Sweet Tooth Wins the YoungCuts Film Festival Studio Technique Animation Prize

Sweet Tooth Wins the YoungCuts Film Festival Studio Technique Animation Prize

We are pleased to announce that Audrey Meubus, director of Sweet Tooth, has been chosen as the winner of the YoungCuts Film Festival Studio Technique Animation Prize. This means that Audrey will have a free seat in the one day Studio Technique intensive animation course being given by legendary Disney Animator Andreas Deja (designer of Scar amongst many other accomplishments).

Audrey (and her film) was chosen from amongst 50 short animated films submitted to the contest. We are also pleased to make Sweet Tooth the first film chosen to be amongst our Top 100 International Short Films at the 2012 YoungCuts Film Festival.

The 50 short animated films (and more than 150 live action films) are available to watch on the YoungCuts web-site for subscribers (and film submitters):
http://www.youngcuts.com/static/festival_audience_subscription_payment

Use YCNL5 as a coupon to get $5 off the cost of a subscription.

You can also use that coupon to reduce the cost when you submit your short film (animated or live action) to the YoungCuts Film Festival. We have extended our final deadline to July 2nd, but SUBMIT TODAY!

You can watch Sweet Tooth for free on the YoungCuts web-site here:
http://www.youngcuts.com/sweet_tooth

There are still seats available in the Studio Technique class - for details go here:
http://www.studiotechniquemontreal.com/events/?p=173

My Congratulations to Kevin Steen, World Champion

The Secret History of Kevin Steen's Quest for the ROH World Title

Kevin Steen won the Ring of Honor title last Saturday, beating Davey Richards in Toronto during Border Wars, much to Ring of Honor's very kayfabe dismay.

The funny thing is that Kevin has been fighting for the ROH title against the promotion's wishes since 2004, one year before his first official match with the company (Do or Die 4 - February 19th, 2005).

Pat Laprade, author of the upcoming book: Mad Dogs, Midgets and Screw Jobs: The Untold Story of How Montreal Shaped the World of Wrestling asked me for some comments for his weekly RDS column.

Since Pat translated what I said into French and only used part of it (because Quelle Surprise! I wrote too much) I thought that I would post up my full original thoughts here:

The Champ is Here!

I am extremely happy that Kevin Steen has (finally) won the Ring of Honor title.

What may surprise many people is that Steen first fought for the ROH title waaaaaaay back on July 2, 2004 in Montreal against Samoa Joe during the Samoan Bulldozer's record-setting 21 month ROH title reign. (He also wrestled Austin Aries for the ROH title in Montreal 6 months later, wrestling twice for the ROH title before ever being on the ROH roster - which has to be some kind of record.)

Steen fought Samoa Joe to a draw during Midsummer Madness - a show promoted by respected wrestling trainer Mark le Grizzly - a show that brought together the best wrestlers in Montreal from all the local promotions, including the one that I was working for at the time: the International Wrestling Syndicate (IWS).

We had just made Kevin Steen our champion at our fifth Anniversary show "V", a show that got a lot of attention because it featured the return to wrestling of Sid Vicious, three years after shattering his leg during the WCW PPV Sin. The return was so unexpected that Dave Meltzer, publisher of the Wrestling Observer, woke his Quebec correspondant up in the middle of the night because he was convinced that the show report was a hoax.

Kevin with the ultimate wrestling accesory

In following up on that world-wide publicity, part of our strategy was to try and get IWS wrestlers on as many prestigious independent promotions as possible. Partly we did this to sell more IWS DVDs outside of Montreal, partly to sell more tickets in Montreal, partly because we hoped that our wrestlers would be loyal to the IWS because of our help, but mostly we did it because we believed that our guys were as good as anyone in the world and only needed a chance to prove it.

After Steen, Generico, Eddy and Excess69 tore the house down in an IWS Fatal Fourway Match during a CZW show, we set our sights on getting a carload of IWS wrestlers booked at Jersey All-Pro Wrestling. We had been pestering Fat Frank, the booker of JAPW, for a solid year without much success, but the combination of the Sid Vicious coup and the CZW four-way finally made him take us seriously. Frank only had one final hurdle for us before agreeing to book Steen and company - he wanted another wrestler to vouch for our guys. Knowing that Samoa Joe wrestled for Frank, we immediately pointed him in that direction, telling him that Steen and Joe had had an incredible brawl in Montreal. A half-hour later, Frank relayed to us the results of his conversation with Samoa Joe, "Steen is a cocky son-of-a-bitch, but he can back it up in the ring. Book him."

Many people point to the success of the CZW match as what broke Quebec wrestlers like Steen and Generico in the United States, but the JAPW match was almost more important. It proved that what happened in Philadelphia wasn't a fluke. And backstage, Steen and Generico met Super Dragon... who invited Steen and El Generico to join the roster of PWG, which in turn led eventually to both men joining ROH.

Eight years later, Steen is World Champion, joining a proud but small list of Quebeckers who could make that boast: Yvon Robert, Edouard Carpentier, Chris Benoit, Don Eagle, Mad Dog Vachon, Ron Garvin, Stan Stasiak and Rick Martel.

Kevin Steen with Jimmy Jacobs and Steve Corino

When Kevin Steen first wrestled in Japan (March 15, 2005), there were fans there with signs calling him "Mr. Wrestling". This got Steen some back-stage heat, first for his nick-name, second for having signs before his first Japanese match when wrestlers who had been coming to Japan for ten years had no signs. Steen didn't choose his nick-name and he didn't bring the signs, his fans did (the Japanese fans got the nickname from Kevin's deranged Montreal fans), but Kevin Steen has never apologized for being better than everyone else and inspiring those fans.

The difference between Kevin Steen and many other wrestlers in this province isn't that he was given opportunities. True, many people in Quebec gave Steen opportunities: Manny, Nightmare Manson (aka Eric Picard - the first guy to put a belt on Kevin) and Marc le Grizzly to name a few. But every time Steen was given an inch, he took a yard. Every time that someone opened the door a crack, he put his shoulder down and busted the door down. Every time we said that Kevin Steen was the best in the world, he went out and proved us right.

The champ is here... here, in Montreal and I'm proud as hell to say that I know him.

YoungCuts Releases Free TextbookVideos Microeconomics Study Guide

YoungCuts Releases Free TextbookVideos Microeconomics Study Guide

Just in time for exams, YoungCuts Inc. releases a free Microeconomics study guide. The free guide, available on the TextbookVideos web-site, is based on a two year YoungCuts project that included the production of 150 short videos, featuring some of North America's best economics professors. Each video describes a key Economics concept. The videos use animation, graphics, b-roll, and special effects to help students quickly grasp the subject matter.

In preparing the project, YoungCuts interviewed more than 200 students, education experts, university administrators and professors who teach economics - including at least one from every U.S. state and Canadian province.

Company President and study guide author Jay Moulton explained the genesis of the study guide.

"After two years developing the Real World Economics video series, we found that written economics study guides existed, but most were hundreds of pages long.

There is a need for a notebook-type summary of key microeconomics concepts that students can use to study and prepare for classes, tests and exams.

We originally wrote this study guide to accompany the TextbookVideos microeconomics video series, but we decided to offer the text version of the study guide at no charge. If students like the study guide, they'll love the videos."

The video series is available by subscription for as little as $9.95 at TextbookVideos.com.

The study guide will also be available on the web-site with integrated videos.

McGill University Economics instructor Eesha Sen Choudhury, Ph.D., worked closely with the TextbookVideos team to develop the study guide, quizzes and videos.

The company's Real World Economics microeconomics series includes 60 core videos, each one averaging just over 4 minutes in length. TextbookVideos is releasing another 90 microeconomics videos at its web site in early May 2012.

The study guide's ISBN number is 978-1-927493-00-7. For further information, contact Jay Moulton at 514-846-3400, or jay@textbookvideos.com

Download a copy of the TextbookVideos Microeconomics Study Guide - Text Version

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YoungCuts Inc. produces short educational videos for governments, corporations, educational institutions and charities. The client list includes Pepsi, Air Canada, MTV, Astral Media, Cellfish, Concordia University, High Fidelity HDTV, and the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada. Every year, YoungCuts presents the world's largest international film festival for "Great Short Films by the World's Best Young Filmmakers" www.YoungCuts.com