Apple Computer Demonstrations
Friday, 11am-5pm and Saturday, 10 am-1pm
Pack Place Gallery

Apple is proud to support the Asheville Film Festival and will be on hand this year to give workshops and demos of professional film and video techniques and workflows. Turn your vision into reality. Meet the challenge of HD production values. Tell your story using Apple’s integrated tools for real-time video, motion graphics, and audio production. Final Cut Studio, your all-in-one solution in the new era of post-production. Please join us as we showcase how Apple's professional applications are used to create award winning projects. The workshops will focus on HD video and film production with Final Cut Pro, sound design and music creation with Logic Pro and Soundtrack Pro, advanced motion graphics, animation, and visualization with Motion and Shake, and professional DVD authoring with DVD Studio Pro and Compressor. Technologies previews of Sony's XDCAM-HD, Panasonic's P2 format, and 24p editing will be highlighted along with Apple's software and hardware solutions. Apple engineers and representatives will be on hand to answer your questions and discuss your project workflows.

Picture this: Your film has been on the market for a year. You’ve been to all the festivals, got some awards, received great feedback from the audiences but you still don’t have a distribution deal. This panel will explore the creative ways to go about getting distribution.

Gregory S. Gardner is the product division manager at Laemmle Theatres, and has been with the filmmaker friendly Southern California chain for almost 20 years, booking films and special events. Recently he has formed C*ME (Cinematic Media Events) a distribution source that coordinates booking, publicity, marketing and advertising services for the independent producer and director looking to open their films theatrically, especially geared toward AMPAS eligibility for feature documentaries. Gregory has spoken on panels at various film festivals and film forums, and has been at the forefront of independent cinema through out his career.

If horror is your thing, learn from the masters of Horror! Don Mancini, creator of the “Chucky” series and Jack Sholder, whose credits include The Hidden and Nightmare on Elm Street II will share their tricks of the trade. Mancini and Sholder also collaborated on a TALES FROM THE CRYPT episode, "Fitting Punishment," which Sholder directed, and Mancini co-wrote, for HBO.

Don Mancini created the Child’s Play franchise, the phenomenally successful series of horror movies featuring “Chucky” the killer doll. Mancini wrote the screenplay for all five films in the series, and made his directorial debut with the latest, 2004’s Seed Of Chucky.

Jack Sholder directed his first feature in 1982 for New Line Cinema, Alone in the Dark with Martin Landau, Jack Palance and Donald Pleasance. He then wrote Where Are the Children starring Jill Clayburgh for Ray Stark and Columbia, and directed Nightmare on Elm Street II. Sholder’s other credits include The Hidden, By Dawn’s Early Light, Evil Never Dies, Tales from the Crypt, and Twelve Days of Tremor.

Making a film is only about half the battle. Successful marketing and publicity are key to a project’s success. Creating the hype often takes the efforts of a full-time public relations professional. Get tips on how to create and maintain the buzz about your film.

Gregory S. Gardner is the product division manager at Laemmle Theatres, and has been with the filmmaker friendly Southern California chain for almost 20 years, booking films and special events. Recently he has formed C*ME (Cinematic Media Events) a distribution source that coordinates booking, publicity, marketing and advertising services for the independent producer and director looking to open their films theatrically, especially geared toward AMPAS eligibility for feature documentaries. Gregory has spoken on panels at various film festivals and film forums, and has been at the forefront of independent cinema through out his career.

Screenwriter and former critic Terry Curtis Fox discusses the role of the screenwriter in the filmmaking process. He'll talk both about the craft and art of screenwriting and about whether and how we can view a screenwriting as a movie's "author."

TERRY CURTIS FOX is a screenwriter, playwright, and journalist. His screen work includes the Miramax feature Fortress, the HBO feature Perfect Witness, and the forthcoming UGC feature A Very Simple Crime (co-written with Nicholas Kazan and to be directed by Barbet Schroeder). Among his more notable television credits are Hill Street Blues, The Marshal, and the Showtime series The Hunger, for which he served as co-show runner. His plays have been produced by the Organic Theatre of Chicago as well as New York’s Playwrights Horizons and the Performance Group. His play Cops was recently revived in Los Angeles and has been performed throughout the country for more than two decades. He served as a critic for both the Chicago Reader and the Village Voice, has taught at USC and WCU, and was a member of the Board of Directors of the WGA west for nine years.

North Carolina native, Tim Kirkman, writer, producer and director of the Sundance hit, Loggerheads will discuss taking an idea from inception and translating that into a successful film.

Session Leader: Tim Kirkman

A N.C. Native, Tim Kirkman made his feature film debut in 1997 with the highly acclaimed documentary Dear Jesse. The film earned an Emmy Award Nomination after airing on the HBO/Cinemax Reel Life series and was nominated for GLAAD, Gotham and Independent Spirit Awards and also named Best Documentary of the Year (alongside Michael Moore¹s ³The Big One²) by the Boston Society of Film Critics. His most recent film, LOGGERHEADS, had its premiere at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival where it was an Official Selection in the Dramatic Competition. The film went on to win prizes at several film festivals across the United States, including the Grand Jury Prize at Outfest and Audience Awards at the Nashville and Florida film festivals. Starring Tess Harper, Bonnie Hunt, Michael Learned, Kip Pardue, Chris Sarandon and Robin Weigert, LOGGERHEADS was released into theaters across the country by Strand Releasing in October 2005. Tim is currently writing a feature film adaptation of three short stories by the singer/songwriter Rosanne Cash and co-writing Lee Smith’s novel Family Linen, both of which he will direct. He is also writing a biopic of gay professional baseball player Billy Bean for Craig Zadan and Neil Meron (producers of CHICAGO) and Alan Poul (SIX FEET UNDER). Tim Kirkman lives in Brooklyn and Los Angeles with his partner, theater director Drew Barr.

Matt will discuss how he broke into the business as an actor and his relationship with his managers and agents.

Matt O’Leary began acting at age 13 in Mom’s Got a Date with a Vampire on the Disney Channel. Matt has worked steadily since then with credits including Domestic Disturbance with John Travolta and Vince Vaughn, Spy Kid’s 2, Spy Kid’s 3, Havoc, Brick, and Law and Order Criminal Intent. Matt is currently starring in Death Sentence with Kevin Bacon and John Goodman and is shooting Die Hard 4 with Bruce Willis.

Middle and high school students from Western North Carolina teamed up with mentors at the University of North Carolina at Asheville’s Mass Communication Department to produce these awesome short films. Come to our world premiere! The filmmakers will be there to share their experience and to address your questions.

Technical Exhibits
In between the fantastic films and educational seminars browse through the variety of technical exhibits that will be displayed. Be sure to swing by Pack Place where there will be a collection of products, equipment and contact information for local production crew for your next film project. Pack Place will house a variety of locations that are film-friendly and have been used in multiple productions.