Monday, August 25, 2008

Team of Dallas filmmakers reach finals in national competition to win Hollywood premiere

By Pegasus News wire

Updated 04:34 p.m., August 29, 2008

Update: Dallas won the whole dang competition. From our friends at SamsungMobile: "Dallas emerged victorious with 49.12% of the popular vote and that means all of them have a ticket to Hollywood to the premiere event at YouthFest." Way to go team Dallas!

Photo by Laura Seewoester

Heather Brazille, 19, holding the slate.

Texas teenage movie makers are getting one step closer to their Hollywood dreams through Samsung Mobile Fresh Films, the nation’s leading teen film making competition. Teens from all over the state of Texas created a short film entitled Saturday, which debuted nationally and won America’s vote. Now, the teen crew will advance to final round of the competition, where they compete to win a Hollywood premiere of their very own. (You can watch their film here.)

The Dallas filmmakers have a one in three shot of winning the Viewer’s Choice Award title. Their prize includes a Hollywood premiere at the 2nd annual Samsung Mobile Fresh Films YouthFest within AFI FEST in Hollywood, the renowned festival produced by the American Film Institute.

America can support these young filmmakers in their quest for a Hollywood premiere by logging onto www.fresh-films.com to view and vote for their film, Saturday, from August 21st through August 27th. Fresh Films fans can also text their vote from their mobile phones for “Dallas” at 95615. Online and SMS voting is unlimited.

Photo by Laura Seewoester

The crew sets up the shot.

In addition to having an audience of millions checking out their work, a Hollywood jury of pros provided the teen filmmakers with unique feedback, advice and tips to help them improve their creative craft. This year’s jury features pros from all sides of the industry including: Sean Astin, Actor (The Lord of the Rings, Rudy and The Goonies); Tom Skerritt, Emmy-Award winning actor (Picket Fences, Alien); Claire Kilner, Director (The Wedding Date and How to Deal); Rick Cleveland, Emmy-Award winning writer (The West Wing and Six Feet Under); Joe Nussbaum, Director (Sydney White and George Lucas In Love); and Mark Harris, Academy Award winning documentary filmmaker and USC film professor (The Long Way Home).

This summer, Samsung Mobile Fresh Films hit the road bringing mobile movie studios to teens from coast-to-coast - including the North Texas-based filmmakers. Other cities selected for this season include: New Orleans, Salt Lake City, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Boston, St. Louis and Portland.

Each year thousands of teens, ages 14-19, apply for their chance to work as Samsung Mobile Fresh Films filmmakers. From those applicants, dozens of teens are selected to represent the next generation of Hollywood talent in this exclusive competition. During each phase of Samsung Mobile Fresh Films, teens experience film production firsthand as they race to create a short film under an even shorter deadline – seven days. Samsung Mobile Fresh Films provides teens the tools, resources, technologies and experiences to realize their creative dreams here and now. The participants learn what it’s like to work like the pros on a working film set as they coordinate all aspects of film production: from casting, location scouting, storyboarding, shooting and editing their film during seven action-packed days.

Photo by Laura Seewoester

Taylor Gonzalez, 14, (left) works the boom. Gonzalez is the youngest crew member on team Dallas.

To add to the excitement of a seven day film making challenge, each teen crew was given a specific film making assignment; to create films with one of the following themes: Big Life Drama, Uncommon Comedy or Action Hero. Teens in Dallas, Salt Lake City and New Orleans created films with a Big Life Drama theme. On the lighter side, teen crews in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles produced UnCommon Comedy films, while film crews in Boston, St. Louis and Portland brought action to the screen as they created Action Hero films.

The film making fun didn’t end when “wrap” was called on-set, as the Dallas teens transformed into mini-movie marketers promoting their film’s debut as they campaigned to win America’s vote and a Hollywood premiere. The Dallas crew faced teen crews from New Orleans and Salt Lake City in an online election and emerged victorious -- capturing America’s vote as the favorite Big Life Drama film. Their victory catapulted the Dallas team into the final round of the nationwide vote-off, scheduled for August 21-27, where they’ll compete against other top-ranked teen productions produced by crews from Portland and Uncommon Comedy winner Chicago.

Source: Samsung Mobile

Related stories

• Dallas-area kid filmmakers debut their production at AFI Fest (Nov. 7, 2008)
• Pegasus News week in view: Labor Day weekend edition (Aug. 27, 2008)

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• Arts > Movies / Film
• Kids / Family > Teen