TheBuzz Erika Engle

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Hawaii folks get chance for laughs on national TV

DA BRADDAHS and oddah funny-kine Hawaii folks get one good chance fo' hit da beeg time.

Cable network Comedy Central always hears from people who claim to have the next hit show, so now it's time to "show us what you've got. Bring it on!" said Aileen Budow, vice president of corporate communications.

Officials are prepared for all types of submissions, including live action, animation, sketch comedy or hidden-camera shows.

Comedy Central is soliciting one- to five-minute videos, for its "Test Pilots" contest.

"South Park" started in similar fashion -- submitted by people claiming to be funny -- and it became one of the channel's biggest hits, she said.

The grand-prize winner will receive a development deal with Comedy Central to produce an episodic series for "MotherLoad," its broadband channel which is viewed online.

Comedy Central fans are "early adopters," who will use whatever platform they can to view the cable channel's content, whether on TV, video iPods or other devices, she said.

Entries will be screened by a panel of Comedy Central judges who will choose three each week to stream via "Mother Load."

Online votes will determine four semifinalists.

One of those will be added to three finalists chosen by Comedy Central judges and from those four the grand-prize winner will be named.

Tony Silva, half of the comedy duo that makes up Da Braddahs, is intrigued by the possibility of going national.

"It would be a no-brainer," he said.

"We've got stuff that is produced now ... two-, three-, four- and five-minute bits that are very international. It doesn't matter where you're from (in order to understand the humor)," he said.

Silva and partner James Roache get increasing positive feedback from transplanted mainlanders that have been in Hawaii long enough to begin to understand the comedy.

They have become "well-educated about the local ways and sayings and humor ... and they really feel like a part of the culture," he said.

"Da Braddahs & Friends" show airs on Oceanic Time Warner Cable's OC 16 times a week including the 7 p.m. Wednesday premiere of each new episode.

One needn't be a professional to enter the contest, for which Comedy Central will accept entries from May 22 to Aug. 24.

On the Net: » www.comedycentral.com » www.dabraddahs.com

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Korean talent sought

The Korean Film Council and the University of Hawaii Academy for Creative Media are looking for Korean-American filmmakers to nurture.

The film council, or KOFIC, has formed the KOFIC Filmmakers Development Lab that will accept applications online from U.S. and Canadian filmmakers of Korean descent. Proposed stories should have audience appeal in Korea and North America.

"Through this incubator-type project, we would be able to promote a sharing and a merging of ideas between Korean and Korean-American filmmakers," said An Cheong Sook, KOFIC chairwoman.

Those accepted into the Lab will participate in its sessions in Hawaii in early September.

Applicants need not be students of the UH Academy. From three to five finalists will be selected during the September lab, according to Sun-Young Moon, assistant manager of the KOFIC lab.

The finalists will be flown, expenses paid, to Pusan, Korea, to meet with film-industry representatives and organizations that potentially could produce the projects, she said.

The UH Academy was chosen based on its rapid growth, from 40 students to 200 in two years, as well as Director Chris Lee's friendship with Roger Garcia, director of the KOFIC Lab, Lee said via e-mail from Thailand.

"This lab could have been hosted anywhere in the U.S., but Roger thought there would be a good synergy between the mission of the ACM and KOFIC's desire to develop new talent from both sides of the Pacific Rim," he said.

ACM faculty, including Wimal Diyassanke and Merata Mita, will be among the Lab's mentors.

Lee hopes eligible academy students will apply for this first round of possibly career- and industry-building opportunities.

"We envision this as the first of many Sundance Film Festival-type filmmakers' development programs to take place in Hawaii with the ACM," Lee said.

On the Net: » www.koreanfilm.or.kr » www.hawaii.edu/acm