Cutters has the 2009 distinction of hosting AICE’s traveling trophy, courtesy of assistant editor Carl Schumacher winning the top prize in AICE’S recent Splice Capades challenge.
Originally called Trailer Park, the contest gives assistants the opportunity to display their editorial chops and win a passel of prizes, not the least being the traveling trophy engraved with Schumacher’s name.
About 125 editors and assistants, who staff the nine local AICE member companies, cheered the finalists and five winners at the Bottom Lounge in the West Loop.
Schumacher’s grand prize winner, titled “The Connection,” successfully mastered the challenge to splice scenes from two Gene Hackman 1970s movies, “The French Connection” and “The Conversation,” to create a 90-second trailer for a conceptional new movie.
What made it more difficult for all 33 entrants was the moustache Hackman wore in one movie and not the other. “Some entries pretended that Hackman was starring with Hackman,” noted Cutters editor Steve Stein, who was one of the seven Splice Capades committee members.
Commented Machete editor Michelle Orzechowski, another committee member, “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 part of an amazing community.”
Schumacher’s prize package included several nifty prizes. He gets an all-expense paid trip to the national AICE awards show in L.A. next May, where he’ll be honored as one of seven Splice Capades regional chapter winners.
The other prize – $3,400 worth of new Apple products, a 15-inch Apple Macbook Pro Laptop and accessory kit and new copy of Final Cut Studio – was received more enthusiastically. “My laptop died the other day, so this is really cool,” Schumacher said.
