News

MMW Supports Maine Film Day at the State House

Maine Media staff and film faculty traveled to Augusta, Maine June 7 to join members of the growing Maine film community in support two of industry bills being considered by the State Legislature. 

Maine Film Office staff, members of the Maine Film Commission and Maine Film & Video Association, and staff from Maine Public Broadcasting were joined by productions companies and independent filmmakers meeting with legislators to discuss the importance of passing industry-friendly legislation as a means to encourage filmmaking in the State.

A key bill, LD 1069, which was on the floor June 7 and subsequently passed to be enacted, provides financial support to Maine producers for the creation and development of projects that are shot in Maine, employing Maine people. The current seed capital is $5,000 and Rep. Linda Valentino in concert with the Maine Film Office is working on increasing that to $500,000. 

A second bill, LD384, is aimed at attracting producers looking to shoot major films in Maine.  The bill provides for cash rebates for productions spending more than $50,000 and has a $2million cap.  LD384 has been referred to the Committee on Labor, Commerce, Research and Economic Development to be considered in the next legislative session beginning early January 2012.

Along with the classic Peyton Place, more recent films produced in Maine include In the Bedroom, Message in a Bottle, and Empire Falls. 

Color Correction & Episodic TV Classes Bring New Faculty to Maine

Film and TV professionals join the Maine Media faculty each year to bring their expertise from the field to the classroom. Two instructors soon to experience their first lobsters under the dining tent are Bob Sliga and are Cynthia Greenburg.

A professional colorist for 30 years, Bob teaches color correction at Columbia College and DePaul University. Bob’s career spans both commercial and film projects, and he was the Director of Training for Silicon Color’s FinalTouch software. After Apple purchased Silicon Color, Bob was hired to be the lead QA for Apple’s Color application where he was instrumental in helping design the application and created all of the Color FX Room signature looks. Bob recently created Scone Looks™ (a collection of presets) for Apple Color. He is presently the Senior Colorist on The First 48 for A&E TV. He leads our new Digital Color Correction workshop July 10 - 16.

Cynthia is a professional sitcom writer living in Los Angeles. Having moved from New York to Hollywood to follow her dream, she first broke into the business as a writers’ assistant which helped her quickly move into the role she most desired, that of sitcom writer. She spent three seasons on the ABC series Less Than Perfect, which starred Sara Rue, Andy Dick and Zachary Levi. Her most recent credits include CBS’s Accidentally on Purpose with Jenna Elfman. Cynthia is set to teach Writing the Spec Script for Episodic TV July 24 – 30.

Roemer Screens Indie Films in Maine June 22 & 23

This summer, on the occasion of the DVD release of seven of Michael Roemer’s films, he travels to Maine Media to screen two films from the collection, shot 20 years apart and representing very different aspects of our lives.

Born in Berlin, Germany in 1928, Roemer has produced, directed and written dozens of films. These have been shown and won prizes at the Venice, London, New York, Cannes, Toronto and Bergano film festivals. An Emmy award nominee, Michael continues to teach at Yale University.

Showing June 22, Nothing But A Man follows the life of Duff Anderson. While working on an African-American section gang in a small Alabama town in the 1960s, Duff falls in love with Josie, the local preacher's daughter. Racial, economic and psychological pressures come close to destroying their young marriage.

In Vengeance is Mine, we meet Jo, a woman in her twenties, who was adopted by a Catholic family and comes home to try, one last time, to heal the rift between her mother and herself. This film screens June 23. 

Both screenings takes place at Union Hall Theatre in Rockport at 8PM, followed by Q&A sessions with Roemer. Admission is free, so please join us if you’ll be in the Midcoast and encourage friends to attend!

Bognar, Reichert Present at Silverdocs

MMW film faculty are headed to the Silverdocs International Documentary Conference June 20 – 26 in Silver Spring, MD. Celebrating the art and business of documentary storytelling, the conference connects filmmakers, educators, broadcasters, business leaders, distributors, private and public media, and funders from both established and emerging media markets.

Filmmakers Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, who co-teach Directing and Producing the Documentary here in Maine each year, are both presenting during the conference.

Steven leads a two-hour technical session June 21 titled DSLR Cameras in Documentary, providing entry-level to mid-level filmmakers the opportunity to interact with camera and accessories manufacturers. June 22, Julia moderates Master Class: Editors, The True Storytellers. You can access details about these and all conference events via the Silverdocs website.

“We're excited to be leading panels at SilverDocs, and we look forward to coming back to the Maine Media Workshops, where we'll have even more time to dive into these current issues of technology and aesthetics in documentary," says Steve. 

Joining them at the conference is filmmaker Tom Donohue who is just returning from six weeks living with and filming Muay Thai boxers in Northern Thailand. He leads the Four-week Documentary Film School in Maine beginning July 10.

Blurb's Photography Book Now Deadline: July 14

Photography Book Now is a celebration of the most creative and innovative photography books, and the people behind them.

Now in its fourth year, this international juried photo book competition is an opportunity for photographers of all kinds to showcase their work to a world-renowned panel of judges – and take a shot at a $25,000 grand prize.

Submission categories are Fine Art, Documentary, Travel and Student work. Lead Judge, Arius Himes, co-founder of Radius Books and Assistant Director of Fraenkel Gallery in San Francisco, is joined by an impressive list of industry luminaries judging the work including photographer and MMW instructor Henry Horenstein, Magnum’s Steve McCurry, and Whitney Lawson, Photo Editor for Travel + Leisure. 

Submissions must be entered by Thursday, July 14, 3 p.m. PDT. For a complete list of prizes, go to the Photography Book Now awards page.

20th Century Photography Series Kicks Off June 13

We launch a summer-long lecture series titled Masters of 20th Century Photography Monday, June 13 at 4PM in Union Hall Theater, Rockport Village.

As an introduction to the lecture series, Inside & Personal features Jim Hughes and Tim Whelan engaging in a wide-ranging conversation about some of the great image makers of the last century. Jim is a longtime editor of photo magazines and author of books on photographers. Tim has run a renowned photography bookstore in Rockport for nearly 20 years, now a part of the Maine Media Gallery.

Future lecture topics include Paul Caponigro June 20, Arnold Newman July 18, Ernst Haas August 15, and W. Eugene Smith August 22. All lectures are free and open to the public. Visit our website for details on these and all free Maine Media community events.

 

Masters in Maine: Kirkland, Horowitz Lead Workshops

Photography legends Douglas Kirkland and Ryszard Horowitz join fellow Canon Explorers of Light teaching MMW classes this season.

One of the youngest known survivors of Auschwitz, Horowitz immigrated to the United States in 1959, enrolled at New York’s Pratt Insittiute and pursued a lifelong career in photography. His work has been exhibited, published and collected around the globe and Ryszard has been awarded every major accolade that can be bestowed on a photographer including Doctor Honoris Causa Awarded by Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. 

In his workshop July 17 – 23, Ryszard shares his Photocomposing expertise, teaching students how to assemble seemingly unrelated images, taken at different times and in distant parts of the world, to create seamless compositions. 

Kirkland started his career at Look and Life magazines in the 60’s and 70’s  “golden age” of photojournalism. He has worked on the set of over 100 motion pictures: Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, 2001 A Space Odyssey, Out of Africa, Titanic, Moulin Rouge and Australia. His iconic images of Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Jack Nicholson, Angelina Jolie and Antonio Banderas, among others are known all over the world. 

His July 24 – 30 workshop is for inspiring and professional photographers looking to advance their photographic skills to a level only an iconic photographer like Kirkland can elicit. Drawing together his career of expertise and experiences in this weeklong workshop, Douglas gives students exposure into the mind of one of the photo industry's most influential artists.

We look forward to welcoming both masters to campus. The roster of Canon Explorers of Light teaching Maine this year includes Sam Abell, Russell Carpenter, ASC, Gregory Heisler, Stephen Johnson, Parish Kohanim, Norman McGrath, and Joyce Tenneson.

Jan Rosenbaum’s Solo Exhbition at Caldbeck Gallery

Jan Rosenbaum, internationally recognized artist in photography and Maine Media Workshops + College faculty member since 1998, is the featured artist in the solo exhibit, “At Water,” at the Caldbeck Gallery in Rockland, Maine. This exhibition runs from June 22 until July 16. The opening reception will be held June 22 from 5-8 pm. “At Water” is an ongoing exhibition of images shot in 2009 and 2010 and are a response to the beaches of Maine.

Rosenbaum has served as an instructor in Research & Development at the Polytechnic University of New York, as the senior scientist responsible for optical and color reproduction in digital imaging systems for a U.S. division of Agfa, Inc., and has worked with Hasselblad Engineering, Kodak and the Times newspapers. His work has been on exhibit throughout the country and is part of the permanent collection in galleries in New York City, Michigan, Virginia and Illinois.

Jan is a long-standing and respected faculty member in the MFA program at Maine Media College. He also is a hit with the young artists during the summer Maine Media Workshops and with those young-at-heart photographers building a broad skill set with their new digital cameras. In July and August, Rosenbaum will teach Young Digital Photographers, Introductory Digital Photography and Advanced Young Digital Photographers. Visit his website to view more of Jan Rosenbaum’s work.

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