Contact:Gretchen Miller Basso
Public Relations Director
The Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra
Phone: 407/896-6700 x 223
Fax: 407/896-5512
gmiller@orlandophil.org
www.orlandophil.org
For Immediate Release:
Contact: Lisa Mills
(407) 823-3606
The Young Composers Challenge takes home
inaugural Judges’ Choice award
Orlando FL: November 9, 2010. Mr. Rick Alexander, Mr. Keith Lay and Mr. Michael Morgan shared a top award from the Florida Motion Picture Television Association. The Los Angeles-based judges of the 2010 Crystal Reel Awards created a special “Judges’ Choice” award for the competition entry that scored highest overall, and that was The Young Composers Challenge for audio excellence.
“I am so proud of our audio team,” said Dr. Lisa Mills, who directed the film about five teenagers who compete for an opportunity to have their original orchestral work performed by the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra. The Young Composers Challenge was created by Stephen Goldman, and Mills completed her feature documentary about it in early 2010. It has since won two national awards and screened in six film festivals. Rick Alexander is one of Orlando’s top freelance field audio engineers. Keith Lay is a composer and instructor at Full Sail University and was in charge of audio post-production for the film. Michael Morgan mixed sound from the Orlando Philharmonic’s performances of the young composer works. He continues to engineer audio recordings but now resides in Colorado.
Another film directed by Mills, The Circle Closes, won BEST EDITING. The film features the Orlando Philharmonic’s world première performance of Dr. Stella Sung’s The Circle Closes in April, 2010. “What could have been an extremely challenging project became a labor of love,” said Timothy George Brown, winner of the best editing award. “With thirteen cameras manned by volunteer UCF students and staff and an all-access pass from the Orlando Philharmonic and Bob Carr Centre for the Performing Arts, I never wanted for great shots from which to choose. UCF video production staffers Benjamin Jaffe and Greg Gromak were indispensable in making this project happen.”
The FMPTA Crystal Reel Awards invites entries from film and television professionals who live and work in Florida, and has been in existence for 21 years. The three day event is held annually to honor and highlight outstanding achievements in motion picture, television, audio recording and digital media productions created in Florida over the past year. Judging is done by Emmy, Grammy, Oscar nominated and/or awarded professionals across the country. Scoring forms are tallied by an independent CPA, who delivers the ballots on stage.
Dr. Lisa Mills is an Assistant Professor of Film at UCF. Dr. Stella Sung is the Director of CREATE (Center for Research in Education, Arts and Technology). Both films are represented by Hiltz Squared Media, Inc. in Toronto.
