Another great round thanks to some fun and interesting guys and their films! It’s fascinating to me that every film contained a literal mask--I thought we’d get a couple that followed the purely symbolic definition. At any rate, they were highly entertaining and you seven gentlemen should be proud of your work.

Voting is completed and it’s time to announce the winners, but we always want to thank those who make this whole thing possible: Dylan Couper for dreaming up the DV Challenge and giving us such a fun place to practice our filmmaking; Chris Hurd for kindly hosting the challenge on DV Info Net for the past five years; and Guy Cochran, of www.dvestore for all the great prizes he has offered. You won’t find a better challenge anywhere than right here on DVinfo!

Okay, here’s what you’ve been waiting for. Your winners for

BEST ACTOR: The cat lady in “Catnip” by Marc Burleigh

BEST SCRIPT: “Before the Party” by Mitchell Stookey

BEST FILM: “Before the Party” by Mitchell Stookey

Congratulations, guys! Mitchell is now a two-time DVC champion, adding to his win for Best Film in DVC 9! Great job on a spooky and fun film!!

Mitchell wins the Diva Ring Light with stand, the DV Enlightenment DVD and Photoflex 42” 5n1 Reflector. Marc wins the Sony 7506 headphones. We will send your email addresses to Guy so he can get them to you. We appreciate so much the wonderful prizes, Guy!

That’s a wrap for DVC 19! See everyone in December for the charity challenge!

Congratulations Mitchell, that was truly creepy and well deserved win, I knew it the moment I saw it. Marc, congrats to you as well for a well done acting job!

Shall we see eachother on the next one, DVC #20, the charity challenge!

Congrats to Mitchell -- a deserved win there for "Before the Party": a vignette that went from naturalistic to unsettling within two heartbeats, all with a style that would not have looked out of place in a feature movie. A skilled and controlled little number that would have also won for best mask if that category had existed. The unresolved finale delivered a haunting note that, for me at least, meant it floated around in my head for quite some time. Nothing like an unresolved puzzle to keep your imagination ticking over.

From my side, just spoke to my catwoman Priya, who is thrilled at her Best Actress win. The actual reaction involved a bit of purring and a raspy tongue and a promise to sweat and cry and stomp under lights for me another time. So I have more than enough incentive to return for a future contest. (She and I will probably fight over the Sony headphones Guy generously donated to the prize board -- I just have to convince her that feline femme fatales in slinky skintight outfits do not require earmuffs to complete their attire.) I'm betting it was also a tight race between her and the screaming girl in "Before the Party".

It was a small pool of entries (I for one was looking forward to going up against the likes of tri-DVChamp Joseph Tran), but I thought it had some real gems.

Henry's "Swapsies" was for me the most original story, and I know I voted it highly. Mugurel's "Intercutor" deserved a technical achievement award. Alessio's "Dead?Wait!" obviously had strong roots in tying music and images together. Clint's "Cereal Killer" showed what determination can do up against a near-impossible deadline. Bruce's "Demon's Mask" harked back to the good ol' days of horror flicks. And of course Lorinda's "The Masked Assassin", though not in the comp, got noticed for its Tarantino-esque moments and behind-the-scenes catering that could have many of us volunteering as extras on her next shoot.

Now, the biggest gift I got out of this DVC was the feedback. A lot of valuable comments came in on how to tighten our films, improve this and that. Mitchell's thoughtful remarks stood out for delving into the psychological/emotional effect he drew from the entries, and then providing some pretty astute technical advice. So astute that you can see why he's now won twice (and understandable given the subtlety on show in his videos on his Vimeo page -- this is a guy ready to jump into all challenges).

After pushing through to get my own "Catnip" entry finished, I was ready to just shelve it and class it as a first novice step towards improving my filmmaking chops. But then I thought to hell with that -- the lessons will sink in better if I tackle the edit again, building on the recommendations and comments from this board. So that's what I'm doing now, between work commitments. It's just for my benefit, to see what I could have made better. But I'll post a link anyway under my DVC19 feedback thread....

Finally, would just like to applaud Lorinda and Dylan again -- and tell the rest of you pikers who signed up but didn't submit this time to get ready for the DVC 20. My actress is ready to Meryl Streep the contest again next time -- and I'll be back with a few more skills and all the experience acquired here to give the Best Film prize a really good shot.

Mitchell, great work. Where did you get that mask? One of the creepiest I've EVER seen! I want one for next Halloween!

Congratulations Mitchell and Marc. Well deserved victories for two excellent films.

Many thanks to everyone for a great competition and also for the constructive feedback on my short. Like Marc I've gone back in and polished the edit I submitted in light of it and learned a lot doing so.

See you all at DVC20!

Oh wow thank you so much everyone! We are so thrilled, and it is such an honor to have been voted best film, especially when the caliber of entries was so high. We're glad that everyone enjoyed our film, we really enjoyed all the others, and we are truly flattered to have won!

I would just really like to thank everyone involved — the other entrants, Lorinda / Dylan, Chris, and Guy, for making this such a fun, comfortable space to practice filmmaking and grow in our skills. Lorinda and a few others may know how far I have come through these DV Challenges, and I am so happy to be a part of this community. It is so nice to hear the positive feedback for our film, but I am also honored that everyone really appreciated my comments. I feel like it is the least I can do. I have learned so much from the DV challenges, and the only way I and my team ever got better was by listening to the helpful feedback others had about our work. Sometimes you can't think of something until someone else does, and just them pointing it out can cause you to be so much more aware the next time you try something, as I know was the case for me and previous DVC entries. I am very happy to know that people appreciated the comments regarding their films.

I have found some really wonderful friends and colleagues over the years and we love working together, and I just want to say that these entries really are not mine, we make them together. We all love the DVinfo community and cannot wait for the next challenge. Everyone appreciates all the wonderful feedback, comments and compliments you payed our film and we know the bar will be so high next time around! Looking forward to seeing you all there again!

Lorinda and a few others may know how far I have come through these DV Challenges...
Yes and no, Mitchell! You have come a long way, yet at the same time remember that I thought you should have won the contest way back at (I think it was) DVC 2 with the "secrets" theme. If I could watch that one again I know I'd still be cracking up at those two guys and their break in. Is it still available?

I also congratulate the winners. We had a pretty good, fun round.

Excellent short film Mitchell. Nice flavour and pace to it with some good performances.