Press & Sun Bulletin - Festival Coordinator Preaches the Gospel of Video
by Elizabeth Cohen - Staff Writer, June 5, 2002

Lawrence Kassan has a vision. It is a digital vision. A vision that you envision, too, if you have a television and VCR. And if you happen to be somewhere between the ages of 6 and 19, you might even be able to help him refine it.

Kassan is a video missionary. He traverses the state, visiting schools and community arts centers, trying to ignite inspiration in children and encourage them to enter the annual Rod Serling Video Festival.

"When I was a kid, I had fun making films with super-8, but we don't ask for film in this contest today," Kassan said. "It is too expensive, and video technology is accessible today to anyone. If you don't own it, you can borrow it from the library or a school. It is an incredible time -- you can make movies on a computer now without ever filming an actor. "

The festival, begun in 1995 as a countywide contest to encourage video creativity, was named for TV sci-fi auteur and Binghamton Central High graduate Rod Serling of Twilight Zone fame. It has expanded throughout the state, attracting 75 entries from as far away as Manhattan and Buffalo.

In this year's contest, four winners hail from Ithaca and two from South Glens Falls.

Now, Kassan said, he is ready for a new challenge. "I'd like to take the contest national soon, I think we are getting ready for that."

His only trepidation: how to judge the thousands of entries a national contest might attract.

As the festival and contest, open to students in grades K-12, has grown, it has acquired a number of serious, devoted local and national sponsors: Time Warner Cable, Hollywood Video, Old Country Buffet, JL Video and Multi Media, First Night Binghamton, WSKG Public Television and Broadway Banner and Graphics of Saratoga Springs.

Students can enter the competition for a fee of just $5, but the awards are generous. Those who win in the seven "best of" categories win VHS camcorders, courtesy of Time Warner Cable; VHS videocassette recorders, courtesy of JL Video and Multimedia; a year of free rentals from Hollywood Video and dinner for two, courtesy of old Country Buffet.

But, said Kassan, "everyone who enters is a winner. All applicants receive a gift certificate for one free rental good at any Hollywood Video and a gift certificate for one free dinner at any Old Country Buffet. So right there they have earned back the entry fee."