The Best of FAME Week 2020
Highlights From Virtual FAME Week at The L.A. Film School
We flipped the script on our annual FAME Week this year. Instead of hosting events in-person, The Los Angeles Film School held its FAME Week festival and Spotlight Awards entirely online. There was no shortage of fun with this virtual celebration, and we’re here to give you the highlights from this past week’s events. From the Backlot Bash to Gear Day, these are our favorite moments from FAME Week 2020.
Quarantine Film Festival
Hosted by our very own Justin Scott Lawrence (Film Alum 2018), the Quarantine Film Festival showcased student and alumni films in a variety of genres. Creativity was the thematic thread that tied these amazing films together, and there was no shortage of it. The filmmakers shared feel-good family and friendship stories as well as some heavier themes including mental illness, loneliness and anxiety.
The three finalists were Brittani Harris (TROLL), Neriah Brewer (The Search) and Valentin Baerlocher (Birthday 2020). Valentin’s short film took home the festival’s grand prize for its heart-warming story about a young boy and his determined mother who surprised her son with a special birthday celebration while in quarantine.
We are proud of all the amazing student and alumni filmmakers who entered their films in this year’s festival!
Inside the Writer’s Zoom with Morgan Sandler and Nathan Pettijohn
Did you catch our writer’s Zoom chat? In case you missed it, Morgan and Nathan—who are both writers and alumni—shared all sorts of advice on becoming a confident writer, writing for the internet, and self-publishing. It’s hard for us to pinpoint just one golden nugget of great advice, so we suggest that you rewatch our “Inside the Writer’s Zoom” as soon as humanly possible. But before you click off this page, we wanted to tell you more about Morgan and Nathan’s writing careers.
About Morgan Sandler
Published Book: Visual Storytelling: How to Speak to the Audience Without Saying a Word
Morgan Sandler is an author, teacher and filmmaker who is passionate about visual storytelling. Morgan devoted his career to teaching film after realizing his passion for filmmaking and cinematography. After spending years as a film instructor, Morgan decided to write a book that was affordable and accessible to beginner film students. When Morgan isn’t teaching film courses or traveling for speaking engagements, he lives in California with his family.
About Nathan Pettijohn
Published Books: Travels with Hafa: In Search of Ourselves and Zen and the Art of Admin Tasks
Nathan Pettijohn is an author, talent manager, and entrepreneur. In 2011, Nathan founded Cordurouy, a digital strategy agency based in Los Angeles where he serves as CEO. Nathan has also found success on the internet as a contributing writer for Forbes. His Forbes article “Hustled, Scammed, Bamboozled and Hoodwinked”: Why Fyre Festival Wasn’t Ja Rule’s Fault was viewed 17K times. Nathan writes mostly about digital media and trending culture topics.
Excited to announce that my new book, Travels with Hafa, will be launching on September 15th. It’s about a road trip I took in an RV with my dog last year. Stay tuned for details! pic.twitter.com/L4WqVt9Frs
— nathan pettijohn (@nrpettijohn) August 15, 2020
Gear Day with Sony, RED, Quasar Science and Mo-Sys
Some would say our virtual Gear Day was like a master class in filmmaking. The live breakout sessions offered viewers an in-depth look at lighting, technology demos and editing tutorials. Want to learn about the 4 C’s of portraiture lighting? Skip to the Quasar Science demo starting at minute 01:32:00. Or would you rather learn about the best live-event cameras from RED? Hover your mouse on 01:55:00 to watch RED camera demos. If you want to watch it all, head to our YouTube channel to watch the full virtual Gear Day.
Virtual Backlot Bash and Game Show
Alumnus Khalid Phillipe, better known as DJ Lid, hosted our virtual Backlot Bash this year from his home DJ booth. A neon cactus glowed and steam swirled across the screen as DJ Lid mixed his beats to get the crowd hyped from home. There were prize giveaways and lots of fun commentary on The Los Angeles Film School Twitch channel.
For the That’s a Wrap Game Show, our Admissions Team held multiple rounds of trivia and invited attendees to answer questions about LAFS history, the campus and alumni facts. It was a great way to wrap up the day’s events!
Platinum Record Ceremony with Daniel Zaidenstadt and Josef Gomez
Alumni Relations Director Joe Byron chatted with Daniel and Josef in a webinar to honor the two multi-platinum winning alumni with RIAA plaques. Daniel Zaidenstadt who worked on Iggy Azalea’s hit, Fancy and Josef Gomez for his work on Ellie Goulding’s hit single, Close to Me.
About Daniel Zaidenstadt
Daniel is a 3x Grammy-nominated Engineer and Producer with over 30 Gold and Platinum albums. He has worked on countless number #1 songs and has more than 10 years of navigating the LA music scene.
About Josef Gomez
Josef is an up-and-coming audio engineer who has already made a name for himself by working with artists like Tyler the Creator and Rae Sremmurd.
The Spotlight Awards Ceremony 2020
Thank you to everyone who joined us to celebrate our six amazing inductees as they became official members of The Los Angeles Film School Spotlight Academy. We hope you enjoyed the virtual show hosted by Alumni Relations Director Joe Byron and President of The L.A. Film School, Tammy Elliott. Congratulations to the Spotlight Class of 2020!