For a long time I’ve been aware that there was a movie making community here in Phoenix but they didn’t make their presence shown very often. Last year I took part in a 48 hour film contest that overwhelmed the people running it by having no less than 50 teams competing in it (I think they had expected about ten). There were so many people that the theater they had rented for the showing of the films couldn’t hold everyone, I and about a hundred more never even got in to see what we had worked on! So it was pretty obvious that the film community here was ready for action and willing to work. Fast forward to about a month ago. I was walking out of a local Staples and I happened to notice what looked like a nightclub promotional postcard on the ground next to my car. Normally I wouldn’t give it a second glance but this one caught my eye. It had the words ‘SCREEN WARS’ on it in big white letters. ‘Screen Wars’? What the heck is that? I picked it up and read the copy, “Screen Wars features short films from across Arizona in comedy, action, western, drama, and horror/scifi. Watch and vote: You decide the winners!” and the cable and over the air channels and a time. No way! I local on going movie contest that gets airplay?
So I went to the web page and took a look around. It’s sponsored by the Phoenix Film Project and a local independent TV station. Here’s a bit from the web site:
Screen Wars is a weekly thirty minute television show produced by the non-profit Phoenix Film Project, under the Phoenix Film Foundation. The show is directed and produced by members of the Board of Directors. The crew is all volunteer and we have have students from UAT, SCC, ASU and Collins College work on the show, as well as other film enthusiasts from across the valley. If you’d like to work on the show, please contact Amanda@PhoenixFilmProject.com.
Season One featured five weeks of Comedic films, five weeks of Action films, five weeks of Western films, five weeks of Dramatic films and five weeks of Horror/Sci-Fi films.
Looks pretty solid, I’m going to be setting my DVR to record this, maybe I’ll even get a chance to vote on a few.