Netfins & Chill wins Best DC Film at YouFilmFest

On Saturday, April 2, 2022 "Netfins & Chill" (directed by Joe Carabeo) won "Best Local DC Film" during YouFilmFest shown at REACH Kennedy Center. I contributed to the film by designing the film titles. Congrats to the hard work of the cast and crew.

Netfins & Chill playing at at Kennedy Center

"Netfins & Chill" from film director Joe Carabeo will be shown at the Kennedy Center in Washington. DC during YouFilmFest. Each screening block is about 1 hour followed by a Q&A with filmmakers. "Netfins & Chill" is part of the 6:15 PM block called "Films from the US & Around the World: Part 1" on Saturday, April 2, 2022. Tickets can be purchased here: https://www.kennedy-center.org/whats-on/explore-by-genre/film/2021-2022/you-film-festival-r

I designed the film titles and am happy to be a part of the project. Excited for the cast and crew to receive recognition and some of them will be a part of the audience Q&A after the screening.

Recap: Curls Studio's Year of 2020

I almost wasn't going to write about 2020, but after a week passing into 2021, I felt like it was still a year and some stuff happened, so it shouldn't be overlooked or ignored or acting like it never happened. As we all know, Coronavirus disease has globally affected our lives. Because of Covid-19, we were unable to attend any comic conventions. All the shows we were expected to be at were canceled. Curls Studio usually spends about 16-20 days a year behind a table, plus several appearance at schools and other events.

The year started off well with a successful Blue Rose hard enamel pin Kickstarter as part of their Make 100 incentive. The project went so well that we had pledges for all 100 pins and started a 2.0 version of the same design with a different colorway. The project ended up surpassing my goal and becoming 516% funded. If you are interested, I still have Blue Rose 2.0 pins available for purchase in the store.

In February I designed typography and animated film titles for the Joe Carabeo film, DELETE.

The Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco, CA asked me to contribute original art for "A Boy and His Tiger: A Tribute to Bill Watterson" as homage to Bill Watterson and his comic strip creation Calvin and Hobbes.

By the time March came around, we were under lockdown and outlook didn't look good for any of the upcoming events and conventions. So on March 21, 2020 I quickly started #CarolynsCreativeChallenge to encourage everyone to be creative at home using everyday supplies and materials. I did over 50 days of prompted projects including sock puppets, a fizzy lemonade recipe, creating a comic strip, cut paper, food necklaces, toilet paper roll character designs, melting crayons, marbleizing paper, food art, and many more. You can still join in the activities anytime at www.carolynbelefski.com/ccc.

A big disappointment this year is missing out on having an in-person National Cartoonists Society Reuben Awards weekend. I was organizing cartoonist appearances at the children's hospital in Kansas City, MO and had a lot of fun stuff planned, including a printed NCS Activity Book to debut at the hospital event. Because this was unable to happen in-person this year, the NCS Activity Book became pay-what-you-can downloadable PDF to raise money for future events. I organized 50 artists to each contribute a page (mazes, search & find, connect the dots, tic-tac-toe, spot the difference, word search, crossword, coloring and drawing games, and more) to the book and worked on the phone with Sergio Aragonés for the cover, which he asked me to color. I had a great time conceiving and producing the Activity Book for the NCS.

The closest thing to events in 2020 were three virtual programs I was asked to be a part of. On Astray Live "We Make Movies" I talked about designing film titles, Baltimore Comic-Con asked me to do "Creative Crafts Challenges" on the Kids Love Comics channel, and WOM CON was a one-day WOMen run comics pop-up where I shared a glimpse of my studio and process.

2020 was year unlike any other! A year we might not want to remember, but will never forget. For me, like so many others, a big change is working from home -- new routines, keeping a balance, maintaining health, and lowering certain expectations.

I've already started 2021 with a new Kickstarter, raising funds to produce at least 100 Banana Bandanas -- which I will post about in the next blog entry. Wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2021!

Awesome Con Short Film Festival (December 9-13, 2020)

Join us for the "at home" 2020 Awesome Con Short Film Festival! DELETE from director Joe Carabeo will be making the World Premiere and I designed the animated film titles for that film. It will be showing Friday, December 11, 2020 as the 5th film of the evening (the films start at 8PM EST).

DC’s pop culture convention Awesome Con (awesome-con.com) brings its annual Short Film Festival online for the first time beginning tomorrow. Fans from around the world can watch over 10 hours of free screenings spanning science-fiction, action, horror, documentary, comedy, and drama, from both independent filmmakers and Hollywood professionals. The lineup includes works from and featuring Rider Strong and Shiloh Strong, Ted Raimi, Larisa Oleynik, James Van Der Beek, Diablo Cody, Hailee Steinfeld, and J. K. Simmons. 

Awesome Con traditionally welcomes 70,000 fans to Washington, DC each year, but like most events in 2020, its physical edition could not take place because of coronavirus. Instead, the event presented an online edition earlier this year. And now, to wrap up 2020, Awesome Con brings one of its most popular features online for the first time too - the Awesome Con Short Film Festival.

Launched five years ago by Awesome Con in collaboration with Astray Productions, the event sought to shine a spotlight on Mid-Atlantic filmmakers and celebrate them in front of DC’s largest gathering of film and popular culture fans. Quickly growing to welcome filmmakers from around the world, the Awesome Con Short Film Festival blends the high-brow prestige of the film festival world with the excitement of a pop culture convention enjoyed by all ages, and Awesome Con and Astray Productions will present the largest Awesome Con Short Film Festival online from December 9 - 13 this year.

“This year’s Awesome Con Short Film Festival saw over 3,000 submissions from around the world,” said Astray Productions founder and Awesome Con Short Film Festival organizer Joe Carabeo. “It was a tremendously challenging process to draw all our submissions down into a week of events, and I know this year’s fest is our biggest and strongest yet!”

The Awesome Con Short Film Festival schedule, including film synopses and filmmaker biographies can be found at awesome-con.com/acshortfilmfest.

Opening Night - Wednesday, Dec 9 at 8 PM Eastern Hosted by actress Megan Caulfield. Film Festival overview, trailers, and interviews.

Sci-Fi, Action & Horror - Thursday, Dec 10 at 8 PM Eastern Over three hours of short films and filmmaker interviews.

Comedy & Drama - Friday, Dec 11 at 8 PM Eastern Over three hours of short films and filmmaker interviews including the World Premiere of Joe Carabeo’s newest film, DELETE.

Docs & Awesome Films - Saturday, Dec 12 at 8 PM Eastern Over three hours of short films and filmmaker interviews.

Full Festival Marathon - Sunday, Dec 13 at 12 PM Eastern Enjoy all the festival’s films presented in an all-day matinee.

Closing Night - Sunday, Dec 13 at 8 PM Eastern Hosted by actress Megan Caulfield. Award presentations and winner screenings.

Fans can watch all of the Awesome Con Short Film Festival’s films for free at Awesome Con’s Facebook page facebook.com/AwesomeConDC. All of this year’s films will be available to view globally through Sunday, December 20, 2020.

As another first, in addition to juried Best Cinematography and Best in Show awards, the Awesome Con Short Film Festival will present its inaugural Audience Award, with fans encouraged to vote for their favorite of the festival’s entries. All awards will be announced on Sunday, December 13.

Entries will open soon for the 2021 edition of the Awesome Con Short Film Festival, returning to take place in person again in Washington, DC at the next Awesome Con - Friday, August 20 - Sunday, August 22, 2021.

For more information, please visit the Awesome Con Short Film Festival website and follow the event on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

ABOUT AWESOME CON

Awesome Con is Washington DC’s Comic Con! Awesome Con is a celebration of geek culture, bringing over 70,000 fans together with their favorite stars from across comics, movies, television, toys, games, and more! And just like DC, we’re smart, family-friendly, and inclusive - and we’ll return August 20 - 22, 2021. For more, visit awesome-con.com.

ABOUT JOE CARABEO

Joe Carabeo is an award-winning cross platform artist based out of Northern Virginia. Armed with a Photography and Film undergraduate degree from Virginia Commonwealth University, Joe created Astray Productions (a metaphor for Fearless Creative Direction) as an creation umbrella where he can produce his own films, photography, music, comics, and commercial work, some which have been seen around the world in film festivals, conventions, magazines, and even charting more than 1 millions views online. Also, Joe might have been one of the first podcasters ever in the DC area as the co-host for the 450+ weekly episodes of the Carolyn and Joe Show. Besides his own productions, Joe has also had the opportunity to use his Directing and Camera talent to work with amazing national entities, such as The Beach Boys, NBC, ABC, FOX, Showtime , Epix, TLC, Bravo, Awesome Con, Intel, The National Guard, DC Lottery, Papa Johns, NASA, Under Armour, Red Cross, and more. For more, visit joecarabeo.com and astrayproductions.com.

Designing Film Titles: Netfins & Chill

Watch Madelyn Farris and Joe Carabeo's newest film collaboration "Netfins & Chill" at www.astrayproductions.com/netfinsandchill for a limited time. The story of two young DC lobbyists and their fishy secret! I designed the film titles -- here is my initial sketch above the film title still with the vector graphic.

To view more film titles that I started designing last year, check out this post: Designing Film Titles: Process, Rough, Daisy

Designing Film Titles: Process, Rough, Daisy

Last Tuesday, October 16, 2018 we celebrated two award nominations for the Joe Carabeo film "Process" during Pitch To Screen at AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Silver Spring, Maryland. I had a great time hanging out with true creatives and storytellers from screen and stage.

So far this year I've designed the film titles for three short films: Process, Rough, and Daisy. I've worked on designing prop items for films in the past as well, but film titles is new for me this year -- I've been having a blast with typography and handwritten elements. It so fun to experiment with the short film's message and style and show that through the title design.

You can see "Process" for a limited time here: http://www.joecarabeo.com/process

Below are examples of the title designs I've created. You can view more of my work at www.CarolynBelefski.com.