Optimus assistant editor Aaron Porzel won the Grand Prize for Editing at the 4th annual 2014 AICE Camp Kuleshov Chicago trailer editing contest. The presentation last Wednesday at The Attic @ American Junkie was attended by 150 guests.
The contest, exclusively for AICE members’ assistant editors, assistant audio engineers and assistant or junior designer employees, received 58 entries.
Porzel’s winning entry, “Space Cops,” is a 1980s-inspired comedy mashup of three classic films from that decade: “E.T.,” “Beverly Hills Cop” and “Sixteen Candles.” “Space Cops” revolves around an extra-terrestrial law enforcement officer and his comic exploits.
These three films were the ‘80s Mixtapes” themes required for use in all entries.
Optimus aced five of the 14 prizes, while Cutters Studios scored four, The Colonie, three and one each for Beast, Particle and Earhole Studios.
The Colonie’s partner/editor Brian Stepanik, who organized the judging and planning committee member, says he felt this was the best show so far, based on the high quality of work and creativity.
And the winners are …
EDITING
*First Runner Up: Optimus assistant Max Mooney for “Bug,” a noir thriller about a surveillance expert who gets pulled into intrigue and mystery.
*Second Runner Up: The Colonie assistant Jimmy Helm for “Sweet Sixteen,” a re-cast of “Sixteen Candles” as a thriller about a creepy teenage serial killer.
*Honorable Mentions: Cutters assistant Dustin Kaufman for “Oh No They Di-int,” and Optimus assistant Max Holste for “Lil’ Bandits.”
AUDIO Assistant audio engineers had to create an original soundtrack for a 58-second video collage of footage from the three source films.
*Grand Prize: Particle assistant Jordan Stalling for “E.T.’s Garbage Brigade,” a pop-infused, spoken-word ballad centered around the party scene in “Sixteen Candles.”
*Runner Up: Mike Regan of Another Country for “Hu-Mon Parties are the Best!”, also a spoken word entry but told from the alien’s point of view.
*Honorable Mention: Earhole’s Ricardo Mondragon for “Illegal Alien.”
DESIGN The challenge: to create an original 15-30 second title sequence to introduce the awards presentation, using the source material.
*Grand Prize: Cutters/Flavor designer Mack Neaton for “Tape Titles,” in which a camera pans across a tableau set with ‘80s items where the titles of the source films were spelled out in strands of audio tape.
*Runner Up: Optimus designer SunMin Park for “Fantastical ‘80s,” which used stylized, cut-out animation to string the film titles toget her.
*Honorable Mention: Optimus designer Brad Cannady for “Now Available on VHS.”
TENT CITY – NON-ASSISTANTS
*Grand Prize, Editing: Beast runner Emily Hayes, who transformed “E.T.” into a horror film about a menacing young boy.
*Runner Up: Cutters interna David Rubin, for “L’ombre Dans Les Étoiles” (“Shadow in the Stars”), a French art film about three characters whose lives are impacted by an alien stranger.
*Honorable Mention: The Colonie intern Natalie Phillips, for “The Road to Eternal Tranquility.”
You can view all the winners here.
Key Code Media returned as a sponsor providing many of the prizes.
Organizers of 2014 Camp Kuleshov were Craig Duncan, Kathryn Hempel, Tom Brassil and Carrie Hunter, Cutters; Tom Duff and Jon Desir, Optimus; Lauren Connelly, formerly Optimus; Craig Lewandowski, Utopic; Don Avila and Annelise Smith, Hootennany; Katie Mindeman, Particle; Adam Wiebe, Earhole; John Michaels, Protokulture; Lauren Scheuer, Beast and Stepanik.
