A team of student and alumni filmmakers from the film program in the College of Visual and Performing Arts' Department of Transmedia took first place in "Sleepless in Lake Placid," a 24-hour filmmaking competition that was part of the Lake Placid Film Forum, held June 14-17 in Lake Placid, N.Y.
Team Syracuse--composed of students Ben Daniels '07, Hank Vohrer '07 and Jonathan Waters G'09, along with alumnus Kevin Meegan G'07--competed against teams from Burlington College, Keene State College, Marlboro College and the Rochester Institute of Technology. Each team was given 24 hours to script, cast, produce, edit and present a completed 10-minute film. Films were screened at the Lake Placid Center for the Arts and judged by stage and film actor Caerthan Banks, independent filmmaker John O'Brien and actor James Tolkan. Team Syracuse received the Robin Pell Award from the Adirondack Film Society, which is designed to encourage and support emerging filmmakers from the Northeast.
"All the filmmaking teams did a great job," says Owen Shapiro, SU professor of film and a panelist at the forum. "Team Syracuse presented a piece that was much different from the others in content and execution. They had no idea what to expect when they arrived, but they put together some thoughtful material, good cinematography and editing, and good acting."
The Lake Placid Film Forum is an annual seminar/film presentation event that focuses on screenwriting. This is the first year the "Sleepless in Lake Placid" competition was held.
Shapiro, also the artistic director of the Syracuse International Film Festival (SIFF), says that each of the completed student films from the competition will be shown during the 2008 festival, April 26-May 4, 2008.
