Last meeting the AAFilmLab witnessed the birth of a new filmmaker. Jane Valentine won the Fall 2005 script contest, and as a result, the AAFilmLab and all of you who will undoubtedly want to participate, will be helping her make this short film a reality. These are exciting times my friends. The FilmLab is proud to have Jane Valentine join the new wave of Asian Women Filmmakers who are hammering away at the decaying ruins set up by the old boys of yore. We congratulate her once again and thank her and the other contestants for sharing their work with us. This week the AAFilmLab Presents a roundtable discussion with Socheata Poeuv and Charles Vogl - Director/Producer and Producer/Writer of “New year Baby.”  This documentary chronicles the Director’s trip back to Cambodia, the place of her conception and the place from which her family escaped the grip of the Khmer Rouge. “New Year Baby” is the attempt to rediscover the history families often as a necessity forget on the way to becoming Americans. AAFilmLab welcomes “New Year Baby” and invite members to come and speak with the filmmakers as they share their experiences in making the film. We will be playing a trailer to begin the session so be sure to get here on time to watch it and of course, to give support to your fellow filmmakers. RoundTable Begins: Wednesday September 21, 2005 | 8PM 222 East 34th St. 5th Floor Conference Room Google Map *Please RSVP, refreshments welcome.

Last night’s script contest turned out to be a gut-wrenching, heart-breaking test of wills. The result is a testament to the power of the written word to change people’s minds and we hope, their lives.

Three contestants, each with their own distinctive styles took their turn trying to convince, seduce and reason with their peers that their script was the one which the AAFilmLab will have the pleasure of co-producing. In the end, after two dead-heat ties and some further deliberation, the democratic process, and the power of the Asian American filmmaking people prevailed.

As such, without further ado, and with unfettered pleasure, the AAFilmLab would like to announce the winner of the FALL 2005 script competition:

Jane Valentine

Congratulations goes to Jane and to the other contestants, Nelson Wang and Lawrence Wong for conceiving and completing their scripts. Finally and most of all, the AAFilmLab would like to thank everyone for letting us read their work. We hope to see everyone back at the Lab soon, because the work has only just begun.

I think everyone who attended the last workshop will agree that the Improv Session led by Jennifer and Nora was a resounding success. AFFilmlab would like to thank them both for creating such a great atmosphere for us to explore in and for preparing the activities. We all came out of the session invigorated, inspired and inured with a new found respect for acting. This week we shift gears a little bit and hopefully take some of what we learned through that small intro to improvisation and through surviving our tortured lives into actionable scripts.  A month has already passed ladies and gentlemen and now it’s time to let loose your demons through the ancient art of screenplay writing. This workshop meeting AAFilmLab invites all of you who’ve got some story to tell (and all of you do) to come and take the first step in turning your vision into a short film. The script contest rules will explain all the details, but all you need to know is that we want to read your work and we want to help bring your thoughts to fruition. This opportunity is here for the taking. So bring in your stuff and let’s take it from there. Agenda for Upcoming Workshop Submitted Script Readings Pitch Your Script Script Selection by Democratic Process Announcements Our next meeting: Wednesday September 7, 2005 7pm - 9:30pm 222 East 34th St. 5th Floor Conference Room Google Map *Please RSVP, refreshments welcome. P.S. Don’t sweat the “competition” thing. Remember these are your peers and your friends. And we luve you.

We'd like to send out a big thank you to everyone who made it to the 72HR Film Shootout Screening at Dekk last Monday night. For those of you who couldn't attend, we missed all of you and hope you'll be able to make it out to the next event. We were impressed all over again by the quality of work this year and look forward to seeing more work from the participants in the near future. A big warm thanks goes to Marie and Pun for steering us to the venue and thanks also goes to Jane and David for helping man the ship through the nite. The script contest officially kicked off last workshop so now we're just anxious to read what inspired works will spring from your talented minds. It's only 10 pages, so if you're tired of making excuses not to shoot a film, try this on for size. You've got till Sept. 7. Agenda for Upcoming Workshop Improv Session - That's right! Playtime. Jenn & Nora have graciously agreed to guide us through the session. Call for member films - We want to show your work as much as you do. Plans to show your work will be discussed at this meeting. Brainstorm - All your lovely ideas. Announcements Our next meeting: Wednesday August 24, 2005 7pm - 9:30pm 222 East 34th St. 5th Floor Conference Room Google Map *Please RSVP, refreshments welcome. Final Note: As you all may know Derek Ting, the driving force behind the AAFilmLab for the past few years, will be leaving for Hong Kong tomorrow. The AAFilmLab would like to send out our love and thanks for all the tremendous work he's put into the workshop.

We’re please to announced the AAFL Script Contest for Fall 2005. If you’ve got a 10 page screenplay you’ve been working on, or just need an excuse to write one here you go. We’ve made up some guidelines to help you contain that explosive talent into an actionable short film. There’s a small submission fee, and the winner gets to take it all for their budget. On top of that, the AAFilmLab will put up some funding for the film as well.

The AAFilmLab will help produce three short films this upcoming season. The script contests are designed to help us find that all too important content for the films. The point of the films is to give hands on experience to workshop members as well to create a showcase product for your work.

Contact us with any questions or come to the next meeting (8/24). The Guidelines are below:

AAFL Screenplay Contest Guidelines – Fall 2005

[IN PDF - 34MB]
Contest Overview

The Asian American Film Lab (AAFL) is producing short films to accomplish the dual purposes of providing valuable training for their members and to generate content for festival and media submissions. AAFL expects to begin preproduction on their first film in Fall 2005.

All films start with a script. AAFL has determined that to develop competitive films is to obtain the best scripts available. To that end, the AAFL is conducting a screenplay contest whereby the winning script will be produced by AAFL members.

Contest Guidelines

1. The Fall 2005 Deadline is: September 7, 2005. Bring your script into the workshop on this day. There is a submission fee of $15 per entry (one entry per person). The submission money will be added to the winning script’s production budget. Scripts should be no longer than 10 pages. Scripts must be formatted in standard screenplay format.
2. Writers may only have one winning script per season (annual).
3. Submitted scripts will be read by everyone in attendance at the workshop meeting. Writers will also be asked to present a 1 minute pitch for their script or sing a song of the president’s choosing (the 1 minute pitch is highly recommended). The winner will be selected through a democratic peer election process. The writer of the selected script has the option to direct or to choose a director.
4. Keep the budget within the range of $300 - $700. The AAFL will provide some initial funding for the winning script. We don’t expect you to know how to decipher production values for your script. However, some things to keep in mind are that period scripts, special effects laden scripts, and epic scripts (think Pearl Harbor, Titanic, Lord of the Rings or any later Spielberg film) represent high production values which means lots of money. Try to stay with New York-based locations and simple present-day stories with smaller casts.
5. Along the lines of budget considerations, please keep the production contained within one or two weekends.
6. Scripts should adhere to MPAA guidelines for PG-13 or below ratings (PG, G). We’re not trying to enforce moral standards here. However, explicit sexual content may limit our talent choices when we’re casting and explicit violence starts to affect budget – see Guideline 4. The MPAA Ratings guidelines can be found at the mpaa website: http://www.mpaa.org/movieratings/about/index.htm
7. Absolutely no scripts requiring live firearms (or firearms in public), squibs, stunts, fire marshals, explosives and other potentially dangerous safety-intensive plot devices. The legal and safety requirements associated with firearms, stunts, explosions, etc. increases the budget beyond our range. Even if we somehow stayed within budget, we cannot afford the administrative overhead.
8. No scripts requiring children. Again, the legal requirements associated with children exceed our budgetary and administrative capabilities.
9. Stay clear of animal characters and the associated headaches.
10. No copyrighted intellectual property (film, newsreels, TV shows, music, soundtrack or lyrics). Exceptions granted to those screenwriters who have obtained at MINIMUM festival rights for the intellectual property. Evidence of your rights ownership MUST BE SUBMITTED with your script.
11. No exotic locations. Public safety offices (police and fire stations), penal facilities, transit infrastructure, landmarks and public parks are all exotic locations from the budgetary and administrative perspective. Given the security requirements of our terror-inflicted world, even “free” locations such as a subway station is much more difficult to get permission to film in. But if you have the location in your pocket, then by all means use it.
12. AAFL members will be given first priority for cast and crew. Once cast and crew are selected, they are expected to attend workshop meetings to update the AAFL about the progress of the film and most importantly, to share their experiences.

 

AAFilmLab Members Zooey Park (director) and David Hou (actor) will have their short film “Popsicle Stick” make its Canadian premiere at the Vancouver Asian Film Festival on Nov 7. Two films from the 2007 72 Hour Film Shootout also make their Canadian premieres on Nov 7: “Since You’ve Been Ong” directed by Frank Yeean Chan; and “You’ve Got Male” directed by Christopher Nguyen and Ryan Kim.
http://www.vaff.org/festival

The Korean American Film Festival NY (KAFFNY) is a one-day New York showcase of works by emerging and established Korean filmmakers and performers.

KAFFNY 2009 seeks films that express the points of view of filmmakers / performers of ethnic Korean descent from around the world - to see what and how they see the world around them. 

KAFFNY is now accepting short film submissions from filmmakers / performers of ethnic Korean descent, of any nationality. All genres are welcome: narrative, animation, music video, documentary, experimental etc.

There is no entry fee. Submission deadline is November 30. Please send DVD submissions, NTSC Region 0 or 1, to:
KAFFNY
c/o Barrel
23 W 36th Street, Suite 401
New York, NY 10018

KAFFNY is scheduled for February 2009!

For other inquires, email
Visit http://www.kaffny.com.

KAFFNY is co-sponsored by New York University Tisch School of the Arts and The Korea Times.

TSA SCENE STUDY COURSE – TRACEY MOORE
TRACEY MOORE
October 22nd - December 10, 2008
WEDNSDAYS, 7PM-9PM – 8 WEEKS
Course Fee: $600.00
REGISTRATION: OCTOBER 15, 2008- 7PM
$300.00 Deposit Due October 15, 2008
$300.00 Balance Due October 22, 2008
Location: Cap 21, 18 W18th St (Btwn 5th & 6th Ave), 6th Floor, New York, NY 10011

CALL (212) 465-2580
Email:
AAFILMLAB MEMBERS RECEIVE A $50 DISCOUNT OFF PRICE OF COURSE. MENTION YOU ARE AN AAFILMLAB MEMBER WHEN REGISTERING AND PRESENT YOUR MEMBERSHIP CARD IN PERSON AT TIME OF REGISTRATION.

For More Information on The Spirited Actor:
http://www.thespiritedactor.com