Are you a filmmaker in the great state of Ohio? Worked on a film with some friends and are interesting in seeing how it does in a theatrical setting? Just want to get your work on screen in front of a large audience? If you answered 'yes' to any of the above questions, then The Wexner Center has the perfect event and showcase for you.

The Wexner Center for the Arts, one of central Ohio’s only art institutes, is looking for entries for its 14th annual Ohio Short Film and Video Showcase (full details here). The event is designed to showcase Ohio’s independent media artists and it gives them a chance to shine in front of an audience. Only thirteen films were shown last year and they are hoping for many more this year. I strongly suggest that any person interested in films, directing, choreographing, or the like, enter this competition; it is a great way to get your name out.

As with last year, there will be an accompanying youth division featuring films from anybody under the age of 18. These films are only half as long as the normal adult films, but they are usually just as entertaining and inventive. A nice benefit for the kids is that the top five will be chosen to create a PSA about prescription-drug use. This is a pretty nifty way to get some experience under your belt before you turn 18.

Personally, I believe that the idea of showcasing Ohio films is a great move by The Wex. Ohio has been featured as a setting in many movies (Rush Hour 3 and A Christmas Story, to name two) but rarely is actually seen as a hotbed of movie making. While this event is unlikely to help put Ohio on the map as a movie location, it is sure to help inspire more people to participate in the process. The more people we have working in films, the more likely they are to bring the films back home.

So, if you are interested in submitting a film to The Wexner Center’s showcase, the deadline is Friday the 27th of March. All films by adults are to be 20 minutes or less in length, the youth’s are to be 10 minutes or less. Or, you can just come by the actual showcase on the 9th of May at 7 pm at watch the fun. Hey, you might even be so lucky as to see me there. For more information, please visit The Wex’s website.

Source: feedproxy.google.com

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A photographic exhibition to mark the end of the Polaroid film era will take place in London in October.

Billed as a ‘retrospective’, the show will focus on how professionals used Polaroid film and highlight specific techniques such as film transfers.

‘Polaroid instant film was the comfort blanket for professional photographers for many years, until the digital revolution came along,’ said an AOP Gallery spokesman.

The exhibition will be formed of work by members of the Association of Photographers (AOP) members.

‘The collection of images will be a reminiscent chapter in the history of photography,’ added the gallery.

‘Polaroid Retrospective’ will take place at the AOP Gallery from 23 October-14 November.

The gallery can be found at 81 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4QS. Entry is free.

Source: www.amateurphotographer.co.uk

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Shooting movie posters was something Michael Muller always wanted to do. Yet even his impeccable photographic credentials — ad campaigns for Speedo and Mercedes, magazine covers of Spider-Man Tobey Maguire for Premiere and Adrien Brody for Flaunt — hadn’t won him the chance to shoot those dazzling film promos we see on billboards and bus stops. It was a self-assigned, movie-themed art project that finally brought movie-poster opportunity knocking.

Muller’s project, called Superfamous, was a series of portraits of the superhero-costumed souls who parade around Hollywood’s famous Chinese Theatre, where for five bucks they pose for tourists’ cameras. “Most of the money goes to feed a drug habit,” says Muller, “and one of the key pictures is of Batman smoking crack in the alley.” The marketing head of Fox Studios saw a 4×6-foot print of that image at the home of Joaquin Phoenix, who Muller befriended when he was doing publicity photography for Walk the Line, in which the actor played Johnny Cash.

The Fox exec happened to be working on the runup to X-Men: The Last Stand, the third, Brett Ratner-directed installment in the Marvel comic-based series, and was so impressed with Muller’s image that Phoenix immediately phoned the photographer to come meet him. Muller was hired on the spot to do the posters for the movie. “You never know what’s going to open the door for you,” he says.

Muller pored over pictures by the full-time set photographer “to get a feel for how the movie looked.” (He also likes to see a film’s script to better understand its characters, though that sometimes requires reading it in a high-security vault.) Then he put together what amounted to a roving studio, outfitted with battery-powered, 1,200-watt-second Profoto 7B strobes and mobile C-stands, that could be moved to any part of the set where filming wasn’t in progress. “I’d walk around and find little nooks and crannies to shoot in, then pull aside Hugh Jackman or another cast member who was available,” he says.

Source: www.popphoto.com

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For the second time in less than two years Kodak has tweaked its Professional Portra 400-speed colour negative film, claiming it delivers ‘finer grain’ than before.

‘With finer grain and an emulsion overcoat specially designed for scanners, Portra 400 films reproduce beautifully, with either optical or digital output,’ claims the company. ‘This enables photographers to easily incorporate their film images into a digital workflow.’

The revamped Portra 400NC and 400VC films will cost the same as the current versions.

There is, as yet, no word on UK availability date.

Portra films are the biggest selling professional-level films in Kodak’s portfolio.

Source: www.amateurphotographer.co.uk

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