UAT Digital Video Highlights Reel

Here's a reel highlighting excerpts of UAT Digital Video student works from 2005 to 2012, with peeks behind the scenes into prop fabrication, set design, makeup, effects, and more!



Complete list of projects, in order:

"Fallout"
"Bad Whiskey"
"I Have Some News"
"Reset"
"Get Pade"
"Data Stream"
"Pirate Booty"
"Like You Said"
"Somewhere (dot dot dot)"
"Extraordinary Colleagues"
"Flight of the Melvin"
"Red Sand"
"Nardo and the Sock of Destiny"
"Breeze in the Wind"
"Chet vs. The Elevator"
"Backup Plan"
"Peephole"
"Covet"

'Fallout' Selected for Fright Night Film Festival

Just when we thought our festival run for "Fallout" was all wrapped up, the folks at Fright Night Film Festival in Louisville, KY, contacted us and asked to screen the film. One of their programmers apparently caught the film at the Terror Film Festival last October and thought it would be a good fit. So "Fallout" rides again on the big screen this summer. Check out the festival's official website here!

It's IMDB Friday!

Today I thought it would be fun to dig through the Internet Movie Database and see what some of our alumni have been up to!

Adam Benson - VFX artist in Los Angeles (Green Lantern, Star Wars Episode I)
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1652474/

Carlos Chavez - grip/gaffer in Los Angeles
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1949156/

Erin Clark - VFX artist in Los Angeles (Game of Thrones, Tron: Legacy)
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2527528/

Zac Donner - working in Los Angeles as a grip
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3352077/

Keegan Ead - cinematographer / editor in Phoenix
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2528542/

Carl Hawke - freelance production designer in Phoenix
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2496561/

Philip Joslin - VFX artist in Los Angeles (Green Hornet, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2)
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2638540/

Matt McElroy - VFX artist in Los Angeles (Justified)
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2692227/

Rick Ravenell - VFX artist in Los Angeles (Avatar, Castle, The River)
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2693314/

Robert Sucato - producer / director / cinematographer in Phoenix
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0837025/

'Melvin' and 'Parallax' Screenings at Arizona International Film Festival

UAT Digital Video's family-friendly sci-fi comedy "Flight of the Melvin" will be screening at the Arizona International Film Festival in Tucson, Arizona, as part of their "Shorts for Youth" program.

Shorts for Youth
Saturday, April 21st @ 3 pm
The Screening Room
127 East Congress Street
Tucson, AZ 85701

Buy Tickets Here!


Professor Paul DeNigris's Thesis Film "Parallax" (winner of "Best Arizona Short Film" at the 2012 Phoenix Film Festival) will also be screening at Arizona International. The film was produced by an all-star crew of UAT DV students and alumni.

Arizona Shorts
Wednesday, April 18th @ 8 pm
The Screening Room
127 East Congress Street
Tucson, AZ 85701

Buy Tickets Here!

Alumni Update: Erin Frisbie ('07)

Our UAT Digital Video alumni continue to do amazing things with their careers, and often keep us updated on what they're doing. 2007 graduate Erin Frisbie recently sent us a story about her work as a producer for SheKnows TV, and her new show "Homergency." Read Erin's story below!

Today is a very special day for me because I am able to share a project that was an amazing experience & opportunity to help a family that was truly in need. In early March the SheKnows TV crew & an enormous team of volunteers went into The Bundy family's house to give them a total home makeover from top to bottom. In late 2011 Scott Bundy, 33, was diagnosed with spinal cancer. He was faced with the difficult decision to have surgery on his spine removing the tumors to continue living to see his young son Jakob, 2, grow up. The surgery would paralyze Scott from the waist down forcing him to live the rest of his life in a wheelchair.

Before Scott was able to come home from the hospital the family needed to remodel a bathroom in the home & install ramps to ensure he had basic access to his house. The local news featured the family on a segment that got the attention of Home Depot who generously donated the time and materials to install ramp access to the house & create a handicap accessible bathroom in the hall bath of the family's home. While these improvements made it possible for Scott to come home, they did not remedy all of the struggles Scott would soon face in everyday life in their house.

SheKnows.com put out a casting call in mid February to find a family in need of a total home makeover. Nicole Dees, a family friend, answered the call & submitted the Bundy's story to myself and rest of the SKTV team. We knew that we had all of the resources to change this family's house & create a living environment that is comfortable & accessible for Scott for years to come.

Today Season 2 of SheKnows.com Homergency went live on our site. Below is the link to the full episodes, I hope you enjoy the show!
http://www.sheknows.com/sheknowstv/homergency/season-2

SheKnows.com is now casting for Season 3 of Homergency! (Please Note: We are looking for families in the Phoenix area)

Here are links to two stories the local news produced as media coverage of our show and The Bundy's story.

http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/region_phoenix_metro/central_phoenix/home-makeover-helps-phoenix-man-battling-paralysis

http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/2012/03/21/20120321makeover-show-helps-phoenix-man-wheelchair.html

ERIN FRISBIE
Producer
SheKnows TV
erin.frisbie@sheknows.com

'Parallax' Wins Best Arizona Short at 2012 Phoenix Film Festival!

At the 2012 Phoenix Film Festival awards ceremony last night, Professor Paul DeNigris' Master's Thesis Film "Parallax" was awarded the Copper Wing for "Best Arizona Short." The film was produced with the participation of an all-star team of UAT Digital Video students and alumni who volunteered countless hours to make the compelling and realistic Iraq War drama. A huge contingent of UAT students, alumni, faculty, and staff also contributed to the film's budget on Kickstarter, so "Parallax" truly was a community endeavor.

UAT Digital Video won this prestigious award last year for the sci-fi action thriller "Fallout." This year's Arizona Shorts competition was tough, with lots of great entries in what many festivalgoers have described as the best batch of Arizona Shorts to ever play the festival. So "Team Parallax" is especially gratified to have won when pitted against such a great group of films! Congrats to everyone involved!

'Parallax' and 'Covet' at Phoenix Film Festival this weekend!

Professor Paul DeNigris' Master's Thesis film "Parallax" will be screening twice during the 2012 Phoenix Film Festival's opening weekend. The film was produced by an all-star team of UAT Digital Video students and alumni who came out in force to help their prof!

"Parallax" - part of "Arizona Shorts"
Saturday, March 31 @ 10:40am
Sunday, April 1 @ 4:25pm

Click here for tickets for "Parallax"

And "Covet" - a multiple award-winner at last summer's 48 Hour Film Challenge, produced by many of the same folks who worked on "Parallax" - will also screen at the Phoenix Film Festival.

"Covet" - part of "Arizona Shorts Showcase"
Saturday, March 31 @ 9:05am

Click here for tickets for "Covet"

Help a UAT DV Alum launch his writing career!

UAT Digital Video grad Abraham Stopani sent me this email a couple of days ago:

As you may or may not know, my novel is in its final stage of editing and will soon be ready to go out into the world. I will be presenting it to editors and agents beginning April 20th. One of the big things the publishing industry looks at these days is how many people follow an aspiring author on their social media pages. If you don't already follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Google+ would you, please consider doing so? If you wanted to be really nice you could encourage some of your friends to do the same. I'm constantly giving away free stuff on my blog and I link there from my social media feeds, so, hey, free stuff.

In fact, starting in April I'm going to open six weeks of drawings for autographed novels, books on writing and all manner of other cool stuff so now is a great time to jump on board.  If you recruit people have them include your name in a post or reply when they "like" (follow, +) me and for each person I'll enter you in a drawing for an extra special prize at the end of my publicity push.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/perilouswriting
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/S.J.Abraham
Google+: https://plus.google.com/103874764566828077737/posts

Incidentally, I'm going under my pen name of S.J. Abraham so don't be surprised when you see that name on the links above.

Abe was one of our star students while he was at UAT, and I'm sure his fantasy novels are going to leverage his incredible imagination and his knack for spinning a great story! Be a hipster and "like" his pages before everyone else does, and tell him Paul sent ya!

Art of the Title: 'Game of Thrones'

UAT alumnus Erin Clark was part of the team that created the Emmy-winning main titles for HBO's critically-acclaimed and immensely popular fantasy series Game of Thrones. Take a look at the breathtaking title sequence and read about its creation, courtesy of Art of the Title.

'Flight of the Melvin'- Official Selection, 2012 Arizona International Film Festival

"Melvin" continues to soar! We've just gotten word that our sci-fi family adventure "Flight of the Melvin" has been selected for the 21st annual Arizona International Film Festival in Tucson, Arizona! The 2012 edition of the festival runs from April 13th thru the 29th.

Rumor has it there will also be an event at the Arizona International Film Festival honoring the films selected for the Arizona Centennial "AZ100" Independent Films. Our previous sci-fi epic "Fallout" is one of those 100 films.

'Flight of the Melvin' Screens at Sedona Film Festival This Saturday!

UAT Digital Video's sci-fi comedy adventure "Flight of the Melvin" screens as an Official Selection of the 2012 Sedona Film Festival this Saturday, February 25th, at 9:00 am.

"Melvin" is paired with the family adventure feature The Lost Medallion and will be screening at the Sedona Rouge Theatre, in the Sedona Rouge Hotel and Spa, 2250 W. State Route 89A in West Sedona, Arizona.

Click here to see the schedule and purchase tickets!

Alumni Perspective: Always Be Prepared!

Preparation D – The Importance of Keeping Your Demo Reel Current (and With You)

by Evan Sprague

I’ve recently taken it upon myself to pursue Hollywood as a contractual endeavor. There’s several reasons why I made the decision to stay at Intel for probably the next 5-7 years (not the least of which is the amazing healthcare). While I get to work on some pretty cool projects here (the latest project I can’t talk about much, but let’s just say it involves vfx for a large studio whose name rhymes with “CreamLurks”), most of it doesn’t fall directly into the creative avenue that I seek to travel down. I’m at a point where I still yearn for that highly creative collaboration, even if it doesn’t pay much on the side.

So anyways, enough of my life story. In light of all these recent self-revelations, I hopped into the Craiglist LA gig postings under the film and video section and typed in “compositor”. Naturally, a ton of results popped up, most of which were for lower-budget productions, but were legit nonetheless.

I replied to a couple saying that I’m a passionate fx artist based out of Phoenix, I have an FTP server so remote working isn’t an issue, and even sent my professional resume for review. It was late at night so I figured if I was to hear anything back at all, it wouldn’t be until later the next day and I was seated with my laptop on my in-laws’ couch watching a movie. Much to my surprise, I immediately got a response from the contact for a project involving Tom Sizemore. He reviewed my resume and liked the idea of using me. He had only one question: “Do you have any work online that I could see?”

Oh crap.

I had wrought my own destruction on this day. My website is void because it’s full of old, hack work (some of which is clearly ripped off of video copilot) that doesn’t portray my focus properly. I have some portfolio work on my home computer, but it A.) Wasn’t assembled into any kind of reel, and B.) I had no breakdowns, only the final products (most pros require breakdowns as part of the reel).

Needless to say, I lost that gig. The lesson I took away from it all was ALWAYS have your work ready to show. Always. Don’t even ask about a job unless you’re ready to hand them a polished, refined demo reel as soon as they request it. But more importantly, don’t even make them request it. Put your work on Vimeo or Youtube and link them to it directly when you send your job inquiry. Never assume that they won’t contact back, or that you can get to your reel before they do. Treat every job inquiry like you’re going to be yanked into their office for an interview immediately afterwards, and I’m not just talking about having a completed reel in general. I’m saying even if you do, have it on you at all times. Got an iPhone? Great! Put your reel on it. So when you’re walking around the floor at Siggraph and you get talking to John Lasseter and he asks you what you do, you can put the visual communication medium we know as “Film” to use and show him then and there, with the tap of your finger. Make it your moving business card. Keep it with you like it’s your wallet (which it just might end up filling).

Bottom line, that gig I lost was one little fish in a sea of thousands. Another will come along, and this time I’ll be ready (I immediately made a shiny new reel over the next week). I’m relieved that I didn’t get this abrupt reminder on a much larger opportunity. All I’m saying is, don’t ever let that happen to you.

'Parallax'' and 'Covet' Selected for 2012 Phoenix Film Festival!

We've just gotten notification that two films created by our faculty, students, and alumni have been selected for the 2012 Phoenix Film Festival!

First up is Professor Paul DeNigris' Master's Thesis film, the Iraq War drama "Parallax." Shot in April, the film involved a massive crew of UAT Digital Video alumni and current students who volunteered to help Paul complete the requirements for his Master's Degree. The film tells the story of a wounded U.S. soldier who is cared for by an Iraqi civilian and his son, which forces the soldier to re-examine his own prejudices and undergo a life-changing shift in perspective. The genesis of the story came from a presentation at UAT Inservice by former Student Government President Alexander Snyder and UAT Student Services staff member Hiba al-Fatle about their own experiences during the Iraq War. The entire UAT community supported the production of the film in one way or another! "Parallax" will be part of the "Arizona Shorts" competition group at the festival.

Next is "Covet," an entry for the IFP/Phoenix 48 Hour Film Challenge last July which was co-produced by UAT Digital Video, Professor DeNigris' Locked Horns Productions, and Steve Wargo's SWAT HD (a frequent employer of UAT DV interns and a co-producer of "Parallax"). "Covet" won 4 awards in the 48 hour challenge and will now be part of the "Arizona Showcase" group of shorts at the festival!

'Flight of the Melvin' - Official Selection, 2012 International Family Film Festival

Our sci-fi comedy "Flight of the Melvin" has been selected by yet another film festival! The 17th Annual International Family Film Festival runs March 21st thru 25th, 2012, at Raleigh Studios in Hollywood, California. We're excited to have "Melvin" fly again at a family-friendly event in the capital of the movie industry!

'Flight of the Melvin' Wins 2 L.A. Movie Awards

The 2012 Los Angeles Movie Awards has honored UAT Digital Video's short sci-fi comedy "Flight of the Melvin" with two awards in the Student Film category - "Award of Excellence" and "Best Editing." Congrats again to Team Melvin!

'Melvin' to Screen at High Desert Shorts Film Festival

Welcome to 2012! Happy New Year to all our friends, fans, students, and alumni!

Good news came again over the holiday break for our short film "Flight of the Melvin" - this time from the 2012 High Desert Shorts International Film Festival.

The seventh annual event will be held over Memorial Day Weekend in Pahrump, Nevada (just an hour outside Las Vegas), and will feature a Youth Filmmaker Camp for grades 6 through 12 - perhaps including some future UAT DV students?

Another festival for 'Flight of the Melvin'

Looks like we published our 2011 Wrap-Up a skosh too soon! We just got word that our sci-fi comedy adventure "Flight of the Melvin" has been accepted to its second film festival, the 2012 Sedona International Film Festival in beautiful Sedona, Arizona!

The 18th Annual Sedona International Film Festival runs February 18-26, 2012. We are so looking forward to being part of this event!

'Flight of the Melvin' to make film festival debut in Santa Clarita Valley

We are excited to announce the first film festival appearance of our sci-fi comedy "Flight of the Melvin" - at the 2012 Santa Clarita Valley Film Festival, January 5th through 8th, in Newhall, California!

From the film festival's website:

Once again we will continue to focus on films appropriate for all ages, both feature-length and short format, with professional, college and high school submission categories and special rates for students.

"Flight of the Melvin" couldn't be a better fit for this festival! Here's the synopsis: "14-year-old space geek Melvin is constantly being nagged by his mom to 'clean the danged birdcage.' Finally having had enough, Melvin gathers some spare parts and builds himself a jetpack to fly away. A few moments into his first successful flight, Melvin finds himself in the middle of an alien invasion that only he can stop! Produced by the students and faculty of the University of Advancing Technology Digital Video Program, 'Flight of the Melvin' is a light-hearted sci-fi comedy adventure for the whole family!"

FALLOUT now available on Vimeo!

Now that our year-long film festival run is over - it began on October 15th 2010 at the International Horror and Sci-Fi Film Festival in Tempe AZ and ended last night at the Terror Film Festival in Philadelphia PA - it's time to finally share our epic sci-fi action thriller "Fallout" publicly on the web. Enjoy and pass it on please!
Here's the complete list of festivals and awards from our amazing year-long run

2011 Adobe Design Achievement Awards
- Semifinalist, Innovation in Motion and Video in Education

2011 Phoenix Film Festival
- Best Arizona Short

2011 Los Angeles Reel Film Festival
- Student Film category - 3rd Place, Best Editing, and Best Digital Effects

2011 Los Angeles Movie Awards
- Award of Excellence, Best Editing, Best Special Effects

2011 Los Angeles Film & Script Festival
- Honorable Mention, Narrative Shorts Category

2011 Action on Film International Film Festival
- Runner Up, Best Visual Effects (Short)

OFFICIAL SELECTIONS:
2010 International Horror and Sci-Fi Film Festival (Tempe, AZ)
2011 Phoenix Film Festival
2011 Los Angeles Film & Script Festival
2011 Los Angeles Movie Awards
2011 NewFilmmakers LA
2011 Los Angeles Reel Film Festival
2011 Action on Film International Film Festival
2011 HollyShorts Film Festival
2011 Renovation World Sci-Fi Convention Independent Fan Film Festival (Reno, NV)
2011 Atlanta Horror Film Festival
2011 Terror Film Festival (Philadelphia, PA)

Two More Festival Appearances for FALLOUT

Our epic sci-fi short film "Fallout" is now set to mark one full year on the film festival circuit with two appearances at East Coast genre festivals.

First up - the 2011 Atlanta Horror Festival, September 15th through 17th. "Fallout" is one of 6 "Sci-Fi Shorts" screening at this mostly horror-themed event on Saturday September 17th at 4:30pm.

Then in October is the 2011 Terror Film Festival in Philadelphia. "Fallout" screens on Saturday, October 29th at 3:00pm as part of "Splatter Shorts." I guess all the terrorist blood we spill in the battle sequence qualifies! "Fallout" is also nominated for nine awards:

Best Actor - Anders Striemer ("Hopper")
Best Supporting Actor - Steve Briscoe ("Rawls")
Best Supporting Actor - Ted Herbig ("Harrington")
Best Sound Design - John Chafuen
Best DP - Chris Erickson
Best Original Music Score - Rod Ibieta
Best Editing - Chad Hryhorysak and Chris Erickson
Best SFX - everyone on the team!
Best Science Fiction Short Film