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Tag Archives: Storytelling
Creative Opportunities: FILM
The Hamptons International Film Festival’s Screenwriters’ Lab, going into its 11th year, is an intimate gathering that takes place each Spring in East Hampton, New York (April 15 – 17, 2011). The Lab develops emerging screenwriting talent by pairing established writers & creative producers with up-and-coming screenwriters (chosen by HIFF in collaboration with key industry contacts). The mentors advise in a one-on-one creative laboratory setting while additional events bring the participants together with board members, sponsors, the local artistic community, and other friends of the festival. With scripts from past writers produced year after year, the Lab continues to be a safe and inspiring place for artists to find and hone their creative vision.
Recent mentors at the lab include Michael Cunningham (The Hours, Evening); James Vanderbilt (Zodiac); Billy Frolick (Madagascar); J.D. Zeik (Ronin); J. Robin Baitz (People I Know, The Substance of Fire); Whit Stillman (Metropolitan, The Last Days of Disco); Ira Sachs (40 Shades of Blue, This Married Life); Jeff Sharp (Producer, You Can Count on Me, Evening); Maria Maggenti (The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love); Sabrina Dhawan (Monsoon Wedding, Cosmopolitan); Gregory Widen (Highlander, Backdraft); Mark Christopher (54); Maggie Greenwald (Songcatcher, Ballad of Little Jo); Lawrence Lasker (Sneakers, War Games); Chap Taylor (Changing Lanes, National Treasure); and Dylan Kidd (Roger Dodger, P.S.).
Screenwriters’ Lab: Science & Technology Screenplays
We seek a broad selection of screenplays addressing a wide subject matter. Additionally, in collaboration with The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s initiative in furthering the public understanding of science, we encourage writers to submit screenplays that explore science, technology, mathematics, invention, and engineering in fresh and innovative ways.
Deadlines are:
Early Bird Deadline, Dec. 3rd
Regular Deadline, Dec. 22nd
Late Deadline, Jan 7th
WAB Extended Deadline, Jan 21st
For more information, please see
hamptonsfilmfest.org
or
https://www.withoutabox.com/login/5850
LES Film Festival
February 8th to February 27th
20 days of independent short and feature films made for under $30,000, all in pursuit of the prestigious LES Prix D’Or.
The LES Film Festival is committed to showcasing the creativity and inventiveness of low-budget filmmaking and to give filmmakers an opportunity to present their work. BYOB screenings will be followed by a Q&A with directors. Submissions will be viewed and selected by a panel of judges.
The LES Film Festival is about top notch storytelling, and top-notch storytelling doesn’t mean huge budgets.
Award Categories:
Best Dramatic Short, Best Dramatic Feature, Best Comedic Short, Best Comedic Feature, Best Animation, LES Prix D’Or
Submission Period: November 1, 2010 to January 8, 2011
TO SUBMIT A FILM CLICK HERE.
CHECK BACK SOON FOR MORE DETAILS. TICKETS COMING SOON.
Mark Burnett Tells Stories
Mark Burnett has produced some incredible television in his day. Who can deny his TV supremacy given the TV franchises he created and the role he played in showing the entire entertainment marketplace that non-scripted-super-produced-TV-programming has a huge audience. You might have heard of shows such as SURVIVOR (10 years and running), THE APPRENTICE (6 years and running), ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A 5th GRADER (three years and running) and many more TV credits.
He’s offers some great nuggets on the art of storytelling with social media guru Brian Solis. Awesome that he also acknowledges a “Hero Has With A Thousand Faces” by Joseph Campbell. It is indeed a must read to any storyteller that’s interested the journey of story in itself.
Lastly, Mark and Brian discuss the dynamic social experience that revolves around TV programming. In itself, TV is social media. The social-to-passive TV arena will be an interesting space to keep an eye on as our digital entertainment experience continues to evolve.
Storytelling Innovation
WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT
Ron Howard and Brian Glazer are shepherding a new unprecedented storytelling project. The uber producers will use Universal Pictures infrastructure to tell Stephen’s King’s trilogy, The Dark Tower as a combination of films, television and even comic books.
By alternating the story between film and television – the storytellers can use different methods to engage the audience. Imagine using the television series to work in the incredible character development and the film to create incredible visuals. They can change pace without being disjointed. The key is that the material can support such an audacious move. These incredible hefty literary properties will be the backbone of more innovative forms because of their depth and richness.
Of course, there are hurdles – the deal took months to complete and the actors are gonna be locked up for extended amounts of time but similar to Lord of the Rings – the overlaying production cycles will keep costs down and bring huge opportunity for financial success.
Adam Neuhaus
Authentic Fashion
The poet Jean Cocteau once said, “Style is a simple way of saying complicated things”, and as I watch contractors unscrew the tents on 62nd street I feel like there is something very complicated going on. The pendulum of design that swings between function and luxury often creates a chasm between those who need and those want.
That is why these Diane Von Furstenberg hospital gowns being produced for the Cleveland Clinic are so interesting to me.
A high end fashion designer takes a job to design the least attractive, least properly functioning clothing imaginable. Finding a challenge in recreating the banal and plebeian (see Last Train Home) is often worth more than the flash in the bottle because it’s more universal, it transcends.
The shoe company Palladium (a Brand I’ve been sporting for a minute) recently dropped a doc called Detroit Lives, in which Johnny Knoxville, yeah that Johnny Knoxville, tours a city on the brink of collapse, and imagines it as an emblem of the resilient American spirit that it embodies. The doc brings home the idea that art can galvanize and uplift, that beauty in the face of demolition, destruction and despondence can create perseverance. ’nuff respect to both!
-Vic Reznik
Film Directors Get Fashionable
A recent article in Slate Magazine, Why is David Lynch Pimping This Handbag? and PSFK’s previewing Frank Miller’s Gucci commercial that will premiere got me thinking about the growing trend of five star directors and major fashion houses coming together to make short-films.
The Slate article debates – what are these… films? Commercials, short-films, advertising films, mini-films? No matter how you slice it – these have been going on for quite some time. For example, David Lynch directed Benecio Del Toro and Heather Graham (he’s aged/she hasn’t) in 1988 for Calvin Klein’s Obsession.
Why do we watch these films? What’s there importance? Are they important? As Sasha Watson said in her article we watch because of the vagaries of these projects.
Vagary – an erratic, unpredictable, or extravagant manifestation, action, or notion.
Very well put Sasha.
That – it seems – is art. Even if the art is intended for us to consider the brand and their products – it’s still enough to make us see life within a new context and that is what art is supposed to do. The other truth beneath the surface is perhaps major film directors need the work from fashion houses more than ever before and fashion houses need to diversify their brand platform so they invest in some high-profile visual stimulation. A little of both perhaps?
Enjoy Lagerfeld’s Chanel short-film where everyone from Coco, Bardot, and other famous fashion legends/luminaries in the background and the foreground as Lagerfled pays homage to the 70s and beyond.
Ghetto Film School and The New York Times
Check out this amazing article about the Ghetto Film School.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/06/movies/06ghetto.html?_r=2
The H&H/GFS Partnership teachs these students about the media industry and trains them to help them get internships and jobs.
Come to tonight’s meeting to learn more about what you can do to be involved.
SWIFT
8pm, Tuesday, September 7
34 E 4th Street
We’ll stake out a place in the back
70 Days: Interviews with Ordinary People
This is David Lynch’s INTERVIEW PROJECT. Fascinating stuff. Truth is much stranger than fiction.