Rising star lends a hand
By LINDSAY LARIN
Bellevue Reporter Staff Writer
May 24 2008
Filmmaker helps Boys/Girls Clubs
Trevor White has been dubbed a rising star in filmmaking. He wants to help others - especially those in Boys and Girls Clubs - become one, too.
White was featured at the launch of the new Rising Star Series, a celebration of the arts highlighting up-and-coming young artists from around the nation, at Magnolia Audio Video in Bellevue earlier this month. The events aim is to create a sense of community around art while raising awareness and support for the Boys & Girls Clubs of King County.
The premiere event highlighted the Boys & Girls Clubs digital art projects program called ClubTech, Digital Arts Suite. The program was first introduced five years ago to clubs across the country and was designed to expose kids to creative outlets through the medium of technology.
ClubTech offers five training programs to kids including Web design, graphic design and animation, digital photography and photo editing, digital movies, and digital music production. Throughout the kick-off event, digital art projects created by the kids of the Boys & Girls Clubs played continuously on several 20-inch plasma televisions.
Editor-in-Chief of Madison & Mulholland, Jane Ubell-Meyer, and Lisa MacKenzie, the West Coast editor, were inspired to create the Rising Star Series as a way to conjure up a sense of community around art.
This event is a great way for people to learn more about the Boys & Girls Clubs and to recognize promising young talents like Trevor White, explained Ubell-Meyer. The evening included wine tasting from award-winning Cannonball Wine Company and goodie bags courtesy of Madison & Mulholland.
Magnolia Audio Video offered the perfect setting for the filmmaker event.
Were passionate about reproducing film and music the way the artist intended it. Thats what all of this stuff is for, explained Kyle Bradshaw, Magnolias marketing manager for the Bellevue store. Its not about spending money, its about finding a way to escape.
The evening also highlighted Whites filmmaking talents and philanthropy work with the Boys & Girls Clubs. While in school, White was looking to volunteer in his community. Once he connected with the Boys & Girls Club he began searching for ways he could take it a step further.
I thought, how can I contribute beyond just showing up and tutoring the kids and then I found out they had started a young filmmakers program in other cities that had the Boys & Girls Clubs, White explained, who had developed the passion for filmmaking at an early age following in his mothers footsteps, a producer herself. The club was able to get a grant from Target and when the grant came I was the first person to run the film program in Indianapolis and I was still a senior in high school.
White volunteered at the club twice a week and taught kids the ins and outs of filmmaking. His volunteer work contributed in part to receiving the prestigious Presidential Research Scholarship from Cornell University, where he excelled in the universitys film program. White was the first applicant to receive the RCPRS, a scholarship that in the past was primarily awarded to students in the fields of science and math.
While attending Cornell, White made several short films. During the summers of his sophomore and junior years, he worked as a production assistant on the film Miami Vice for well-known filmmaker Michael Mann. Although engaged in his studies, White made an effort to stay involved with the Boys & Girls Club and continued to volunteer whenever he flew back home for a visit.
My experience with seeing the arts at such a young age is that it opens your mind up entirely. It gets you interested and curious about all elements of life, world events and politics, White explained. I think when you learn to read stories and tell stories, your curiosity level just becomes that much greater.
His senior year at Cornell was spent developing and working on his honor thesis film titled, A Detective Story, a modern day film noir. Cornell was so supportive and they gave me a lot of freedom to do what I wanted to do, White said, a graduate of the class of 2007. They gave me financial support and prepared me well.
All of his hard work has come to fruition in his three short films that were shown at the series on several of Magnolias large plasma televisions and surround sound theater systems. The audience got a private screening of Whites three films, Knockout, Day 21, and A Detective Story.
Knockout recently won the LGBT Short Film Award at the Cleveland International Film Festival and was chosen as the official selection for the 2007 Palm Springs International ShortFest. It also was chosen as an official selection for the 2007 Los Angeles International Short Film Festival, the 2008 Cleveland International Film Festival and as a finalist in the 2008 Very Short Movies Festival.
White and his brother, Tim formed their own company in 2007 called Star Thrower Entertainment and the two are now focusing on making their first feature-length film, Tides of Summer.
With each film I do Im trying to take a step in a new direction. Whether people like one film more than another, at least in my mind with each film I make Im taking away a lot more and really trying to hone the craft. Filmmaking is always going to be a learning process, White said. Steven Spielberg is still learning with every film he does.
Lindsay Larin can be reached at llarin@reporternewspapers.com or 425-453-4602.
Bellevue Reporter Staff Writer Lindsay Larin can be reached at llarin@bellevuereporter.com or 425-453-4602.- Civil
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