|
Horror stalks the Internet!: Halloween is over, but it's not too late to vote for your favorite locally-produced short
Nov 07, 2009 (Destin Log - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
What if you gave a film festival and nobody came?
"We had about 50 people show up to the actual screening on Halloween Day," R.J. Murdock, organizer of Fort Walton Beach's Halloween Film Festival, told The Log. "I blame myself for the low number because I should have placed an ad in the movie section of the local papers for the event."
Thanks to the Internet, however, the festival films aregettingasecondchance: As of Nov. 5, more than 150 viewers had watched the locally-produced short films online and voted on their favorites, Murdock said.
Murdock, a local actor and videographer and president of the Production Services Association of Northwest Florida said that earlier this year, the PSA sponsored a "One Word, One Month, One Movie" contest in which participants picked a word out of a hat, then used the word as the basis for a three-minute film. He said the contest generated 13 films and a positive response from the PSA membership, so he proposed a Halloween horror film contest as a followup.
Murdock said his goals were to promote the PSA, nurture local filmmakers, and bring people to the Fort Walton Beach downtown area for the festival, helping the merchants.
Competitors came from Niceville, Fort Walton Beach, Shalimar, Santa Rosa Beach and one from Orlando, with titles including "All My Friends Are Zombies" and "Rubber Duckies of the Apocalypse."
Murdock said the first, second and third place winners receive $100, $60 and $40, plus gift certificates from various downtown merchants.
Murdock said he's learned a lot about marketing and organizing film events, and hopes to have several more film festivals throughout next year, starting with a Valentine's Day festival where all the films will be title "____, A Love Story." Ultimately, he said, he'd like to see a major local festival for independent filmmakers sometime in the next year.
To see more of The Destin Log or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
http://www.destin.com/. Copyright (c) 2009, Destin Log, Fla. Distributed by
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email
tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax
to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave.,
Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
|
INDUSTRIES
Activate Email 
Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO East, January 20-22, 2010. Miami, FL.
