Cutters Studios, Optimus Lead Camp Kuleshov’s Lev Winners; 2024 Call for Entries Now Open

The Camp Kuleshov trailer competition for emerging creative artists has announced its winners of The Lev, its top prize for each category, which is named for the Russian film and editing pioneer Lev Kuleshov. The Lev winners are chosen from among the category winners in Editing, Graphics, Sound Design and Music Score,  as determined in both AICP Chapter and At-Large competitions. 

This most recent crop of Lev winners includes Spencer King of Northern Lights for Editing; Harrison Gill of Optimus for Sound Design; Marly Koven of Flavor for Graphic Design; and Maddie Strong of Cutters Studios for Music Score, which debuted with the 2023 Camp K competition.

All Lev winners can be found here.

Northern Lights’s King won on the strength of a mash-up of “House Party” “Unfaithfully Yours” and “Demon Seed,” styled as a mind-bending Christopher Nolan time-travel suspense film. For Sound Design, Gill secured the Lev with his take on the 1974 classic “The Conversation,” starring Gene Hackman and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, as a horror film. Koven of Flavor earned her Lev in Graphics with her take on the titles and graphics for the sci-fi drama “Melancholia,” directed by Lars von Trier. And in Music Score, Strong of Cutters Studios won with a score for the Coen Brothers crime thriller, “No Country for Old Men.”

Let’s take a look at Maddie Strong’s work right here…

https://vimeo.com/showcase/10559127/video/880611465

All Lev winners, along with each 2023 Camp K winner, can be found here. The Lev winners receive a $1,000 gift card courtesy of Musicbed + Filmsupply, an AICP Supporting Partner. In addition, Musicbed provides selections from its music library to Camp K entrants at no charge.

Camp K 2024 Source Films Announced

Designed to give emerging talent a chance to heighten their creative and craft problem-solving skills while also gaining access to invaluable mentorship opportunities, Camp K challenges entrants to take existing films and re-imagine trailers for them as something new and different. A full listing of this year’s source films for each category, as well as competition rules and objectives, can be found on the Camp K website at www.campkuleshov.org. Deadline for entries is Sept. 20, 2024, at 11.59 pm ET. All Camp K winners will be announced during events held in participating chapters later this fall.

The roster of source films for each Camp K category typically ranges from the obscure to the mainstream, and is designed to give entrants a wide selection of motifs and genres in which to sink their teeth, from a creative and craft perspective. 

In Editorial, entrants have several options for tackling the film list that offers them a range of challenges. As usual, the list of films from which to choose, and the options for combining them in two or even three-way combinations, is extensive, ranging from classic Hollywood musicals like “South Pacific” and “Bye Bye Birdie” to the thriller “Jackie Brown,” the rom-com “50 First Dates” and the sci-fi epic “The Martian.”

In the Sound Design category, entrants must choose a section of a film and create an entirely new sound design that casts the scene in a new light. The source options include the original 1933 version of “King Kong,” as well as films such as “Star Trek II – The Wrath of Khan” and “A Beautiful Mind.”

Graphics entrants will be challenged to create an opening title sequence for a movie that never had one, or had a simple one. Among the source films are “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” and “Pan’s Labyrinth.”

In the Music Score category, entrants must  create and score a music track for a scene that presently doesn’t have one. The submission must enhance the original scene and invoke emotion in line with the original movie. Among the choices are “Cast Away,” “Belle de Jour” and the Hitchcock thriller “Rope.”

All Camp K categories are open to editorial and audio assistants, junior graphic artists, junior creatives, admin assistants and entry-level employees at AICP member post production and production companies. Students and interns who are actively engaged with a member company may also enter Camp K. The competition is also open to assistants and junior-level employees at music companies that are members of the Association of Music Producers (AMP).

Winners will be announced during events at various AICP Chapters this fall, with the winners of each chapter then going head to head to compete for the Camp Kuleshov grand prizes, the Lev, which will be announced later this year. 

Supporting all Camp K competitions is Avid, which will present certificates for Media Composer or Pro Tools to the first place winners in each chapter, and Musicbed, an AICP Supporting Partner, which is making selections from its production music library available to entrants.

Be sure to check back here at SCREEN Magazine for the latest news throughout the advertising production community. You can also click right here to subscribe to our weekly email newsletter.