Want to help me judge a horror movie contest?

I know many of you Media Arts 129 students are horror fans! I have a cool opportunity for you this week! I've been asked to judge the Professional Division films from the Horror Film Race!

The Horror Film Race is an annual film festival put on by The Art Institute of Dallas! Festival Director Professor Vince William has approved my use of student interns to observe and participate in my judging process. We'll give you a great job to add to your resume: Judging Panel Intern, Horror Film Race 2014.

Hollywood Industry people hang out with their peers and argue passionately about movies, so let's get you practicing this skillset and add it to your resume! There are 8 short films to judge, about 55 minutes in all. Watching the shorts, discussing them, arguing, and scoring should take about 2-2 1/2 hours (I know we're all talkers, and this should be super fun!). The ultimate decision comes down to me as the Professional Judge, but I want you all to use your powers of criticism, analysis, and persuasion on me.

I'm thinking we can get together in the library this week on Thursday (time to be determined by participants!). If that date doesn't work for the majority, perhaps we can meet at the Starbucks nearest to campus on Saturday or Sunday. The judging deadline is Sunday night.

We will judge on these five categories: Story, Scare Factor, Use of Genre, Visual Quality, and Overall Mood of the Film. Also, Judges can make individual nominations in any category.

The categories are: 

Film of the Year
Best Director
Best Cinematography
Best Villain
Best Scream Queen
Best Blood, Guts & Gore
Best Weapon
Best Scare
Best Screenplay
Best Editing
Best Acting
Best Use of Genre
Best Costume of Horrorfest


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In related horror news, I found this Halloween sale at the Writer's Store on a cool-looking bundle of books and videos on how to write a great horror movie. I'm not familiar with any of them so I'm not personally recommending them, but investigate and see if you want them! It's a pretty good price, but maybe you want to split it with a few other students.

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Also, here is a horror comedy short of mine based on Italian giallos. The film festival version had licensed music from legendary horror band Goblin, from Dario Argento's 1982 Tenebrae. So watch it once with the current music and then picture this music. It's amazing how much music changes a film!

 

And here is a gruesome comedy short that won a bunch of awards. I made it the first day I got my Canon 5D, just messing around testing the camera with my sister, my friend, and my dog Hero. So this was me shooting with the lens that comes with the camera, using natural light and a Zoom H4N for sound. The editing took a lot longer, and was done by me in Final Cut 7.

 

The idea for CONSUMED came from me being on LA INK getting tattooed. I had to listen to the poor woman next to me tell her story on camera over and over again about the coyotes in the Hollywood Hills killing her dog, and how she had to pick up the pieces. Absolutely awful, and I made this movie to purge the story from my brain so it wouldn't happen to MY dog. An example of the art that comes from healthy purging.