging talent a chance to heighten their creative and craft problem-solving skills while also gaining access to invaluable mentorship opportunities. The winners of the Camp K competitions in Editorial, Sound Design and Graphics, held in various AICP chapters across the country, will also get a chance to bask in the spotlight of creative accomplishment and become eligible for a chance to win the Camp K grand prizes, The Lev Awards.
A full rundown on rules, eligibility, fees and key dates can be found on the Camp K website.
Deadline for entries is September 23, 2022.
Camp K salutes the 2021 Lev winners
As the 2022 Camp K competition gets into full swing, the Camp K committee took a moment to salute the Grand Prize Lev winners from the 2021 competition. The Lev trophies, named for Russian film theorist Lev Kuleshov, are presented to the top entry by category from among the local chapter winners.
Janna Kay Swanson of Uppercut in Atlanta was awarded the Lev for Editorial. Previously, she won in the Camp K Southeast/Southwest competition for her reworking of the 1980 workplace comedy 9 to 5 as Doralee, an action thriller.
Commenting on her win, Swanson said, “I’m from the South and grew up taking trips with my family to Dollywood, so 9 to 5 immediately jumped out to me for nostalgic reasons alone.”
Casting one of the film’s heroines, Dolly Parton, as the film’s villain came off to her as “a fun twist on her public image of being a sweetheart. It was definitely a challenge to make an evil Dolly! Thankfully, the film gave me a lot of great moments to work with.”
Tyler Davis of Company 3, also in Atlanta, was awarded the Lev for Sound Design. He previously won in the Southeast/Southwest contest for a scene in the 2011 action drama Drive that took viewers into the mindset of the film’s protagonist, played by Ryan Gosling. Davis chose a scene where Gosling is slowly making his way through a grocery store, with an ominous sound design creating a palpable sense of tension.
“I drew inspiration from the David Lynch film Lost Highway and The Social Network score by Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor, using analog synths to create complex sounds in place of canned audio from a sound library,” Davis said about his entry. “I believe dynamics are one of the most important elements when captivating listeners, so I used that to build tension from the very beginning, but having it come in like waves, until the last, final one crashes and knocks you over.”
Lindsey Fisher of The Colonie was awarded the Lev in Graphics in the Midwest Chapter for their sprightly animated opening title sequence for the 1940 Disney classic Fantasia, which used the parallel lines of a music staff as a graphic device with which to drive the animation.
Asked what guided their approach, Fisher said “The movie itself did. I pulled a huge selection of colors from the film that I mixed and matched together. The musical staff was also pulled from the movie. My entire process essentially turned into me taking my pool of collected elements and throwing them all at the wall until something stuck.”
The Lev winners were announced at a special event held during AICP Week, with both Swanson and Fisher on hand to accept their trophies and cash prizes, presented courtesy of Musicbed. The Camp K chapter winners that were up for the Levs were judged by a panel including editors Chris Franklin of Big Sky Edit, Robert Ryang of Cut+Run, David Rubin of Cutters and Chancler Hayes of Cosmo Street; Sound Designer/Mixer Joe O’Connell of Sonic Union; Foley Artist Katie Waters of NoiseFloor; and Head of Production Landon Cox of Filmsupply | Musicbed.
To view all the 2021 Camp K winners, visit here.
Supporting all Camp K competitions is Musicbed, an AICP Supporting Partner, which made selections from its production music library available to entrants and presented each Lev winner with a $1,000 prize.
