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NEWS.....

April 6, 2001

GEORGE LINDSEY/UNA TELEVISION AND FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES WORKSHOPS
For Release: Immediately

By Amanda Malone
UNA Public Relations Intern

FLORENCE, Ala. - The fourth annual George Lindsey/University of North Alabama Television and Film Festival, starring Ray Stevens, will feature numerous workshops in the Performance Center of the University Center during April 19­21.

Dr. George Lindsey will open the workshop sessions at 9:30 a.m., Thursday, April 19. All sessions are free and open to the public. (A Friday luncheon, featuring Stevens, carries an admission fee.) Thursday, April 19, at 9:30 a.m. the festival begins with the Scriptwriting-From Conceiving to Marketing Your Film session. There will be two presenters.

Chad Darnell is an actor, casting director and screenwriter living in Los Angeles. As an actor, he appeared most recently in Wuthering Heights and What the Butler Saw and the Robert Alman thriller, The Gingerbread Man. He produced and starred in The 24th Day in Atlanta, which was voted best play of the year. As a casting director for 10 years, his recent credits include Road Trip, Remember the Titans, The Gift, Will and Grace and, most recently, the upcoming feature films, Jurassic Park 3, Scary Movie 2, Dragonfly (with Kevin Costner and Kathy Bates), Bandits (with Billy Bob Thornton and Bruce Willis) and the highly-anticipated Spider-Man. He has two screenplays, Whisper to the Black Candle and How to make French Toast which are currently in negotiations.

Greg Iseral, of Cela Distribution, is a 1983 graduate of Texas Tech University in advertising and the founder of publishing product fulfillment and distribution companies. For the last 13 years, Iseral has helped producers of family­oriented products in getting those products to market including the promotion and theatrical release of movies on a national and regional basis. Iseral is the majority owner of Cela Distribution Services, Inc., a distributor of Christian and family values videos to retailers, catalogers and via direct marketing nationwide. The Visual Bible, The Pistol and Homework Basketball are a few of the products that he has helped make a success. Iseral lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

At 11 a.m. Finding Money for Your Film will feature Dr. Priscilla Holland and Steve Viall.

Dr. Holland is the director of research, planning and institutional effectiveness and an assistant professor of geography at UNA. She has also been the director of the UNA geographic research center and has served as director of university experience and the coordinator of sponsored programs.

She conducts grant-writing workshops for K-12 teachers and the faculty at UNA. She lives in Tuscumbia, Alabama.

Viall graduated with honors from UNA. After doing summer stock theatre at UCLA in 1979, he was cast in soap operas, prime-time television and movies. His television credits include NBC's Days of Our Lives, ABC's General Hospital, CBS's The Young and the Restless, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Family Matters and many more. Viall has appeared in 50 stage plays including: Mister Roberts, Godspell, Death of a Salesman, Hamlet and South Pacific. Viall has also written, produced, directed and starred in the movie Jeremy's Egg, which has been picked up for worldwide home video distribution by Cela Distribution Services. He is the general partner of Southern Eagle Pictures and CEO of Almost Midnight Entertainment and Suite One Productions. Viall lives in Tuscumbia.

Student film screening will be at 2 p.m. Viewers will be asked to vote for audience choice awards.

On Friday, April 20, at 9 a.m. Darnell and Dan Beene, a local actor, will present Getting a Job in Acting.

David Lee will present The Role of the Professional Still Photographer in the Motion Picture Industry at 10 a.m. Lee was born and lives in Brooklyn, NY. He completed a Bachelor of Arts degree at Yale University in 1983. Lee has taken the still documentary and publicity photographs for his brother's (Spike Lee) films. His most recent projects include Down to Earth and Pollock.

The luncheon, which costs $10 for students and $20 for general public, will be at 11 a.m. Ray Stevens will be the featured guest. Reservations must be made by Friday, April 13.

At 1 p.m., Craig McCraw and George Caldwell will present Location, Location, Location: Thoughts for the Perfect Shoot.

McCraw, a representative of the Alabama Film Office, lives in Montgomery. He has been the location scout/manager for numerous television commercials/print for clients such as Audi, Vanity Fair/Annie Leibovitz, Bell South, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Arctic Cat, Jeep Cherokee, Chevrolet, NYNEX, Budweiser and Coca-Cola as well as Production Coordinator for Miracle-Gro and MCET's live production of "The Montgomery Bus Station Bus Preservation Project."

Caldwell is the Montgomery-area production director for the Southern Stories Foundation. He has 15 years experience as an actor and has directed, edited and served as associate producer of television shows, commercials, sales videos and television specials. He is the president/co-founder of the Professional Artists Group and has also been involved in sports production. Caldwell is a member of the Screen Actors Guild, Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and AFTRA.

At 2 p.m., there will be a previewing of the entrant films hosted by Lloyd Wells. Wells, a guitarist, arranger, orchestrator and composer for 40 years, began scoring films in the 1960s through a grant from Hofstra University. He was Tennessee Ernie Ford's guitarist, arranger and conductor during the last 10 years of Ford's life and was music director of Opryland USA until its closing in 1998. He is retired and resides in Nashville, Tennessee.

Professional film entry screenings will be at 7 p.m. Viewers will be asked to vote for audience choice awards.

On Saturday, April 21, at 9 a.m. George Yanok will present What Makes a Movie Great. Yanok has been nominated for numerous awards for writing and has won two Emmy Awards and a Writer's Guild Award. He has written and produced TV sitcoms such as Welcome Back Kotter and The Ted Knight Show. He has several movies-for-television to his credit, among them Time to Triumph starring Patty Duke. Yanok most recently served as co-producer of the Nashville Network's Prime Time Country.

At 10 a.m., Dr. George S. Lindsey, the festival founder, actor, comedian and UNA alumnus, will present The Entertainment Industry: A Perspective. Dr. Lindsey played the role of ³Goober² on The Andy Griffith Show and has appeared in many television programs including The Tonight Show, Gunsmoke, and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. His motion picture credits include Cannonball Run II, The Rescuers and Take This Job and Shove It. Lindsey, a native of Jasper now resides in Nashville, Tennessee.

At 1 p.m. in the University Center Atrium, desserts will be served during the Sweets of the Industry: Networking session.

At 2 p.m., George Lindsey, Jr., will host the previewing of the films. Lindsey, Jr., has been acting professionally for about 20 years. He performed in wild west shows at theme parks and state fairs for 14 years. He did summer stock theatre in Ft. Worth, Texas and Birmingham. He co-starred in an episode of Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman and he has played the role of ³Beetlejuice² in Beetlejuice's Rockin¹ Graveyard Revue, at Universal Studios, Hollywood. Most recently, he played in Cabaret and Crazy for You. He now lives in California.

At 7:30 p.m., the awards ceremony begins with Bill Jarnigan as the emcee. Jarnigan is the director of university relations at UNA. Teachers may receive continuing education units for the workshops. For more information about the festival, contact the festival office at 256-765-4592 or Lisa Darnell, festival chairperson, at 256-765-4596.

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Annette Himmler
Office of University Relations
University of North Alabama
Box 5026
Florence, AL 35632-0001
Tel: (256) 765-4225
fax: (256) 765-4812