NEWSLETTER | studios

The Academy of Entertainment Arts Newsletter.

Each month we will update parents and the community with the events and news of the Academy. If you feel that something is missing from our newsletter please feel free to reach out to us.

MAY 2015 NEWSLETTER

THANK YOU!

We want to thank all of the students and parents for another great year. From the fieldtrips to UCF and Full Sail University to the Zombie Walk to the 48-Hour Film Competition to the 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament, it has been a lot of fun.

The fun times are only matched with the success the students have had inside the classroom. We had a record number of industry certifications this year in the softwares of Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Flash, and Adobe Dreamweaver. We had over 50 students win local, regional, and national awards. In fact, in a couple of weeks two students will be traveling to accept their award at Carnegie Hall in New York City for the Scholastics National Awards.

Again, it has been a great year. Thank you all for your continued support in building a great program here at Dixie M. Hollins High School.

FEBRUARY 2015 NEWSLETTER

ONGOING/UPCOMING COMPETITIONS:

The Dali Museum Surreal Design Competition was submitted this past Friday. We have submitted many student works into the competition. We expect the announcement in the coming weeks.

This year AEA is competing in the Van's Shoe Design Competition. The students design four pair of Van's shoes, each with a different theme (Art, Music, Action Sports, and Local Flavor). The winning designs receive a trip to New York City and a $50,000 cash prize to the school's program. We will post the photos of the shoes when the students have completed them.

The Sarasota Film Festival for Young Filmmakers deadline is February 27th. We are entering several films into competition.

The 2015 EMA (Educational Media) Awards deadline is also February 27th. This annual event encourages students to communicate through media production. Beginning with the district competition, student-created video productions are eligible for further competitions with the possibility of national and international exposure and awards.

The St. Petersburg College SEMMY Awards deadline is April 3rd. This televised event is a great event we compete in every year. We intend on competing in their three categories again this year: Digital Video, Graphic Design, and Digital Music.

The Daliwood Surreal Film Competition deadline is April 6th. This year the students are asked to create surreal films aroudn the concept of myths. GAA's Special Effects class is currently working on films to enter into the show.

UPCOMING IMPROTANT DATES:

Gasparilla International Film Festival Student Competition: March 29th at Channelside Cinemas

Palm Beach International Film Festival Student Showcase is March 12th in West Palm Beach.

National Scholastic Art and Writing Awards Announcement is March 15th.

STUDIO UPDATES:

This years 4940 Arts Expo will be on April 15th. This expo brings all of the arts programs from Dixie together into one community event. Work including film, ceramics, dance, theatre, orchestra, design, painting, illustration, and much more will be on display. More information will be forthcoming. We hope that you can join us!

The program will begin certification testing the week of March 23rd. The classes will begin preparing students to pass the exam with practice tests in the coming weeks. Wish the students good luck!

MARCH 2015 NEWSLETTER

SCHOLASTICS UPDATE

Milan Patrick and Lyndsie Zimmerman's film "Crescen-don't" received a Silver at the National Scholastics Awards. This is our acadamies second year winning at the national competition. The students and their families will fly to New York City to Carnegie Hall for the awards show on June 11th. Keynote speakers in the past included First Lady Michele Obama and musical acts have included Nelly. Very exciting!

PALM BEACH FILM FESTIVAL UPDATE

Four of our students were featured at the Palm Beach International Student Showcase last week. Three of our films placed top 10 in a competition that included over a thousand entries. Milan Patrick, Lyndsie Zimmerman, and Mikaela-Rose Piotrowski placed 3rd with their film "Grief", receiving a $400 prize. Milan Patrick and Lyndsie Zimmerman film "Crescen-don't" and Angel Callahan's "Visitant" also placed in the top ten.

The students and their families traveled to Boca Raton for the red carpet award show. Burt Reynolds was the keynote speaker for the evening and rapper and TV personality Vanilla Ice handed out the awards. The Boca Raton local news did a story on the festival with all four of our students featured. Watch it here: http://www.wpbf.com/news/burt-reynolds-takes-stage-in-support-of-future-film-makers/31766080

Bay News 9 also did a feature on the students. Read it here: http://www.baynews9.com/content/news/baynews9/news/article.html/content/news/articles/bn9/2015/3/19/dixie_hollins_studen.html

ONGOING/UPCOMING COMPETITIONS:

The Dali Museum Surreal Design Competition results are in. Madison Spencer placed in the show and will be displayed at the Dali Museum on April 7th. Congratulations Madison!

The Sarasota Film Festival for Young Filmmakers results are expected back very soon. Keep your fingers crossed for the following students who were entered into the show.

STUDIO UPDATES:

All students in a level two or three Academy class will take their software certification exam this Friday, March 27th. The Film students will certify in Adobe Premiere while the Commercial Art students will certify in Adobe Photoshop and/or Adobe Illustrator. The students have been practicing for the exam for the past few weeks and are prepared. Wish them luck!

JANUARY 2015 NEWSLETTER

SCHOLASTIC AWARDS:

Congratulations to the following AEA students who have placed in this years Scholastic Art and Writing competition. The Pinellas Region of the Scholastic Art Awards honors over 200 students at an awards ceremony held at Gibbs High School Theatre on February 12th. The ceremony includes a display of live works, followed by a ceremony that honors each student on stage as their work is projected on screen.

GASPARILLA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL STUDENT COMPETITION:

Congratulations to the following AEA students who have been selected for this years Gasparilla International Film Festival Tampa Bay Student Competition. The festival takes place during GIFF's annual film festival on Sunday, March 29th in the afternoon at Channelside Cinemas. This year will mark the first annual Tampa Bay High School Competition for GIFF and will include guest speakers, awards and college scholarships given to the top films. And perhaps most exciting of all, the best picture winner will screen prior to the opening night film at Tampa Theater on March 24th. Opening night is always the most highly anticipated, heavily attended, star studded event of the film festival. This means that the best picture winner will be announced just prior to the film festival so that the filmmakers can be sure to attend opening night, all other winners will be announced on March 29th at the end of the Competition screening.

ONGOING/UPCOMING COMPETITIONS:

Wish luck to the students we have entered into the Palm Beach Student Film Festival. We are excited to get the results back in a few weeks. The next competition we will have students enter is the Sarasota Film Festival for Young Filmmakers. The application deadline for this competition is February 27th.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

We will be hosting a gaming event in the coming weeks. The event will be a tournament style competition with a gift card for the winning team. The game has yet to be decided but will be appropriate for school. We will begin a student sign-up sheet this week in Mr. Compton's room.

We will also begin sign up this week for our annual New Rebellion 48-hour Film Comeptition. Students working in groups no larger than five will have 48 hours to write, shoot, edit, and score a film. The students will have to include a variety of elements into their film, to be announced moments before the beginning of the 48-hour window. The winner of the competition will recieve a statue and, of course, bragging rights. The film deemed "the worst" will receive the equally coveted "Ewww Award".

STUDIO UPDATES:

The MOB Design Studio and the New Rebellion Film Studio have begun prepping students for their certification exams. The official exams should take place in late March. Wish the studnets the best of luck as they prepare.

The 2D Animation courses have begun using ToonBoom, a digital 2D animation software. We are very excited to see what they can produce!

The Special Effects course is delving into the Adobe AfterEffects interface and tools. They are using more advanced AfterEffects tools in the creation of a "surreal" film to be entered into the 2015 Daliwood Film Festival later this Spring.