May Media and Entertainment Industry Career Networking Events

ASCAP invites you to attend the seventh annual Silver Lake Film Festival running through May 12. The festival, happening in Los Angeles, is an independent-alternative film and arts festival and ASCAP is helping to expand the SLFF Music Fest programming with live musical performances by various artists and bands. The regionally inclined Vancouver International Game Summit is tapping into a growing pool of game creators residing on the West Coast of Canada and the United States. The Summit will showcase designers and leaders from the digital entertainment community, highlighting latest trends in game development and publishing, and offer perspectives on industry growth. Author/Screenwriter Diana Wagman and Author Dara Marks discuss the process of integrating character and depth into story for both books and film during a May 5 meeting of the Alameda Writers Group in Glendale. Diana Wagman has three published novels and a screenplay, Delivering Milo, produced in 1999, and Dara Marks' book, Inside Story, demonstrates how to identify your story’s thematic intention. IFP Chicago conducts a May 5 session titled "Selling Your Film" in which it will review workshops on trailers and materials, developing a website and finding publicists and producer’s reps, as well as offer a chance to pitch your film to industry pros. A Florida Media Market Project-A-Thon Workshop opening May 5 in Miami covers budgeting, negotiating techniques, how to prepare for a pitch session, how to structure various deals, and the legal obstacles filmmakers should avoid, when it runs for selected sessions till June 16.

Since 2002 Los Angeles based Instant Films has conducted a filmmaking process where movies are made in 48 hours. In early May Instant Films is looking for actors, writers and directors for its next production  that will be screened May 6 in front of a live audience at LA Center Studios when screenings are followed by a party and awards. Advertising's top awards show, the Clio Advertising Festival and Awards, presenting the best and most-celebrated names in advertising and design will be hosted in South Beach, May 9-12, offering a mix of conferences, parties, and networking. The mission of the International Emerging Talent Film Festival is to discover and promote emerging cinema talent from around the world, conducting its event May 12-15 out of Monte Carlo's Eastern "Larvotto" Beach Quarter. Streaming Media East covers both the business of video on the Net and the technology of streaming, downloading, IPTV and mobile video delivery, with everything happening in New York, on May 15 & 16. BMI Film/TV Awards is an Invitation-only event honoring the songwriters and composers of the past year’s top film, TV and cable music programs. BMI composer George S. Clinton will receive the prestigious Richard Kirk Award for outstanding career achievement at the May 16 Beverly Hills event. The seventh annual Florida Music Festival welcomes the music, film and interactive gaming industry and artistic community to Downtown Orlando for more than 40 screenings, 250 music showcases, and three full days of industry panels. The Indie Film Jam event of Florida Music Festival is an international film competition that screens music inspired documentaries, shorts and music videos.

This year's Cannes International Film Festival gets underway May 16 running till May 27. Each year, about 15 international short films - as exemplified by selection "God's Own Devil," directed by Alka C. Mehta ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnIiCejksn8 ) - compete for the festival's Short Film Palme d'Or. Alternatively, the independently run Cannes Short Film Corner screens international short films outside the official competition. And the festival's Producers Network offers a host of original initiatives aimed at producers. These and more form a small sampling of the many substantial offerings that happen in the renowned area of Cannes. On May 17 in New York City, Jazz Foundation of America presents its sixth annual "A Great Night In Harlem" a pre-concert gala dinner and private gala dinner for corporate sponsors, patrons and celebrities, that will be attended by Bill Cosby, Danny Glover, The Duke Ellington Orchestra, Junior Mance, Ron Carter, Gary Bartz, Odetta among others. A 2007 ASCAP Foundation Disney Musical Theatre Workshop, happening in New York, will be conducted May 22 to 24 by Oscar and Grammy-winning composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz, leading sessions in which workshop participants will have the opportunity to present selections from their original works in progress for professional critique. The global debate on the future of copyright will be played out in Brussels, May 30 & 31, at the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers Copyright Summit hosting the likes of policy-makers from copyright societies around the world and anyone else involved with intellectual property. The May 31 opening of the Palm Springs Film Noir Festival fields filmmaker discussions with the likes of Richard Anderson, Carroll Baker, Rhonda Fleming, Kathleen Hughes, Stanley Rubin, John Saxon and others in nightly discussions following screenings. Activities conclude with a wrap party June 3.

The above events are only a sampling of what is listed. Many of the reported events above have a submission process for indie and/or performing artists to take part in. Complete details are on the "Media, Entertainment and Performing Arts Industry News and Events" page at http://www.actorschecklist.com/news.html. Video and podcast versions of this news summary are now available at various sites around the Web like YouTube and the Apple iTunes store podcast category, as well as on The Actor's Checklist at http://actorschecklist.com/loudblog/. This month on video you will see  trailers and video clips of Italian film, "The Role Player" ( www.myspace.com/theroleplayeronmyspace; www.theroleplayer.it/ ), opening a new way to movie production; music, and music oriented film, from the Florida Music Festival & Conference ( www.floridamusicfestival.com; www.myspace.com/floridamusicfestival ) opening May 17; alternative punk-rock band from the U.K., "Tripped and Falling" ( www.myspace.com/trippedandfalling; www.trippedandfalling.com ); French actor and music producer Vince Bosco ( www.myspace.com/vincebosco; www.myspace.com/otissprods ); German-based musical performer, Lando van Herzog ( www.lando-van-herzog.blogspot.com ), with his voice, violin, biceps and pecs, and a hint of hip-hop; one of the shorts selected for screening at the Cannes Film Festival this May, "God's Own Devil" ( www.youtube.com/alkaCM; http://audience.withoutabox.com/festivals/event_item.php?id=6385 ) a film by Alka Mehta loosely based on a true-life bombing in Mumbai in 1992.