Monterey County Film Commission Selects Film Student Joseph Blackburn as $2,000 Scholarship Winner

Joseph “Joey” Blackburn, a student at California State University, Monterey Bay, was named 2012 winner of the $2,000 scholarship in the Monterey County Film Commission’s Film Student Scholarship & Awards Program.  Blackburn, from Paso Robles, is  graduating with honors from the California State University, Monterey Bay’s Teledramatic Arts and Technology Department.

The Monterey County Film Commission scholarship program was created to provide financial aid and incentive to students of film as well as beginning filmmakers who reside in Monterey County or those enrolled in a college or university in the county.

The fund was established as a permanent endowment with the Community Foundation for Monterey County.  This year’s scholarship was funded through donations from the Monterey International Pop Festival Foundation, Union Bank, Alan Vasquez with AVAG, Inc., Teresa and Eric Del Piero, and numerous individual contributors.

Blackburn will use the award to help cover production costs for his Capstone, a senior film project required as his final thesis film by CSUMB.  His film is a black and white horror film entitled, “A Fly in the Room,” which was shot on 16mm film, a more expensive option.

“I wanted to shoot on film for the aesthetic feel that I wanted for my movie, and filming on 16mm was an experience I wanted to have at least one time, knowing that most work opportunities will be in video,” Blackburn said. “It feels very good to know that all of my efforts studying filmmaking at CSUMB have been rewarded with this scholarship, and tells me that if I continue to work hard good things will happen.”

Blackburn’s film was screened with other Capstone films on May 18 at CSUMB.  Contributions to next year’s Monterey County Film Commission Film Student Scholarship & Awards Program are welcomed, according to Jeff Clark, film commission board member and scholarship committee chairperson.

The Monterey County Film Commission was created by the Monterey County Board of Supervisors in 1987.  It is a nonprofit organization proactively marketing Monterey County as a destination for the motion picture, television and related industries, for the purpose of stimulating economic development, creating  jobs, providing and supporting educational opportunities in those areas.