Four new programs are being introduced for RIIFF 2000:

KidsEye

How do you see the world?
For every person, it is different.

For young people, the sights, the sounds, the life around them is part of learning, growing and adapting. How do they see their world? How is that different from what adults perceive?

When filmmaker Steven Spielberg gave his own children camcorders to document their lives, he opened them up to a new opportunity to communicate with others about how they saw their world. He also presented an opportunity for their parents, and adults in general, to cut through a lifetime of conditioning, and see the freshness of the world through a child's eye.

With that thinking in mind, the Flickers Arts Collaborative, producers of the BROOKS PHARMACY Rhode Island International Film Festival with support from Radio Disney with the New England Institute of Technology and the Union Saint Jean Baptiste/CFLI, have created a program to encourage young filmmakers in the region to exhibit their work. Simply called KidsEye.™ The program is designed to allow kids ages 8 to 15 to tell their stories, share their worlds, and use the language of the moving image to speak for them. This universal language, which has a commonality in all cultures, can now have an opportunity to bridge the greatest barrier of all: age.

KidsEye, a filmmaking workshop for kids aged 7-15 which was introduced at last year's festival, has been expanded into a summer day camp. This four-day camp will feature prominent guest artists from the industry who will focus on teaching kids the essentials of filmmaking. Working with sponsor Radio Disney, KidsEye will take place in the Newport and Providence area and will include a sloop ride to Rose Island, an outdoor concert, film screening and barbecue.

Screenplay Competition

A Screenplay Competition has been added to RIIFF to celebrate the written word that serves as the creative foundation for all films. This will feature a cash award of $2,500 for the Grand Prize winner and a public reading in addition to other awards and honors for top adjudicated screenplays.

Screenplays will be judged by a jury of distinguished panel of industry professionals, peers and film fans. The reading will be videotaped and a tape will be presented to the winner. Also, depending on the script appropriateness, the winner may also have segments of the work produced during the Master Class on Production which features the participation of a noted director, (last year, the program was led by maverick director, Robert Downey, Sr.). Screenplays will be judged on creativity, innovation, vision, originality and the use of language. The key element is that of communication and how it complements and is transformed by the language of film.

ScriptBiz

ScriptBiz is a business seminar for screenwriters which focuses on how to break into the screenwriting business and stay there. This new event will be held in the Warwick area in conjunction with the screenplay competition and will feature an informative "Selling to Hollywood" panel discussion, private pitching sessions, and script consultations. To be held on Saturday, August 12 from 9 a.m.-5 p.m., the seminar will feature an informative "Selling to Hollywood" panel discussion, private pitching sessions and script consultations.

According to RIIFF Executive Director, George T. Marshall, ScriptBiz™ focuses on how to break into the screenwriting business and stay there. "Whether your motivation is to pitch your story ideas or get an evaluation on your completed screenplay, you'll be meeting and dealing with experienced agents, writers and producers who know what Hollywood wants and if you have what it takes to succeed." Joining the festival to coordinate the event is Newport resident Eleyne Austen Sharp, founder of Community Writers Association and former program director of New England Screenwriters Conference.

RIIFF's Marketing Communications Awards is a special competition run concurrently with the film festival call for entries. This will showcase the best in commercial advertising and promotional work for radio, television, web design and print. A display and exhibition of the top award winners will take place during the full week of RIIFF.

Take One, Two Three: Filmmaking with the Pros

How do you make motion pictures on a shoe-string budget and make a living? That and other questions involving the world of independent film are addressed in this year filmmaking master class program presented by the Brooks Pharmacy Providence/Rhode Island International Film Festival (RIIFF).

“Take One, Two, Three: Filmmaking With The Pros" will take place August 7-9, 2000 in locations throughout Providence, RI. Now in its second year, the workshop will focus on the process of producing a film - from fundraising, to camera angles, to editing. Over the course of three days, the workshop will cover all the basics and have a few surprises thrown in.

“We are pleased that this year’s Master Class is geared for a greater hands-on approach,” stated Betty Newberry Galligan, RIIFF Managing Director. “Essentially, what we’ve created is a program by filmmakers for filmmakers.”

The first day of the workshop, Take One - The Basics, will include an actual casting for the shoot on the following day and classes on: Fundraising, Budgeting, Accounting, Contracts, Forming Corporations and LTD’s.; Scouting, Creating a set, Obtaining Location Permits; How a screenplay turns into a shooting script - how do the director and screenwriter collaborate; and Distribution and Promotion.

On the second day, Take Two - The Shoot, participants will shoot scenes from a script that was submitted to the festival's screenwriting competition . They will learn about lights, cameras, sound and will be involved in discussions between the Director and Director of Photography. By the end of the day, they will have shot their own visions of the chosen scenes. This year’s director is Lloyd Kaufman.

The third day, Take Three - The Edit, consists of editing the footage that was shot on Day 2. In the morning, the participants will be given a brief lecture by Tom Ohanian, creator of the Avid editing system, on the do's and don'ts of editing. They will then spend the afternoon editing the footage on an Avid system.