Right here in my backyard...

The 14th Annual Heartland Film Festival is still open for submissions of independently produced, feature length, short, and student films for it's 2005 competition. The formal deadline is June 1. Heartland has three categories: dramatic, documentary, and animation. According to Heartland president Jeffrey L. Sparks,  "Our vision is to share the power of moving pictures with audiences around the world. We are once again seeking films that unlock the potential of the human spirit, enriching and inspiring lives, and that exemplify excellence in filmmaking."

Last year, more than 600 films were submitted for consideration, and 21 winners were selected for screening at the festival. This year's event will be held October 13-21 in Indianapolis, Indiana. For more information, visit the official website.  

Iraq is slowly developing a culture of independent filmmakers after years of government censorship and two years of war and subsequent U.S. occupation. In the the past year, more than a dozen private TV channels have sprung up showing soap operas, sitcoms, documentary pieces, and even reality shows. And for the first time in nearly three decades, individuals are feeling empowered to use filmmaking tools to create works that address issues such as government corruption and injustice.

Now showing at film festivals around the globe is the country's first postwar feature-length movie, "Underexposure," which takes a look at a lost generation of artists coping with the changing times in previously totalitarian-controlled nation. With the cost of digital tools dropping worldwide, there is no doubt that more and more artists will emerge from Iraq as the country slowly pulls itself out of the dark.

The Chicago Tribune has more on the story.

It's sounds a bit odd, but it can only be a good thing for young, aspiring filmmmakers in Idaho: an empty Ford dealership in Driggs, Idaho is being converted into a full-on film school. A joint venture between Idaho State University and Stephens College, the newly minted Idaho Film and Television Institute will begin training new writers and producers as soon as the rennovation is fully realized.

The project is the dream of Idaho resident Dawn Wells...who some of you might remember as Mary Ann on Gilligan's Island.

The recently released Sony Vegas 6.0 editing software is sure to be a big hit with both big and small-time production teams. The major upgrade centers around the newly built-in ability to handle HDV, but according to DigitalProducer's first-look, Sony has made many enhancements to the software to allow for faster rendering, and better processor performance in general. Sony also includes the new ability to drag-and-drop entire Vegas projects into the timelime, via the new Project Nesting feature. Rather than having to render a project first, users can now simply bring other Vegas projects into the timeline and alter them as they would any other media. That will no doubt be a big time time saver, and along with all the other upgrades likely add up to another winner for the Vegas line.

The annual Cine Gear Expo is being held in Burbank, California this coming June 3rd and 4th - and admission is absolutely free if you register online by May 27 ($10 thereafter). Cine Gear showcases the latest in "industry" technology and equipment and hosts numerous seminars on everything from lighting to commercial production. With the soaring popularity of digital media, you can expect a strong emphasis on DV technology at the show.

Cine Gear is held at Warner Brothers Studio...so you can expect it to be loaded up with members of the Hollywood production community. Still, if you can score a flight to LAX or Bob Hope-Burbank Airport, you're invited!

Sony today announced its latest consumer DV product, what it is billing as the "world's smallest and lightest" high definition consumer camcorder - the compact HDR-HC1 Handycam. As with other Sony HDV cameras, the new HDR-HC1 shoots in full 1080i HD resolution.

Weighing in at around 1.5 lbs, the new Handycam also sports a 2.7-inch LCD/Menu screen, both digital and manual zoom (10X-120X), the ability to switch between 16:9 and 4:3 aspect ratios on the fly, and it is PictBridge compatible. In fact, Sony is touting the HDR-HC1's ability to take both high definition video and 1-megapixel digital still images at the same time - a feature not seen in HDV cameras to date. When not shooting video, the camera has the ability to take 2.8-megapixel still images.

Price? Expect it to be around $2000 when released in July.

As if on cue, Newsday has decided to run a brief overview of the current consumer end of the DV market. To be absolutely up front, the article only touches on the very low-end of the market. But what is important is the continuing downward trend of prices and the access that it affords to potentially millions of new, "small time" filmmakers at home. With the price of equipment continuously falling on the consumer side, many more people will be exposed to the tools that could potentially create the next great video artist. It only takes a short time these days to save up for a decent camera and some editing software. From there it's all up to you.

The popular DV Rack software will get the ability to process HDV in late June, as Serious Magic has announced the "HDV Power Pack" as an add-on download (or disc) to be available to current Rack users for $195.

DV Rack allows users to replace multiple items when shooting on location, allowing users to utilize their laptop as a field monitor, waveform and scope monitor, recorder, etc. The HDV plug-in will allow owners of HDV cameras, whether JVC (720p) or Sony (1080i), to record very high quality video on the fly. As HDV is still in the relatively early stages of adoption, this will initially be a niche product - but an important one in the history of the DV Rack software. Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere Pro are already on board with their own HDV plug-in, and many more are sure to follow.

David Lynch, "Mulholland Drive" director and the creator of the hit tv show Twin Peaks, is deep within the production process on his new project, a feature-length movie completely shot in DV. Titled "Inland Empire," Lynch has been working on the project for nearly two years.

Lynch seems to be completely liberated by the DV format, telling Variety, ""I started working in DV for my Web site, and I fell in love with the medium. It's unbelievable, the freedom and the incredible different possibilities it affords, in shooting and in post-production. For me, there's no way back to film. I'm done with it."

Freedom - an absolutely appropriate word to describe what digital technology is bringing to the masses. And that's not even factoring in all that film you used to have to lug around. That's a whole different kind of freedom...freedom from luggage.

An appropriate first post to the very fresh DV Guru, in my opinion, is a look back at a groundbreaking moment in the history of digital filmmaking: the 2002 release of the majority-digital film by Steven Soderbergh, "Full Frontal."

Using not much more than a prosumer Canon XL1s, a Power Mac G4, and Apple's own Final Cut Pro 3, Soderbergh managed to craft a slick movie with a gritty feel that will always be looked back upon as a benchmark moment in the history of digital technology.

 It's obvious that most consumers do not have the resources of a Steven Soderbergh to work with when cracking into filmmaking. But what is vital to the entire industry - consumer and pro - is that Soderbergh's movie showed that you can put out a quality product (visually, at least - as reviews of the movie's storyline were mixed) that has a very distinct feel, using tools that are now widely available at a cost that is reachable to the masses. Even three years removed, "Full Frontal" still stands as a must-see for those interested in the growth of digital filmmaking.