Under the premises that having strong film educational programs in our region and that educating educating up-and-coming filmmakers will strengthen the St. Louis Regional Film Community, The First Annual St. Louis Film Conference will be held October 16 & 17, 2009 and October 23 & 24, 2009. The conference focuses on film instruction, including film studies and film production, and is especially focused on topics of interest to Bi-state Film Educators & Students; however, the film instructors and students are an important part of the St. Louis Film community, and the film community is invited to and encouraaged toparticipate the conference.

The St. Louis Film Conference is FREE, but Reservations are required. To make reservations please email the days you will be attending to StLouisfilmconference@gmail.com. There are still spots open, but reservations will only be taken until Oct 8th, 2009, or until the conference is full. Don't wait until the last minute, or you might miss this opportunity! Also, the organizers are working on including food for those who RSVP early!

There are two showcases: one will be of works by filmmakers who also teach film, and the other will be of works which represent the output of different schools' film and/or video students.

Film Instructors' Showcase and Reception:
October 16: 7 p.m.
Washington University, Steinberg Hall Auditorium.

Film Students' Showcase and Reception:
October 23: 7 p.m.
Washington University, Steinberg Hall Auditorium.

The Saturday events will be focused on presentations and panels on various topics, ranging from teaching film studies and production, special areas of study by educators, and film production topics. Please notice that the conference meets one Saturday at Lindenwood University and the other at Southwestern Illinois College.

October 17: 10 a.m. - 5 .p.m.
Film Pedagogy, Studies, and Production Presentations, Lindenwood University, Emerson Black Box Theatre and the Television Studio

October 24: 10 a.m. - 5 .p.m.
Film Pedagogy, Studies, and Production Presentations, Southwestern Illinois College, Rm 1200, Main Complex

The website for the conference is http://sites.google.com/site/stlouisfilmconference/. Check it often for updates!

Below is a brief sample of the topics that will be covered and schools that will be represented at this writing.
Some of the presentations and topics to be covered include pedagogy for film studies and film production; effective assignments; student paper; Violence and Woman and Children in African and Asian film; teaching tolerance through film; silent film technology; the history of African American cinema; fund raising for documentary film making; making a feature as curriculum; film scoring; and new media interactions.

Some of the schools and organizations currently confirmed to be represented by faculty presentations or films include Saint Louis University, Washington University, University of Missouri - Columbia, University of Missouri - St. Louis, Southwestern Illinois College, Principia College, the Interfaith Committee of the St. Louis International Film Festival, and Cinema St. Louis.

Anyone who is considering pursuing film education is especially encouraged to come to the conference and learn more about the academic topics and production projects that instructors at different schools are pursuing.

The St. Louis Film Conference's MISSION STATEMENT:
The mission of the St. Louis Film Conference is to increase awareness of film education, to create interpersonal relationships among film instructors and professionals from various institutions, to share ideas, interests, production projects, and scholarly endeavors, and to grow film education and the film community in the St. Louis region, Southern Illinois, and Missouri.

Hope to see all of you at the First Annual St. Louis Film Conference!

Sandra Olmsted
President, St. Louis Chapter of the Media Communications Association
Cofounder and Co-organizer of the St. Louis Film Conference
Co-founder and co-organizer of the First Annual St. Louis Film Conference
314-645-0547

September Meeting in Review: Perspectives on Web Design
    
The September meeting boasted a panel of local Internet gurus, who enlightened us on everything from the philosophy behind what's most important on a web page to the best pixel resolution for a design.  Leading the evening's program was Mike Leicht, a local filmmaker who works for the City of St. Peters.  The designers had been asked to develop a better page layout for a specified charity, Woman's Place, in Maplewood, MO, and Mike unveiled a beautiful re-vamp with better navigation and a more pleasing color scheme.  He walked us through the reasons for his choices and took questions about web design in general.

Next, James Fawcett from Thought Process Interactive showed us his company's home page and discussed its content and layout.  Thought Process Interactive was started in 1999 and about half their internet work comes through advertising agencies.  Creativity is a huge part of what they offer.  James covered what he says are the five key areas of a web page: 1. Message, 2. Brand, 3. Imagery, 4. Content, and 5. Technology.  Under the Technology heading, James's focus was maintenance and updating.  Thought Process has written software that allows their customers to add fresh content and updates themselves on a regular basis.

Kenny Kinds showed the website he created for the People's Health Center, a makeover done to improve the previously existing pages that were busy and tough to navigate.  Kenny uses Cold Fusion as well as writes java script.  He touched on CSS - Cascading Style Sheets, and how they help minimize tables.  He also pointed out a program called IE Tester, a free web browser that allows you to have the rendering and javascript engines of IE8, IE7IE 6 and IE5.5 onWindows 7, Vista and XP, as well as the installed IE in the same process.  This program helps designers see what their work will look like on different browsers.

Finally we heard from Don Barnes, Principal at PeaceFrog, who offered a big-picture perspective on the web design as a business.  Don is a consultant who helps people choose the most appropriate web designer for them or their company, based on data he gathers about what they are trying to accomplish with their site.  He has interviewed over 85 web design companies, and had a long history of web development himself, before becoming a consultant.  One of the highlights of his talk was a discussion of the Six Tiers of Solution Providers, from those who create their own site in Front Page up to those who use the highest-end full-service design agency.

It was an informative program, pertinent to anyone who uses the Internet - which is all of us who are involved in Media Communications.
 
Thought Process Interactive:
http://www.thoughtprocessinteractive.com/
 
PeaceFrog:
http://www.peacefrog.biz/
 
IE Tester
http://www.my-debugbar.com/wiki/IETester/HomePage

 

News from the Missouri Film Office...

Members in the Spotlight

 

 

Mike also cast 3 web commercials for for the start-up boutique medical firm, Personal Medicine International.  He also acted in one of them. Go to:
http://personalmedicineinternational.com/pmi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6&Itemid=41

HOLLYWOOD STAR COMES TO ST. LOUIS
FOR AT&T U-VERSE DOCUMENTARY
by Mike Ketcher

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