Orlando Film Office Seeks Locations Intern

The Orlando Film Office is looking for a summer intern who will specialize in LOCATIONS. Dale Gordon wrote to us and said: "The internship will be very focused towards location scouting and would require the student to be trained on such. We are instituting a new online location database, and will require the student to assist in the shooting of new locations along with the uploading of the database. We will also offer them the opportunity to shadow an industry professional at some point during the semester."

If you dig the location end of this game, here's a great opportunity. Contact Dale Gordon at dale@filmorlando.com

UCF Grads To Shoot Feature In Jacksonville

Two UCF FILM grads - Jon Vara and Glenn Abbot -- are shooting a feature in Jacksonville starting next month. It's going to star Unclke Rico (Jon Gries) from Napoleon Dynamite You can read all about it here.

Festival News: Good Night Charlie Takes Award At ZoieFest

Good Night Charlie, from director Danny Daneau (UCF FILM 2005) was awarded a 2nd place prize at ZoieFest 2004!, an online indie film festival. Look closely at the linked page and you'll find that Good Night Charlie was actually top live action Student Short. The 1st Place award went to a 3D animation piece while the Best Animation Award went to an animation. In my book, that leave Good Night Charlie on top for live action, followed by 3rd place and Finalist that were both live action.

FCP & Avid Editors Wanted

Image Rocks, a local shop that does a lot of national commercials, is looking for editors who can work on Final Cut Pro and/or Avid Symphony. You will need a reel to apply for these positions. They're looking for contract/day players at first, but this could evolve into full-time positions.

If you're interested, contact Jamie Foehner @ 407-566-1717.

CineMaki! Short Films & Bite-Sized Food

If you've got a taste for raw fish and short films, check out CineMaki, a shorts showcase playing once a month in downtown Orlando at Ichiban. And be sure to make reservations. I attended last night and the place was jammed. The next CineMaki will be happening in May after the Florida Film Festival.

BTW - props to Drew Lindo and Freddy Ferrari (UCF FILM 2004) who screened films last night at CineMaki. Drew showed PINK SLIP while Freddy's contribution was THE BIG GUY TAKES 15.

Get $10 Coupon From Apple For Taking A Survey

Surf on over to the Apple Retail Store Survey , spend a few minutes going through it and, as Apple puts it "As a token of our appreciation for completing the survey, we will send you a $10 discount coupon for your next purchase of $100 or more at any U.S. Apple Store retail location."

Sweet. Props to William D. for the tip.

New FCP Edit Stations Open in Comm 172

If the Editing Lab in Comm 172 is feeling crowded, check out the two new edit stations - FCP#7 & #8 - now open in Comm 172A, right off the main room (to the right of the Pro Tools room). There are two Final Cut Pro systems set up, each with one monitor and no DV decks, so you have to bring your own drives.

On the plus side, the rear system has a lot of counter space, so if you feel like bringing in a USB keyboard and working with Garageband, that would be a good spot. There are no sign up sheets for these two stations, so they're perfect if you show up late. If they're open, jump on.

Although the door to these new stations appears to have a Tesa lock, that's been altered so that it doesn't lock. The room is open to anyone with access to Comm 172.

Enjoy.

Need Office For Free? Try NeoOffice!

If you're new to Mac and OSX, you might be wondering if you need to purchase a copy of Microsoft's Office application, the standard for word processing, spreadsheets, etc.

The answer is maybe. If you really need the power of Office, the Student/Teacher package is a bargain at $145 for three licenses (home, office and laptop perhaps?) But if you don't need the full deal - if you're real issue is writing some papers and opening other people attachments, you could get away with one of the freeware Office packages floating around. We've already discussed OpenOffice, but another solid contender for users of OSX is NeoOffice, which is currently running as a very usable beta. A screenshot is below:



If there's a downside, it's that NeoOffice looks like a Windows application -- butt ugly. It floats it's own meanu bar within its window, rather than incorporating it in OSX's Finder, but other than that, it's pretty sweet - sturdy and functional and, unlike OpenOffice, it doesn't open the rather arcane X11 subsystem. Forget that -- X11's too geeky. Suffice to say, Neooffice opens like a proper app. Granted, as a beta, there are still some funky issues, but I like it.

Festival Update: 3 From UCF Going To Palm Beach International

A late Friday phone call just made Spring Break all that much better. The Palm Beach International Film Festival has accepted films from three UCF filmmakers for screening in this year's Student Showcase -- Cat's Bad Hair Day (Debby Wolfe), An Evening With Ivan Gorsky (Joe Mauceri) and Automated Assets (The Brothers Dastoli).

If you're in a Palm Beach frame of mind, the screenings will take place Tuesday, April 19th, 7:00 pm at the Duncan Theater. An student awards ceremony will be held earlier in the day and there's something like $25,000 of prize money up for grabs. Wahoo.

All I Did Was Die To Be On TromaDance DVD

Proving there is life after death, Scott Wilkens (UCF FILM 2004) sent in this dandy update regarding his Capstone short, "All I Did Was Die."

I was just notified that my film will be included, in my opinion, on one the the coolest short film compilation DVD's known to personkind, "The Best of TromaDance 2005, Vol. 4." This DVD will be available in most major department stores and select video stores.

When I first watched Vol. 1, in 2001, I fell in love with the judge's gritty selections and I thought to myself, I could only dream of gaining such insane acceptance. I love grit.

This goes to show, it doesn't matter what anybody adversively says, thinks, or believes because if you've got the knowlegdeable heart your vision will follow.

PS - Prior to the DVD release, I'll need to set up a "Skeleton Hand Films" website, if anyone is savvy in this field or can refer me to someone, please contact me.

Thank you everyone for your support,
Scott Wilkins
Skeleton Hand Films

Words To Live Up To

All,
You should all know (by reading the entry below) that UCF got two films accepted into Worldfest Houston 2005. Here's a note I got from the festival's chairman and founding director. I hope it inspires each of you.

Howdy from Houston...

Hi Rich...

great work... all the five entries received very high scores... and we are delighted that two were selected for screening... many are entered, few are chosen! two out of five is remarkable! You are going to give FSU a run for their money!

all the best,

Hunter
TEAM WORLDFEST

Fest Update: Worldfest Houston Picks Cat's Bad Hair Day & When The Perfect Comes

It's a great day when we get a twofer! CAT'S BAD HAIR DAY (Debby Wolfe, UCF FILM 2004) and WHEN THE PERFECT COMES (Adam Showen, UCF FILM 2004) have been invited to screen at the 38th Annual WorldFest Houston. This will mark the festival world debut of WHEN THE PERFECT COMES, so special props go out to Adam Showen.

And BTW - the WorldFest folks give great email. Check out their acceptance letter.

Howdy from Houston...

Please sit down...(;-)

Out of more than 1,400 short international film and video productions, your entry "WHEN THE PERFECT COMES" has been nominated for screening at the 38th Annual WorldFest-Houston, April 22 - May 1, 2005!

Your superb entry has made it through the initial round of competition to the finals and has now been selected for inclusion in the 38th Annual WorldFest. The festival that first honored Spielberg, Lucas, Lynch, and many others for their Short Films. Our sincere congratulations for a job well done! ...All Films and Videos selected are Remi award winners in the 38th Annual WorldFest. You will receive a Remi Award for your work, and the final jury will make the exact award decision during the festival. It could be a Grand Remi, Special Jury Award, Platinum, Gold, Silver or Bronze Remi. Even the HP Crystal Vision Award ($1,000 cash and the Crystal Vision Award) or the Kodak Independent Vision Award of $2,500 in film stock for cinematography on Kodak film.

Doesn't that make you feel good? Everyone's a winner! We'll pass along show dates when we get 'em.

You Need Some New Headphones

UCF FILM recommends that all students own a set of decent, closed back headphones. Orlando's own TAI Audio, a great audio vendor, is running a fabulous deal - offering 5 pairs of Sennheiser HD202 heaphones for only $99.99. That's 20 bucks a pair, far better than you'll find at BestBuy.

The details: "Hi quality yet inexpensive headphones perfect for use by directors, script supervisors, and everyone else at video village. They provide fantastic isolation against ambient noise, and their wide frequency response is great for DJ's or anyone else wanting excellent headphones for listening to music.  Comes ready with 1/8' mini and 1/4' stereo adapter."

A cool deal. I'll be at TAI Audio this on Tuesday, March 22, so gather up your bucks and let's buy some headphones!

Fest Update: Good Night Charlie To Play Danville Children's Film Festival

Talk about finding your demographic! Good Night Charlie, from Danny Daneau (UCF FILM 2005) has been received acceptance into the Danville International Children’s Film Festival, happening Saturday and Sunday, May 21st and 22nd

That makes three festival acceptances for Good Night Charlie in one week!

The festival will feature a screening of "Spongebob The Movie" starring the Year 2005 Guest of Honor, Mr. Tom Kenny (voice of SpongeBob), at the Village Theatre in Danville. Says the fest,"Schedule permitting Mr. Kenny will be conducting a Q & A session prior the screening."

So if you're planning to go, be sure to get tickets for the Spongebob meet and greet.

Fest Update: Randolph Gently To Make World Debut @ Just Another Film Fest

Oh this little festival has just jumped to the top of our list o' faves! Drew Blatman (UCF FILM 2005) just informed us that his Directing 3 effort Randolph Gently & The Mysterious Animals will make it's festival world debut at Just Another Film Festival in Ogden, Utah. Yahooo!

Festival Update: Good Night Charlie Picked for Just Another Film Festival

Two a week! You gotta love this. Danny Daneau (UCF 2005) has informed us that his childhood epic Good Night Charlie has been selected for another film fest, actually Just Another Film Festival (really, that's the name), which happens March 23 - 26 in Ogden, Utah.

We're feeling mighty sassy these days.

For Those Upgrading Their's Mac's RAM

If you want to upgrade RAM on a Mac, have a look atAnandTech: Mac Memory Roundup Q1 2005 - In Search of Affordable Upgrades. It's a great primer on the ins and outs of getting better memory prices than from Apple Direct. A quote: "Because all Macs configure their memory timings based on the SPD that Apple specifies, all memory is configured to have the same timings regardless of what the modules are capable of - in other words, all Mac memory performs the same. It's not possible to overclock the memory bus on Mac platforms either, so the maximum frequency capabilities of the modules don't matter either. All memory vendors these days offer lifetime warranties on their memory, so what it truly boils down to is compatibility and price - which is exactly what this guide is designed to compare."

Enzian Seeks A Projectionist: Willing To Train A Newbie

Love film? Now's the time to test your love. Enzian Theater has put out a call asking if any UCF students would be interested in working as a projectionist during the Florida Film Festival, particularly daytime shifts. The festival runs April 8 through 17. Kat,Enzian's manger, is willing to train any interested party. You can contact here at kquast@enzian.org

UCF Graduate Film Program

As many of you have heard, UCF is kicking off an M.F.A. film program this fall with a track of study called Entrepreneurial Digital Cinema. Those who are interested can get an overview of the program at the UCF Department of Film website. From there, links to the College of Arts & Science website will lead you to a complete listing of courses, etc.

Enjoy.

Festival Update: Good Night Charlie Picked for San Diego Intl Children's Film Festival

The hits just keep on coming. Good Night Charlie, directed by Danny Daneau (UCF FILM 2004) has been selected for screening at the 2005 San Diego International Children's Film Festival, which happens in early April.

BTW - earlier, I called this festival the San Diego Film Festival. Later I called it the San Diego International Film Festival. Wrong on both counts. I think we finally have it right - San Diego International Children's Film Festival.

The Shuffle

I picked up an iPod Shuffle a few days ago and wanted to pass along a report of this tiny little wonder. For $139 bucks (educational priced), it is quite simply one of the most transforming devices I've ever owned.

I got the one gigabyte version and I've been using it mostly for one thing - providing audio in my car when driving. At first, I tried to hang it from the rear view mirror connected via a cable to cassette adapter to the car stereo. It comes with a neck lanyard, so that seemed like a good idea. In truth, it was a disaster. The thing swung around with every turn and whenever I wanted to make a change in the settings, I had to reach out and catch it, figure out the buttons and go from there.

Then I figure, "Hell, it was meant to go around my neck. Why fight it?" So I wore it around my neck and plugged it into the car. Perfect. All the controls are on my chest and to be honest, there's a weird and wonderful feeling of the music (or iPodcasts) coming from my own body. I like it.

With the one gig Shuffle, I can fit upwards of 15 hours of media onto the player. The iTunes software offers an option to reduce every mp3 to a max of 128K in quality. That setting sounds fine to me and extends the capacity. The only controls are PLAY/PAUSE, VOLUME UP/DOWN, NEXT/PREVIOUS TRACK. So, much like when listening to radio, you can choose to stay with the current program or switch to the next one. On the rear is a switch that goes from OFF to PLAYLIST IN ORDER to SHUFFLE. Since my playlist is random, it really comes down to a choice of ON or OFF.

Usually, I fill the Shuffle up at night with a variety of podcasts and music, then hit play in the morning when I start my 30 minute drive to work. If something bores me, I press NEXT TRACK and get something else. I've never come close to exhausting my possibilities in one round trip. The sound quality is stunning, especially when you consider this thing is about as big as a half-empty pack of gum.

Until now, I had been using a 5 gig iPod in my car. It was great for longer trips, as I could store hundreds of albums in it. As I'm something of a album fan, I never got into playlists - mixing dozens of tunes in some way. Instead, I looked at it as a portable CD collection. The Shuffle makes you think of things differently. The lack of a screen and the minimal memory makes you value every track added . So playlists are the only way to (or, I should, a single playlist). When you're adding 200 songs every day, there's a wonderful random element that matches the best radio station.

The 5 gig iPod's controls forced my to look at the screen, which was a pain in the ass when driving. As I worried about battery life, I ran a line from the firewire port to the car lighter and keep it charged. With the Shuffle, I've forgotten the AC issue entirely. The Shuffle's battery - if you turn it to PAUSE instead of shutting it off - will last for several days. If you leave it on PLAY, you're looking at 12 hours or so of sound.

There are some issues with the Shuffle that bother me. The NEXT TRACK feature, for one, could stand some improvement. If I'm listening to an hour-long DJ mix Podcast, it reads as one track. I would love to jump 5 minutes ahead, but I can't do that with the Shuffle. It's either NEXT TRACK or the sluggish Fast Forward of holding the NEXT TRACK button and skipping ahead maybe by 4x. A preset of 2 or 5 minute jumps would be welcome for moving through those long tracks.

And here's a weird feature...unlike other iPods, one can't listen to the Shuffle's track on any computer except the one that it's linked to. With my other iPods, I could record a bunch of songs on one computer (home) and then play them back on another computer (at work, for instance). I couldn't load new songs to the iPod from this second computer, but I could listen to iPod tracks with it.

The Shuffle only works with one computer. If you load it at home and plug it in elsewhere, a warning comes up telling you this Shuffle is linked to another computer and would you like to erase it and fill it with tracks from this second computer? The workaround is to plug in the audio out mini plug of the Shuffle, not the USB connection. Then you can play it anyway.

Another issue - the Shuffle uses USB 2.0, which is a fine pipeline but not something I have on my home computer. My home boxes use USB 1.0, which is MUUUUUCCCCCCH slower than USB 2.0 (the Shuffle defaults to whatever USB speed is found). If I want to fill the entire one gig Shuffle, I have to leave it connected for 30 to 60 minutes. Much of that time relates to the time involved with converting tracks down to 128K, but still, compared to Firewire, USB is slowwwwwwwwww.

Finally, the Shuffle doesn't play AIFF files, so if you use those, you have to convert.

But there are some nice aspects to the new iTunes software for the Shuffle -- using a slider, I can set the amount of space (currently 128MB) which will be reserved on the Shuffle for hard drive use. That way, when I plug the iPod into any computer, I get 128MB of protected hard drive disc space. That allows me to use the Shuffle for both audio and as a USB flash drive.

So those are my first impressions. I like this device a lot and will likely use it more than my current (larger) iPods. There's something way too cool about carrying 200+ songs around my neck and still having room to back up a day's worth of office work on the same device.

Oh My Gosh...

I've seen the future of of communications and it's random access. Have you checked out iPodderX 2.2.8? This program - available in OSX, Windoze and Linux - allows users to capture and download RSS audio feeds. Forget the jargon for a moment - essentially, this program allows you to download mp3s of more than two thousand archived internet radio show. You click to subscribe to a show and the last few episodes are download to your hard drive.

Load 'em to you iPod (or your desktop PC) and away you go, never again needing to tune into anything created by Clear Channel. Listen to interesting, independent shows about everything from sex to music to beer (well, actually, those aren't far apart) whenever you want. It's so simple and yet such an insane concept because it works perfectly.

This program will go along nicely with my new iPod Shuffle. Ahhh...drive time will never be the same.

Festival Update: Ivan Gorsky To Make World Debute At Method Fest

The vampire is getting out. An Evening With Ivan Gorsky, directed by Joe Maucerri (UCF FILM 2004) will make it's world debut at The Method Fest. By the fest's own description, it's the "only major film festival in the U.S. that pays homage to the actor. The Method Fest is truly The Actor's Film Festival, a festival of Discovery, seeking breakout acting performances of emerging stars and established actors in story-driven independent films."

Pretty cool, huh? Method Fest takes place in Calabasas, CA April 1st - 8th