Free 2008 Summer Shorts Competition

StudentFilmmakers.com is offering a free Summer Shorts competition, accepting narratives, documentaries, music videos, PSAs, experimental films, thesis films and anything else you manage to "accidentally" record with your laptop quick cam from your neighbor's open blinds.

Registration is quick and the entry deadline is September 1st, 2008.

I'm keeping my blinds closed 'till then.

Top Film Instructor Comes to New York: Bob McKee's Story Seminar is the Hot Ticket

Everyone knows McKee. This is a solid assurance like gravity goes down and the protagonist starts from the right and ends going towards left after an appropriate amount of scene turning. Ok, maybe you didn't know that last part. Probably you did, but like the big bag of tricks McKee is well noted for analyzing from some of film's best, his Story Seminar is the quintessential starting point for polishing and aligning your characters. Understand and use the loose ends dragging down on your plot until your overarching themes are gleaming like the Taj Mahal, and everybody wants to take a chance on your story. That's always hope, but hard work and a mastery of your craft always gets the best results.

HBO knows McKee. When asked what one resource he would recommend to new writers interested in pitching to him, Andrew Goldman, VP of Program Planning & Scheduling for HBO/Cinemax suggested McKee's Story.

Oscar-winner screenwriter Akiva Goldsman finds the course "insightful" and "concise" which is really saying something about the density and quality of the material, as it stretches for three days of intense, vital info on how to make your good or ok film idea into a prowling winner by design.

In fact, take a course with this guy, and you'll walk away for the rest of the year realizing every single blockbuster has consulted with him at some stage in the game. He's the guy in the eggshell chair in that room on "the island." No, really. It's worth the admission, and he keeps the costs down because he's one of those rare industry experts who likes to pass it all down.

Learn more at McKeeStory.com. Story Seminar is in New York on October 19th-21st. Register early to guarantee your seat.

Happy Birthday to Student Filmmakers Magazine - Giveaways at NAB 2007 Conference

Anyone in the Las Vegas area attending the NAB 2007 Conference and Expo might want to stop by the StudentFilmmakers Magazine booth (#SU9626) between now and the 19th for complimentary subscriptions. They're celebrating their first year of educating filmmakers on directing, cinematography, post production.

Says Publisher/Editor-in-Chief Kim Welch in their newswire, "In celebration of our 1st birthday, we are again offering subscriptions to the magazine at no charge, with the sign up form in this special anniversary issue."

In StudentFilmmakers Magazine's April 2007 Issue, M. David Mullen, ASC (Solstice, The Astronaut Farmer, Akeelah and the Bee) writes in his Insights Column about "Lighting Realistically" for day and night interiors, and unique lighting challenges in the recently released, family adventure-drama, The Astronaut Farmer.

StudentFilmmakers.com is for aspiring filmmakers, and its primary goal is to encourage and support new and independent film and video makers of all ages and levels around the world.