LOSING TOBY NAMED BEST COMEDY (STUDENT) AT SMOGDANCE! LOVE IS DEAF TAKES HONORARY MENTION

LOSING TOBY, directed by Drew Lindo ('06) was named BEST COMEDY (STUDENT) at the Smogdance Film Festival of Pomona, CA. Close on its tail, LOVE IS DEAF, directed by Andrew K. gay ('06), took home the HONORARY MENTION in that same category.

Even though I've never quite viewed LOVE IS DEAF as a comedy, the correct response to this one-two awards punch is "THANK YOU SMOGDANCE." It's good to discover the pollution hasn't clouded their judgement when it comes to short films.

According to the festival, as a category winner, Mr. Lindo "will be awarded a Single User license for Gorilla Scheduling & Budgeting Software for Film Production ($399), and a $50 contest prize, (which can either be in check form or invested in an offshore account in order to avoid the potential tax impact)."

And thus continues the ass-kicking festival season of UCF FILM. Stay tuned for more...

meStories Digital Film Competition Open to UCF Students

meStories is a digital film competition and showcase in which UCF students are given the opportunity to express their views on contemporary topics. The general theme for the competition is defined by UCF’s Common Theme. This year, the theme is called The New America: Mirroring the Present & Mapping the Future. To learn more about this year’s Common Theme, please visit: Connecting the Community.

meStories is open to all current UCF students – techies and non-techies alike! Students can enter individually or in groups. Groups are limited in size to no more than 5 students per group. Students who participate in meStories will create films that respond to one of the following Common Theme-related questions: What does “America(n)” mean in the 21st century? OR The issue that will most shape my life in the next 10 years is…

Submitted pieces may address the selected question from any angle (no pun intended!) and participants may use any style to convey their message (e.g. documentary, comedy, drama, horror, etc.). Students will compete in two categories: the 2 minute digital short and the digital “short” short (10, 25 or 55 second films and PSAs [Public Service Announcements]). Scholarship funds will be awarded during the showcase.

To learn more about meStories and how you can tell your story, please visit our website: meStories.ucf.edu - or call Mary Price, 407-823-4195. Application and Film Concept Deadline: Friday, February 10th, 2006 Film Showcase: Friday, April 14th, 2006

A Letter of Thanks From A Child Actor's Mom

We got a nice email today and wanted to share it with you. We should all earn such solid reputations with our actors.

We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the UCF film department for affording our son, Johnny Maio, the opportunity to work on film. For the past three years he has been able to indulge his passion for film acting, thanks to Danny
Daneau (Goodnight Charlie); Aaron Brownlee (Inheritance); Drew Blatman (Mr.Malikai Battles the Aeroplane); Erin Kitzinger (Life-To-Go); and Diego Kontarovsky (The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle).

These directors cast Johnny in their films and worked with him so professionally that he not only LOVES film acting, but he is actually getting lots of other opportunities now. He has done national and international commercials, and he's currently in the music video, "Skin," from Rascal Flatts which is now #5 on the Country Music Television charts.

Everyone he works with comments on his professionalism. We attribute this in great part to the experience he has received working with UCF directors. Whoever is responsible for their training deserves major kudos.

Thanks for receiving this message.

Linda Maio
Tampa, FL

RADIO To Play Delray Beach Film Fest

RADIO, a Directing 1 project from last year directed by Michael Bendeck, has been accepted for screening at the 2006 Delray Beach Film Festival. The festival will take place March 8-12, 2006 at various venues in Delray Beach.

For more info about the event,check www.delraybeachfilmfestival.com. And stand by for information about a showcase of UCF shorts that will also be playing at Delray Beach.

Millimeter Runs Haskell Wexler Interview

Millimeter Magazine is running a blog about events and interviews the get at Sundance. They've posted an excellent interview with Cinematographer/Director Haskell Wexler which contains a ton of tips to which every aspiring filmmaker should pay attention. My fave:

“If you really want to sharpen your shooting ability—spend some time with a good editor. It doesn’t even have to be your own footage. The specific skills to deliver cuttable material—these disciplines, besides being aesthetically valid also allow you to work more civilized hours and to be more respectful to the artists in front and behind the camera. So much of sloppy, irresponsible filmmaking falls under the idea of shooting unlimted footage and the idea of “fixing it in post.”

TEARS IN THE RAIN & ALL THAT REMAINS WIN AWARDS @ SOUTHERN FRIED FLICKS

The Southern Fried Flicks Film Fest, which ran last weekend, honored two UCF shorts with awards. TEARS IN THE RAIN, directed by David Estrada ('05) won 3rd Place in the Student Category while ALL THAT REMAINS, directed by Aaron Brownlee ('06) took home Third Place in the Audience Choice Award.

Congrats to David and Aaron as well as the other three UCF filmmakes whose shorts screened at the event.

Florida Film Fest Seeks Volunteers

The Florida Film Festival, which runs March 24th through April 2nd, is seeking student volunteers for a variety of jobs. It's a great way to learn the festival game from the inside as well as make contacts. A former UCF FILM student, Ally Schwartz is helping to organize the volunteers. here's the info she sent my way.

We need volunteers for pre-fest and festival work.Last year was a huge success and this year is gearing up to be even bigger.

Excellent opportunity for film students to experience the inner workings of a festival, watch amazing films and meet other passionate filmmakers. Great resume addition and production-paced experience!

In order to volunteer you must:

• Download the application from our website at www.floridafilmfestival.com and either mail or fax it to us.

• The deadline is January 24, 2006 but please get it in as soon as possible.

• Be available for at least 20 hours of work. The maximum number of hours any volunteer can sign up for is 35.

• Must attend the mandatory Volunteer Orientation on February 25^th (for new volunteers it is from 12-1.30pm). This will be the only chance to choose the shifts you’d like to work.

• Also must attend the mandatory Volunteer Training on March 11, 2006.

Be advised that shifts can start as early as 9am or end as late as 12:30am

We want energetic, motivated and hard-working film lovers, so please come out and support us. Annd if working at a great film festival isn’t enough, we have some great benefits for you; including access to all festival screenings (when you aren’t scheduled to work and when space is available).

EX-UCF FILM STUDENT'S DEBUT TO PLAY SXSW

We're pleased to report that THE LAST ROMANTIC, the debut feature directed by former UCF FILM student Aaron Nee has been selected to play the prestigious South By Southwest Film Festival. Cool. For those wondering, here's the synopsis:

Fancying himself a poet ripe for discovery, the young, self absorbed Calvin Wizzig moves to New York City with aspirations of being published and making his mark on the world as one of the great literary geniuses of the twenty first century. Unfortunately, the world is not particularly keen on having marks made on it, a disheartening truth made brutally clear to Calvin through an eclectic series of encounters with equally self absorbed eccentrics. Running parallel to the ever increasing disillusionment of Calvin's naive idea of being an instantly published success is the swelling fantasy that he will again find the girl he wrote a poem to while riding the F train into lower Manhattan for the first time. His compulsive train rides in search of the unnamed girl become the opiate to Calvin's wounded dreams. Obsession with finding this girl on the train becomes a developing addiction that ultimately, pitted against Calvin's original aspiration of being published, threatens to undermine all of his self centered dreams.

Orlando Production House Seeks FCP Assistant Editor For Steady Part Time Job

Looking to make money without working in the theme parks or food service industries? A former UCF student has been promoted to head editor at CDB Productions in downtown Orlando and he's seeking a "young motivated person that needs a job" to step in as assistant editor.

He writes: CDB Productions is small staffed production house that has been around for 20 years. Our regular clients include Disney, Universal, Paramount Kings Dominion, AAA, Florida Hospital and some other pretty big names. Just so the person understands that this is not editing some jerk's wedding videos. We strive for perfection to make sure our clients are always impressed with our work and how fast we get it done. We shoot beta, digibeta, HD, and edit on Final Cut Pro and Avid Express Pro. We mainly use FCP and have an entirely digitally routed set up for video and audio.

Some duties will include:

• Organizing and Maintaining a Tape Library using and Excel Workbook
• A large project where they will log Disney Sports Footage and work with Disney executives
• Editing news packages and shipping them to news stations
• Taking care of duplication and conversion requests, and properly labeling the media

That should give them a good idea of the work they will be doing. We will train them on how to do everything, and teach them the fundamentals of editing corporate and news videos. They just need to be really motivated, and ready to work in a fast paced professional environment. They can email a resume to isaac@cdbproductions.com and to please have a demo reel ready on dvd for the interview.

Sounds cool, huh? Isaac was a student of mine and was an interesting guy (he turned me on to the Postal Service CD and created a rather strange video about Old Dirty Bastard). He told me the gig was going to pay $8.50/hour and would require the assistant 9 to 5, 3 days a week, but we can be flexible with the hours, so ask them to send their availability a long with their resume.

Okay, who wants a job in the industry? Good. Then get off your butt and contact Issac ASAP.

MR. MALIKAI ACCEPTED TO FLORIDA FILM FEST SHORTS COMPETITION

This qualifies as a pretty big score! MR MALIKAI BATTLES THE AEROPLANE, Capstone short of Drew Blatman ('05) has been accepted into the Florida Film Festival's American Independent Competition. FFF - based right up the road in Maitland at the Enzian Theater - is not only one of the nation's best regional film events, it's also one of the nation's few Oscar qualifying festivals for shorts. The jury winner at FFF is automatically qualified for consideration of the Academy Award for Best Short Film.

Okay, okay, we're getting ahead of ourselves. Congrats to Drew for getting the nod. And for those wondering, I had nothing to do with it. In fact, I recused myself from entering a score for the film.

FFF happens at the end of March. BTW - as previously mentioned, LOVE IS DEAF (directed by Andrew Gay, '06) and ON BEING YOUR AVERAGE JOE (directed Ryan Pomeranz, '06) will be included in the festival's Emerging Florida Filmmakers Showcase, based on their performances at the Brouhaha Showcase.

See Me Play OnStage In Deland

The club I played at for a lark a few months back has asked that I return to grace their stage for another songwriters in the round thingie. Somebody must have cancelled. Anyway, I said Yes, so if you're not doing anything tomorrow, Friday, January 6th, come see my return to the small stage at Cafe DaVinci in lovely downtown Deland. I'll sing, I'll play, I'll tell jokes - basically anything to fill time until somebody else is ready to play. I'm good at that.

Also playing will be the lovely Magda Hiller, my friend and personal booking agent, as well as Eric Schwartz, who's described by Magda as "a brilliant, muti instrumentalist, singer/songwriter with a searing wit. A MUST SEE." Of course, Madga also wrote that I was returning "by popular demand," so take it all with a grain of salt.

It show be a fun show. Cafe DaVinci is really a lovely place with a huge courtyard and a cozy bar. The official address is 112 W. Georgia Ave., DeLand (386-736-4646), so crank up Mapquest. Show starts at 9:00 pm and this being a folk gig, it might start a shade earlier.

HAPPY NEW YEAR - MR. MALIKAI INVITED TO LAKE COUNTY FILM FESTIVAL

Recent UCF FILM grad Drew Blatman ('05) just dropped us a line from the frozen tundra of NYC to mention that his Capstone Short, MR MALIKAI BATTLES THE AEROPLANE has been invited to play the 2006 Lake County Film Festival, which is located amid the even more frozen tundra just north of Chicago in Libertyville, IL. I don't think it'll be quite so cold when they screen around the start of April.