The Aero Theater will add another feather to its cap on May 14 when it becomes host to the first annual L.A. Post Fest.
The event will be the culmination of a video editing competition held by the Los Angeles Post Production Group, “Create Your Story in Post,” in which entrants used their creativity, technical skills and storytelling abilities to successfully complete their own version of the sci-fi 4K short film, “Protocol.”
During the event, a screening will be held of the five winning short films and award prize packages totaling almost $30,000 will be handed out to the winners.
L.A. Post Fest Founders, Wendy and Woody Woodhall have been working for over a year and a half to bring the festival to Santa Monica. Although there were other parts of the city where the event would have worked, they wanted to bring the international showcase to the one of their favorite venues on the Westside, the American Cinematheque's Aero Theatre.
“This is our community, and when we were looking for places to host this festival it was a no brainer,” Wendy Woodhall said. “The Aero Theatre is such a gem, such a jewel in our community that we wanted to share with the people from around the world participating in the festival. So we approached them and found it was the perfect place to hold it.”
Woodhall said the interesting thing about the competition is that all the films, including the five winners, started out the same, with the same raw footage. The competition's goal was to show the difference editing makes to the final product in filmmaking.
“What you will see is the difference coloring makes, sound makes, editing makes,” Woodhall said. “A lot of festivals do give editing awards or sound awards, but I think what makes this unique is that it is really our sole focus. Editing just doesn't get put in the spotlight enough. And if you put a lot of work in to editing, and if it's done really well people might not even notice. This is a chance to really highlight this work.”
In addition to hosting the festival at the Aero Theater, the Woodhalls have been dedicated to supporting local independents in the Santa Monica community by hosting their judging event at Vidiots, a local video rental store turned non-profit.
Woodhall said the couple would love to see “additional support from the Santa Monica community, as we bring filmmakers and film enthusiasts from around the world together to explore the world of post production and how it impacts the storytelling process.”
This event is open to the general public. Competition details and more information can be found at www.lapostfest.org. Tickets for L.A. Post Fest are $10 and available on Eventbrite at: https://lapostfest2016tickets.eventbrite.com. The Aero Theatre is located at 1328 Montana Ave.
During the festival, the Woodhalls hope to answer the question, “What happens when the same film is finished by different editors?”
“That is what we wanted to explore,” Woodhall said. “How much of the story telling actually takes place in post. Just in terms of when people are left on their own to be creative what do they come up with that you may not normally get on a project?”
