Archive for the ‘Film’ Category

Art Center Students Win Big at College Emmy Awards

Monday, May 13th, 2013

Art Center students were honored with five College Emmys at the 34th Annual College Television Awards.

Lizbeth Chappell, Tim Hendrix, Ellen Houlihan, Josue Lopez, Kathleen Lorden, Filippo Nesci, Carlo Olivares Paganoni and Justin Wells all walked away with College Emmys in hand at the awards gala on April 25, 2013.

Art Center swept the Commercial Category, with wins in 1st, 2nd and 3rd Place for Lorden (Kia Soul “Funeral”), Chappell and Lopez (“Uncomfortable Situations”) and Houlihan (“Todd Glass for GLSEN”). Lorden accepted her award for First Place in the Commercial Category and thanked her professors, classmates, cast, crews, parents and husband.

In the Alternative Category, Nesci and Hendrix received 3rd Place for their “KOAN Sound – 80′s Fitness” music video. Paganoni and Wells accepted the 2nd Place award in the Children’s Program Category for their short film Cardboard Camera.

On the Thank You cam, award winners got the opportunity to express their gratitude to everyone who helped their projects become a reality, from their families and supportive donors to Art Center teachers. Chappell thanked her crew for all their hard work, as did Nesci and Hedrix, while Paganoni thanked his mom, ”who came with all her friends from Mexico to cook for the shoot.”

The College Television Awards is a national competition that recognizes excellences in college student produced video, digital and film work, with entries from hundreds of colleges and universities every year. Winners receive cash award, the opportunity to network with top television executives and recognition within the industry. Entries are judged online by members of the Television Academy who work professionally in each respective discipline, and awards are based on excellence in overall production.

You can watch all the clips from the show at the Emmys Foundation website.

Congratulations to all Art Center award-winning filmmakers!

 

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Faculty Patti Podesta Went to Great Lengths to Create a “Kubrickian Perception” at LACMA

Wednesday, May 8th, 2013
Installation image from LACMA's "Stanley Kubrick" exhibition. Photo: LACMA

Installation image from LACMA’s “Stanley Kubrick” exhibition. Photo: LACMA

There’s art in a museum, and then there is going beyond the “art” to give museum-goers an experience that’s more than the art itself. That’s the goal film and television production designer and Grad Art faculty Patti Podesta (Memento, Bobby, Love and Other Drugs) achieved when designing the Stanley Kubrick exhibition on view through June 30 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).

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For Deezmaker’s Diego Porqueras, the Path to 3D Printing Began With a Film Course

Tuesday, May 7th, 2013
Diego Porqueras, along with Bukobot-printed 3D objects, at his Deezmaker store in Pasadena.

Diego Porqueras, along with Bukobot-printed 3D objects, at his Deezmaker store in Pasadena.

These days 3D printing is everywhere. Creatives are using this emerging technology to make everything from fashion gowns to gummy replicas of themselves. Even the President mentioned it in his most recent State of the Union address.

One man who’s made quite a name for himself in this burgeoning arena is Diego Porqueras, inventor of the BukoBot 3D printer and the president and founder of Deezmaker, a 3D printer store and hackerspace in Pasadena. Surprisingly enough, the path that led Porqueras into this brave new world began with an Art Center at Night (ACN) film course he took 13 years ago.

“I took Basics of Film with Robert Mehnert and that ended up being a big turning point in my career,” says Porqueras, who said he already had some experience making movies prior to the class but that the course provided him with a better grasp of the basics.

But that wasn’t the turning point. That happened when an ACN classmate who was working as a production assistant told the class he was leaving the country for two weeks and asked if anybody would be interested in taking his place on a few productions. “I was the first guy to raise my hand for that,” says Porqueras with a laugh.

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20 Art Center Students Win 2013 ADDY® Awards

Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013

Congratulations to the 20 Art Center students and recent alumni who won ADDY® Awards in the 2013 competition! Students received their awards at the ADDY® Gala on March 14 at the Fonda Theatre in Hollywood.

Art Center student winners from the 2013 ADDY Awards

Many of the Gold and Silver ADDY winners produced their projects in Film/Sell, a 14-week class where Film and Advertising majors collaborate on spec ads for their reels. During the class, students go through tons of ideas before landing a concept they can take into production.

“We help them point out what works and what doesn’t, and how their concept plays into the overall brand identity of the product they’re promoting,” said Chris Gehl, who teaches Film/Sell alongside Clio award-winner Nir Bashan. “Our intention with Film/Sell is to create a class that we would have liked when we were students,” said Gehl. “It’s my favorite class to teach, and it is the first time in 20 years that a class like this has existed.”

Sponsored by the American Advertising Federation, the ADDY® Awards recognize excellence in the art of advertising, graphic design, web design, illustration and photography. The AAF Student ADDY® Awards Competition is designed specifically for college students.

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Art Center Students Nominated for 34th Annual College Television Awards

Tuesday, April 2nd, 2013

UPDATE: On April 25, 2013 the  34th Annual College Television Awards awarded five College Emmys to Art Center students! Congratulations to everyone on their wins – below is a list of winners:

  • Alternative Category: 3rd Place, Filippo Nesci and Tim Hendrix, KOAN Sound – 80′s Fitness
  • Children’s Program Category: 2nd Place, Carlo Olivares Paganoni and Justin Wells, Cardboard Camera
  • Commercial Category: 1st Place, Kathleen Lorden, Kia Soul “Funeral”; 2nd Place, Lizbeth Chappell and Josue Lopez, Uncomfortable Situations; 3rd Place, Ellen Houlihan, Todd Glass for GLSEN

 

Art Center students have been nominated for the 34th College Television Awards, also known as the Student Emmys. This year marks the first time that six students have been nominated in the same year. The nominees will attend the College Emmys Gala Awards on Thursday, April 25, 2013 at the JW Marriot LA Live in Los Angeles.

Lizbeth Chappell, Tim Hendrix, Ellen Houlihan, Kathleen Lorden, Montana Mann and Carlo Olivares Paganoni were nominated in commercial, children’s and alternative categories. All students were nominated along with their respective production teams.

The College Television Awards is a national competition that recognizes excellence in student-produced video, digital and film work. Members of the Television Academy judged entries online, and will announce the winners at the awards ceremony.

Each student had their own story to tell. Mann’s “Obsession” spec commercial for the Calvin Klein men’s cologne examines the question, “what does it mean to be completely intoxicated by someone?”

Lorden’s spec commercial “Funeral” has already won 2012 CLIO® and ADDY® Awards, while “Uncomfortable Situations,” from Chappell, Jamie Yuen and co-producer Josue Lopez, wanted to create an ad for a difficult product. “It’s wild,” said Chappell. “Eagle suits are everywhere until you go looking for one.”

Hendrix created a music video for the song “80s Fitness” by Bristol musicians KOAN Sound with the commissioned help of OWSLA, the same music label as dubstep musician Skrillex.

Paganoni’s short film “Cardboard Camera,” co-produced with Justin Wells, focuses on creative 10-year-old Cameron. Hoping to enter a kids’ film competition, he uses his imagination and the help of two friends to create a movie.

“It was inspired by my own childhood,” said Paganoni. “I created a flat camera made of paper and start ‘imagining’ that I was shooting a movie with it. Since I couldn’t shoot anything, I started drawing the little frames of the movie like storyboards. This was the basis for our story.”

Even before being nominated, Houlihan’s “Todd Glass for GLSEN” PSA was noticed by The Huffington Post and Perez Hilton. Inspired by standup comedian Todd Glass and his decision to come out of the closet on a 2012 episode of the “WTF with Marc Maron” podcast, Houlihan asked Glass to take on the suicide epidemic in the LGBT teen community.

“I pitched Todd on doing a hard-hitting PSA unlike the typical anti-bullying messages we’ve seen before,” said Houlihan. “We wanted to shake people up and be honest about how serious the suicide epidemic facing LGBT youth is, and to show we’re all responsible for our words and how we affect one another.”

Congratulations to all of our Graduate Film Art Center students!

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Dot Film Fest Makes Impressive Debut

Tuesday, March 26th, 2013

Zack Snyder Inspires and Credits Art Center for Lasting Friendships, Filmmaking Foundation

Faculty-Produced Movies are Hot Sellers at SXSW, Encourage Next Gen

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Director Zack Snyder speaks at DIFF | LA

On March 16, 2013, the Dot Independent Film Festival (DIFF | LA) made a smashing box office debut at Art Center’s Hillside Campus. The daylong event featured award-winning student films from around the world, several prestigious entertainment industry speakers and many inspirational moments shared by the next gen filmmakers in attendance.

Man of Steel director and alumnus Zack Snyder FILM 89 kicked off the creative confab with entertaining comments about his days on campus. He called the experience “art boot camp” and said the attrition rate “was like Vietnam.”

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Zack Snyder Opens Dot Independent Film Festival at Art Center College of Design

Wednesday, March 13th, 2013

Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris, Tom Kuntz and Matthew Rolston speaking at March 16 event honoring student films from around the world

Zack Snyder at Art Center

Zack Snyder at Art Center. Photo by Chuck Spangler.

March 12, 2013, Pasadena, Calif.—Visionary director and Art Center College of Design alumnus Zack Snyder (Man of Steel, 300) is set to open DIFF | LA, the Dot Independent Film Festival, the premiere student-led film festival on the West Coast taking place Saturday, March 16, 2013 from 9 a.m. – 11 p.m. on the Art Center College of Design Hillside Campus at 1700 Lida Street, Pasadena, Calif., 91103.

In addition to screening official selections in the categories of Directing, Cinematography, Writing and Editing, the event will feature presentations by Snyder and the critically acclaimed directing team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (Little Miss Sunshine, Ruby Sparks), Emmy-winning commercial director Tom Kuntz (Old Spice, Skittles), and legendary photographer and filmmaker Matthew Rolston (Kelly Rowland, Christina Aguilera).

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Re-designing movies: How Art Center educates the next generation of filmmakers

Wednesday, February 13th, 2013

During a break on the set of Man of Steel, the upcoming Superman reboot directed by Zack Snyder FILM 89, Jack Foley, a teen actor whose character in the film bullies a young Clark Kent before the two become friends, started asking questions. “I began talking with Zack about how he became a filmmaker, and the conversation led to film school,” Foley says. “I asked him about where he went, and he spoke very highly of Art Center.”

Like many others, Foley is an actor who wants to direct. And in Snyder he saw his college future. “I was pretty much set to go to a different film school, but after seeing Zack’s methods and the way he controlled his set, it was clear to me that I was working with a true artist. I started looking into Art Center.”

The Visual Storyteller, Act One:

As befits a successful screenwriter (Rush Hour), novelist and, most recently, graphic novelist, Ross LaManna, chair of the undergraduate Film Department since 2006, has countless stories to tell. Many center on the program’s students, such as Dan Bartolucci FILM 10, who got a job on the graveyard shift at special effects house Lola, right after graduating.

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Sustainable solutions: by bike, on a plane or by hand

Tuesday, February 12th, 2013

Pop quiz:

What do the following design concepts have in common: a streamlined re-design of in-flight meal preparation and service that reduces air-travel waste; a bicycle for tourists that collects environmental data as cyclists explore the city; and a human-powered washing machine and spin dryer for families living on $4 to $10 per day?

a. They were all designed by Art Center students.
b. They reflect the growing awareness of sustainability within art and design.
c. They are the winning concepts of the 2012 Denhart Family Sustainability Scholarship Prize.
d. All of the above

Too easy? The answer (d) shouldn’t surprise anyone who is familiar with the cutting-edge role Art Center students are playing in environmentally and socially responsible art and design. This year’s Denhart Prize winners, chosen from a highly competitive pool of undergraduates from Fine Art, Film, Photography, Illustration, and Industrial and Environmental Design, represent some of the year’s top design ideas in sustainability at Art Center.

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Art Center to host student-only film festival

Wednesday, February 6th, 2013

On March 16, Art Center will host the first annual Dot Independent Film Festival, which will screen and award student projects from around the world.

“There’s no other film festival that only caters to students,” says Kevin Wansa, a film student who coordinated the event along with fellow film student Mike Reyes and faculty member Andrew Harlow.

DIFF will award films in several different categories including narrative short, documentary, music video, and commercial and PSA. The festival is also about forming collaborative relationships across schools and communities.

(more…)

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