FEST - Macon Film Fest To Play 4 UCF Shorts

UCF FILM is proud to announce four of our student projects are playing this week at the Macon Georgia Film & Video Festival (and thanks to Brett for letting me know, as they apparently didn't get my email correct!). Anyway, our films will be screening twice during the event and up for all sorts of lovely awards. The UCF films screening include:

1. Baseball & Glory (Brett Bonowicz '07)
2. The World, Naked As A Jaybird (Tiina Treasure '06)
3. Sex Machine 2025 (Chris Shields '07)
4. The Lonely Lights, The Color of Lemons (Ben Piety '06)

If anyone attends, be sure to send some photos!

Fest Update - WELCOME TO MOE'S!

THE DASTOLIS WRITE IN...

Back in October, in what was probably a moment of temporary insanity, we decided to re-cut three of our movies into Moe's commercials for the Moe's Video Nation Contest. The grand prize was free Moe's burrito's for life. While we did not receive the grand prize, our re-cut of Southwestern Orange County vs. the Flying Saucers (with completely new digital material), MOE'S VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS received a prize as the runner up. That prize is $500 worth of Moe's! You can view the burrito/spaceman epic at moes.sharkle.com.

I could also go on about a bunch of festivals that we are screening in, blah, blah. blah, but this is way more important. www.dastolidigital.com

Fest - BASEBALL Continues It's World Tour

Brett Bonowicz tells us his short flick BASEBALL & GLORY has earned another two acceptances for screening:

2007 Short Attention Span Digital Video Festival (San Luis Obispo, CA)
2007 Bare Bones International Film Festival (Muskogee, OK)

Also in Festival News, three UCF shorts will be playing the upcoming FLORIDA FILM FESTIVAL as part of their Best of Brouhaha program. The films include THE WORLD, NAKED AS A JAYBIRD (Tiina Treasure '06), SEX MACHINE 2025 (Chris Shields '07) and AMERICAN DELUXE (Aaron Brownlee '06). The Best of Brouhaha screening is set to take place on Saturday, March 31, 4:30pm at the Regal Winter Park Village theater.

Like, Film Stock is Really Expensive

I don't want Brett to take it the wrong way, but this is perhaps the best project I've ever seen him do. It's smart, it's funny, it works on multiple levels and damn if it doesn't look good too. My only suggestion - it should be called $358.20 (unless he wants to include the price for the filmstock, which might justify a title of $425). Better still, a number title means it will show up at the top of an alphabetical list.

Festival circuit, you have been warned.

Fest News - HEISENBERG Lands in St. Pete

Diego Kontorovsky ('06) tells us his very funny (and very long) short film The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle has been accepted to the 2007 Sunscreen Film Festival, which runs April 6-8, 2007 in or around St. Petersburg, FL.

Alumni News - Brandon Kaplan Checks In

A little note from Brandon Kaplan (UCF FILM '04)...

Just wanted to give you the heads up that my latest film Bad Reception has made it into the top 5 most viewed films on the new Spielberg reality tv series' website www.thelot.com I am trying to get on the show and have submitted my film to various festivals and am waiting to hear back. Will keep you updated.

Okay, you've got your mandate. Go vote for Brandon's film!

Tech Support In The Middle Ages

Tragically, this is not too far from what's it's like today. I guess that he, like most people, refuses to read the manual.

Festival News!

AMERICAN DELUXE, directed by Aaron Brownlee ('o6) has been slected to screen at the 2007 Atlanta Film Festival. Those of you with some memory might recall that Drew Blatman's MR. MALIKAI BATTLES THE AEROPLANE won a prize at Atlanta last year.

Meanwhile, BASEBALL & GLORY, directed by brett Bonowicz ('07) has been accepted for screening at the 2007 MAGA Film Festival (Macon, GA) and the Delray Beach Film Festival in our own homw state of FLA.

Speaking of Delray, UCF FILM is curating a sidebar of our student shorts at the upcoming DELRAY BEACH FILM FESTIVAL (which happens during Spring Break in March). It's a nice event and we had big fun there last year. The films scheduled to play include:

AMERICAN DELUXE - Directed by Aaron Brownlee
A hotshot marketing executive confronts his own empty reality and decides there’s only one thing left to do - market himself.

THE WORLD, NAKED AS A JAYBIRD - Directed and animated by Tiina Treasure
In the face of nuclear holocaust a young girl searches for home.

THE LONELY LIGHTS. THE COLOR OF LEMONS - Directed by Ben Piety
A series of inkblot paintings propels a young jogger to recall stories and memories of childhood, sexuality and an enigmatic girl.

GOLDEN SAMOVAR - Directed by Phillip Chernyak
Direct from it’s world premiere at SLAMDANCE, GOLDEN SAMOVAR is a bizarre musical tale of three daughters of a Soviet mapmaker, who venture into an eerie woodland where enchanted cats and belligerent bears are commonplace.

IN THE DETAILS - Directed by Drew Lindo
Ethan, an illustrator, captured moments of his day-to-day life for a comic book/journal, but there are some moments that can’t be framed.

6:58 PM AT THE USED BOOKSTORE - Directed by Matt Acevedo
There’s a blind guy looking for a book on gardening...closing time should be more peaceful than this.

MELISSA WITH A HEART AROUND IT - Directed by Andrew Kenneth Gay
What would Jesus do if he were a teenage lesbian? That's the question Jamie wishes someone could answer for her as she struggles with her secret crush.

SEX MACHINE - Directed by Chris Shields
A sex professional who rents his memories meets a woman he can’t forget.

Come on down and have a party with us!

Amanda Bynes Feature Shooting Locally Seeks Interns

The production of SYDNEY WHITE, a feature film starring Amanda Bynes which is shooting in Central Florida, is currently accepting resumes for interns. They are in pre-production and will begin shooting in mid February. Please fax your resume to:

SW7D Productions, Inc.
Attn: INTERN COORDINATOR
407-672-5771 Fax

FILM: "SYDNEY WHITE"
DIRECTOR: JOE NUSSBAUM
PLOT: Comedy - A modern retelling of Snow White set against students in their freshman year of college in the Greek System.

They don't want phone calls or walk ins, so fax first.

Happy Happy Joy Joy

Our wee Writing Lab once again offers printing from all four computers. To use it, you must switch the Airport settings in the meanubar to Lab Printers. To surf the net, switch it back to UCF.

Print wisely.

FEST - Andrew Gay Keeps His Films Screening

LOVE IS DEAF, directed by Andrew Gay ('06) will be screening at the All American Film Festival in Durham, NC, and the Platform Florida Art Party, in Lakeland, FL. Both screenings happen February 23rd, so plan your travels accordingly.

In addition, Andrew's Capstone short MELISSA WITH A HEART AROUND IT will play the very big and prestigious 31st Annual Cleveland International Film Festival in March! Wa-hooo!

Shooting DV For Film

In D3 class today, we had a long conversation about different cameras and qualities. Plus, I know Randy Finch has been testing various DV cameras and 35mm adapters in preparation for his film. For those who wish to know more about this subject, particularly how to set up a DV camera like out Panasonic DVX100A to create the best possible image for a film trasnfer, check out dvfilm.com. They make a business of this process and list tons of prices and information. They also publish a book and sell MAC/PC filters which convert standard NTSC Dv into true 24p DV, ready for transfer to film.

Dig deep, there's a lot of interesting stuff to read.

Don't Be A Joke - by KFed

As funny as this commercial is (and it is funny), I give KFed a thumbs up for having the ability to laugh at himself and his situation...and make a few bucks from it.

Racist or Successful Parody?

With the popularity of THE OFFICE, a lot of people want to make parody docs, or mocumentaries. Most of their ideas are little more than retreds of other mock docs. In short, they are neither funny nor inventive. Here's a mock doc that I think works quite well. Let me know what you think.

Fest - Baseball Hits Hollywood

BASEBALL & GLORY, the Cpatone short of Brett Bonowicz ('07) has been selected for screening at 7th annual DIY Film Festival in Hollywood, CA. ALSO...BASEBALL & GLORY will be playing at the 2007 Swansea Bay Film Festival (Swansea, Wales, UK).

Go Brett go!