Frank Longo, a recent graduate of the FSU Film School (MFA 1999), has been signed to direct a feature film for Zide/Perry Productions, releasing through New Line Cinema. Zide's most recent film was the hugely successful "American Pie." The Longo assignment was featured in a front page article in the May 18 issue of VARIETY.
Things may never be the same again at the FSU Film School, which has just been given a magnificent classic 1978 Silver Shadow Rolls Royce sedan in mint condition. The three-ton vehicle was donated by one of the Film School's long-time supporters and benefactors, Tallahassee businessman John Hunt, Sr.
A new internship program, exclusively for FSU Film School Students, has been established at Paramount Studios in Hollywood by one of the School's benefactors and supporters, A.C. Lyles. Two undergraduate Film School students, Ali Bell and Nick Verenes, have been selected as the program's first interns. They began work at Paramount on March 13.
The Coca-Cola Company has selected ten students from five major university film schools for participation in this year's film production competition, each of whom will receive $5,000 to make a 50-second film during the next two months. The student who makes the winning film will receive a $10,000 prize at the gala ceremony in Las Vegas in March. The film will then be screened at more than 10,000 theaters in the U.S.
Melissa Carter, a recent graduate of the Florida State University Film School, has sold an 18 page treatment for a new film entitled Catch of the Day, to New Line Cinema in Hollywood for an initial payment of $225,000. She is now at work on the full-length script, the film of which will be produced by Warren Zide, whose mose recent films are American Pie and Flight 180.
At a gala ceremony held on June 13 in the Goldwyn Theater at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Hollywood, the FSU Film School thesis film, Slow Dancin' Down the Aisles of the Quickcheck, was awarded a Student Academy Award in the narrative film category. The award, accompanied by a $1,000 cash prize, was accepted by the film's director, Thomas Wade Jackson. Together with eleven other award winners in different categories from various film schools in the U.S., Jackson was treated to a week long all-expense paid trip to Los Angeles, complete with press interviews, visits to studios, receptions, and a dinner given for the winners by the Governors of the Academy.
In January Caress of the Creature, a 2006 Masters thesis film written and directed by Stewart McAlpine, was accepted into the nationally recognized Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. The January 21 and 24 screenings of Caress as a part of the "Gallery Shorts" program for the acclaimed rebel festival marked the film's national debut, and garnered the film an Honorable Mention Award in the shorts category.
In one of the most watched and prestigious short film competitions in the country, Florida State University film students have beat out hundreds of other filmmakers to garner three of the 10 national finalist spots for the 2007 Coca-Cola Refreshing Filmmaker’s Award.
At a Florida film industry reception hosted by Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, Film School professor and Academy Award winner Stuart Robertson was honored by Film Florida, a not-for-profit collective of film industry professionals and professional organizations, for “Appreciation of Outstanding Professional Achievement in Film and as an Educator Building the Future of Florida’s Film and Entertainment Industry."
With a recent top-three finish at the 28th Annual College Television Awards in Hollywood, Calif., the Emmy-winning tradition continues at Florida State University's College of Motion Picture, Television and Recording Arts—best known as The Film School.