PRESS RELEASE
-Guidelines-
Contact: WILLIAM BRONSTON, MD 916/730-6552
(cell#)
Web site: www.towerofyouth.org
5TH ANNUAL TEEN DIGITAL REEL SHOWCASE & AWARDS WILL FEATURE OVER 100 TOP SACRAMENTO/SIERRA YOUTH COMPUTER MEDIA ARTS PRODUCERS AND THEIR SHORT MOVIES AT THE IMAX THEATRE, SUNDAY, APRIL 29, 11:00 AM - 8:30 PM.
"These immensely labor intensive digital art works are astounding in their originality, beauty and substance. 2 and 3D animation and digital video works are the windows into the emotional and social lives of the young artists…a profound and dramatic perspective of meaning and absorbtion among our teen generation."
Aimed at promoting regional youth media artists, building high school digital arts and a new cultural economy, The Esquire IMAX Theatre has joined with Tower of Youth to host this year's gala "Teen Digital Reel Showcase & Awards". Open to entries from regional high schools in our 6 counties, 55 teams of teen artists submitted their high tech art works, less than 3 minute long digitally created movies to be exhibited at the Tower of Youth's Showcase event. This year, all the entries will be shown during the day. The 20 Category based and juried winners, will be projected on the great IMAX screen at the Celebrity hosted 6 PM Awards event. Tens of thousands of dollars of software and cash prizes will be awarded to the winners to spark media arts development in the high school community.
IMAX Theatre doors open at 11 AM for the public. Admission is $5 for youth (under 21) and $10 for adults. (see www.towerofyouth.org) The program begins at Noon with two "Digital Career Visions" industry presentations to the assembled youth, family and community audience. The first, 'THE PIPELINE - LEADING EDGE TECHNOLOGY IN DIGITAL MEDIA, will feature Prashant Buyyala, 2D Manager and Office of the President, and Hans Rijpkema, Head of Animation Setup, Office of the President, from the Hollywood based, Academy Award character animation and visual effects recipient, RHYTHM AND HUES STUDIOS.
The second state-of-the-art Digital Career Visions presentation at 1:30 PM will provide an overview of the video game industry whose gross revenues exceed the movie industry worldwide! (World class industry speaker to be confirmed) The gamut of career possibilities, the current and coming entertainment breakthroughs will be illustrated for the audience.
Six northern California media arts college recruiters, (Cal State Monterrey Bay, San Francisco State Univ., Cogswell Polytechnical College, CSU Sacramento, Cosumnes River College, and California College of Arts and Crafts) will be present to meet with the audience day long
Mark S. Allen (UMN 31 KMAX) and Bree Walker (Independent Media Producer and previous Los Angeles CBS News Anchor) will host the evening Gala Awards ceremony at 6:00 PM to project and recognize the 20 youth arts juried short works. Major industry civic leaders will present the beautiful glass awards, cash and media tool awards.
BACKGROUND
$50 million federal and state dollars has been spent in our region's high schools to introduce computer technology in the last four years! Despite this huge investment of tools and infrastructure, the capacity of the education community to produce creative computer created media that is one one of the epicenters of the California economy, is still ultra fragile. This capacity turns on the ability of a tiny handful of self motivated secondary school computer arts teachers who struggle. largely in isolation, with severely limited resources and school support to teach.
The 5th Annual Teen Digital Reel Showcase is the leading probe to assess and address our community's capacity to produce quality youth works. The Digital Showcase process is kicked off with a three month series of intense day long training events sponsored for the region's teens and their mentors at UC Davis and Cosumnes River College. NewTek animation software and Sonic Foundry's digital sound and music software are distributed free to over 50 high schools in the region to jump start the works and bypass the school's lack of such essential computer tools. Despite this unique support, only 13 schools scattered among 6 school districts were able to respond with products. In all, 55 short movies were entered to be juried this year.
The Tower of Youth is a largely youth led media and performing arts non-profit organization honored as one of the 5 top small arts organizations in the Sacramento region by the Arts and Business Council. With it's 1500 participating youth, the unique organization has mounted a major digital arts standards based media curriculum project among the region's high schools, CSUS and Cosumnes River College Communication Studies departments. In addition, TOY has authored and submitted a $16 million "California Digital Arts Studio Partnership Act" currently moving through the legislature to establish four major partnerships among northern, central and southern California high school and community based media programs, the region's colleges, digital industry partners and the non- profit community organization sector. These interrelated projects strive to creatively link the youth, family, teacher and digital industry communities together to forge real growth in California to absorb the thousands of young people who bank their hopes on careers in this field and stimulate a domestic workforce from California's schools.