The winners of the Second Annual Women in Film and Video/New England (WIFV/NE) Screenwriting Competition was announced on May 27th at "From Script to Screen: Screenwriting Secrets," WIFV/NE's most successful screenwriting event featuring screenwriters Andrew Arthur and Susan Koughuell held at National Boston Video Center in Boston. The event was co-sponsored by Final Draft and IMAGINE.

The winners: Jack Bellingham of San Francisco, CA for his script
Deborah Samson, about a determined woman who poses as a man during the
Revolutionary War (top prize). Rhea Becker of Jamaica Plain, MA, for her script Drawing the Line, and Merna Lobel Victor of Lexington, MA for her script, Editha Marston (runner-ups).

Michael Hauge, a Los Angeles-based, selected the winning scripts
script consultant and author of "Writing Screenplays that Sell." Hauge was due to be in Boston for his own seminar, which was unfortunately cancelled due to lack of enrollment.

Women in Film and Video/New England is an organization dedicated to
advancing professional development and achievement for women involved in all
areas of film, video, television and new media. Its offices are located in
Watertown, Mass.

HBO/Cinemax and Viewpoint Studios recently joined forces to develop an HBO/Cinemax 2003 Affiliate Sales spot. This high-energy graphics-intensive spot was designed to drive affiliate participation in 3rd quarter marketing efforts, building awareness for HBO & Max’s upcoming original programming and big theatrical hits.

“The client was looking for a sales tool to get their affiliates excited about their new season of programming,” stated Viewpoint Studios’ Creative Director, Michael Middeleer. “They wanted an entertaining, image-style approach, consistent with their on-air campaigns, rather than a traditional, hard marketing sell. I think we accomplished that.”

“The creative was designed to generate a feeling of big-screen excitement,” stated Viewpoint Studios’ Art Director, Michael Frederick. “It was important that the visual thread of the spot allow the viewer to walk away and say WOW!”

To create a look that conveyed this sense of bigness and theatrical scope, the design used 3-D geometric squares emerging out of an organic sky. Programming clips and typographic elements are woven in.

HBO and Viewpoint Studios have worked together on a number of on-air image pieces, as well, as individual promotional campaigns for HBO movies and series.

Middeleer concludes, “With their creative vision and openness to fresh, new ideas, the people at HBO and Cinemax are a pleasure to work with.”

Viewpoint Studios is an award-winning creative services agency providing clients solutions to all their marketing needs through the integration of design, promotion and advertising. Their clients include ABC, Court TV, Discovery Networks, Disney, DIY, ESPN Networks, FX, HBO, HGTV, PBS, Showtime, Cinemax, DirecTV, SciFi, The History Channel, TLC, The Travel Channel as well as broadcast groups and TV stations worldwide.

New England now has a centrally located signatory talent payroll service dedicated to the needs of producers and talent in the region. The founders of CrewStar, Inc., a leader in production crew payroll and international crew booking services, have announced the formation of CrewStar Talent, Inc. CrewStar Talent will provide signatory paymaster services for producers using union talent under the jurisdiction of the SAG/AFTRA and AFM Industrial Collective Bargaining Agreements.

“Actually, we have been in this business since 1986”, Lily A. Maiella, CrewStar Talent, Inc. President told IMAGINE. Local producers may recall the signatory talent payroll service that we operated for several years before merging with another company. But since then, producers have consistently expressed their preference for a local supplier. Now, we’re ready to fill this need once again with unparalleled personal service from a company that is dedicated to this region and the producers of non-broadcast media.”

Among other benefits, CrewStar Talent provides a producer with access to union talent without the producer becoming a direct signatory to the SAG/AFTRA or AFM agreement. Secondly, it makes talent compensation and compliance with union, state and federal employment guidelines an easy, one-stop relationship. “We know that the region has been somewhat slowed over the past few years, but we can see the start of a strong recovery”, remarked Joe Maiella, Sr. VP, CrewStar Talent. “As production levels increase, we know that savvy producers will choose CrewStar Talent. No other company in our industry is as highly responsive or can match our reputation for performance and integrity.”

“This move is really about making it as simple and efficient as possible for producers to outsource their production administration tasks to a local, well-known supplier”, adds Lily Maiella. “One they can trust to do the job right the first time and every time.”

For more information, visit www.crewstartalent.com.

Massachusetts-based Hamzeh Mystique Films, producer and distributor of the critically acclaimed independent feature film SHADOW GLORIES, and Harron Entertainment are currently in production on the feature-length documentary THE LETTER. The project explores what American news outlets have dubbed the “Somali invasion” of Lewiston, Maine, an insulated, predominately white, former mill town struggling to maintain its equilibrium in a rapidly changing economy. Many of us have watched this story in the news with great interest.
Written and directed by Ziad H. Hamzeh, and produced by Hamzeh, Bert Brown and Marc Sandler, THE LETTER probes the reactions of city officials and citizens to the sudden influx of 1,100 former Somali refugees, who, deciding that Lewiston offers the best of all environments chose to relocate there en masse in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The situation deteriorates into an emotional issue made more acute by the fact that a neighboring town is the birthplace of one of the crewmembers killed and dragged through the streets of war-torn Somalia in the incident known as “Black Hawk Down,” which is well know as it was made into a major motion picture.
A firestorm of controversy erupts when Lewiston Mayor Larry Raymond sends an open letter to the Somali elders advising them that the city’s resources are strained to the limit and asking them to tell other Somalis not to move into the city. Interpreted as racism by some and a rallying cry by white supremacist groups across the United States, THE LETTER documents the ensuing crosscurrents of emotions and events, including a “hate” rally convened by The World Church of the Creator and a counter “peace” rally involving nearly 4,000 Lewiston residents supporting ethnic and cultural diversity.

The documentary makers know the town of Lewiston quite well as it was their location for SHADOW GLORIES, where they had virtually unfettered access to city officials, community leaders, and the Somali elders (Ziad Hamzeh speaks Arabic, so he was able to develop an immediate level of trust).

THE LETTER offers a topical, comprehensive look at the dynamics of immigration many cities and countries worldwide now confront in this age of “globalization” and the clash of alien cultures and religions that inevitably follows. The project is scheduled for completion in July 2003.