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| Volume 11, No. 43 |
July 28-3, 2010 |
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| VOTE WITH YOUR REMOTE
Contest brings local films to digital TV audiences | | By Leonard Martinez | | 
Local filmmakers and music video directors are getting the chance to show off their hard work in a unique competition this fall where home viewers will decide the winners.
“Vote with Your Remote” is the inaugural Time Warner Cable competition that aims to link local cable subscribers with a diverse collection of film and music video makers. Professionals and students that live in El Paso are invited to submit their films and music videos by Sept. 30.
Joseph Villescas, an independent consultant in El Paso who helped Time Warner Cable develop the competition, said there has been one big challenge with the competition.
“The primary challenge is discovering that so many professionals and students have projects that are still lingering in the final phases of completion,” Villescas said. “We have postponed the deadline to the end of the month to make sure that people submitting feature films, documentaries, short films and music videos have enough time to finalize their videos and applications.”
The four categories of this year’s competition include feature length films, documentary films, short films and music videos. Submissions are welcome in both English and Spanish.
Viewers will vote by downloading films and music videos on the El Paso On Demand Channel 831 for free in their homes throughout September, October and November.
The submissions with the highest number of views will be announced Nov. 19. There will be one winner in the student category and one winner in the professional category. The winners’ films will remain on channel 831 for Time Warner subscribers to view at any time until the end of spring. The winners will also have their film screened publicly for local residents at a local venue.
Although there will be just two winners, all who enter the competition will get much needed exposure for their work.
“Exposure is the basis for having a career in any form of media, and if these films and music videos stay on a shelf or locked away in a hard drive for no one to experience, then it is to our collective loss,” Villescas said. “Entries in this Time Warner Cable exhibition have the opportunity to reach thousands of TWC households, and the features of EP On Demand Channel 831 provide a superior method of viewing and experiencing the film or music video while learning about the local group of individuals that collaborated in that production. One should remember that the number of local subscribers dwarfs the size of all local theater audiences combined or the total number of local viewers that can be attracted to Internet sites like YouTube.”
Gilbert Chavarria, who runs the local film website EPFilm.org, said this type of competition is important in the local filmmaking community. He said it is a welcome addition to the venues for local films including the Plaza Classic Film Festival and Premiere Cinemas, which has been friendly to local filmmakers.
“Anytime a project is completed, it represents a big step in the development of any filmmaker,” Chavarria said. “Entering a competition such as this has the residual effect of bringing a project to completion. This is important because many times local filmmakers are so focused on making a film, that they overlook the big picture, which is being able to make another film and so and so on. It also serves to energize the entire filmmaking community as a whole by providing a time and place for the appreciation of local films, which include the filmmakers and the cast and crew that help make the film possible.”
How to enter
“Vote with Your Remote”
Information and the application for all entries are available at:
elpasoondemand.com/articles/777/. All entries must be dropped off at the Time Warner Cable office located at 7010 Airport Rd., El Paso, Texas 79906 by Sept. 30. Competition is open to students and professionals who call El Paso home.
Comments or questions about this story? E-mail Secret@whatsuppub.com
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