QuickTime News: May 31, 2002

As George Lucas’s “Attack of the Clones” draws legions of fans into theaters, another set of Star Wars films is grabbing eyeballs. Last December, AtomFilms and LucasFilm announced a contest to recognize the best of the Star Wars fan films. On May 3, Lucas and a council of judges at Skywalker Ranch announced the winners.

The George Lucas Selects award goes to “Christmas Tauntauns,” an animation about a little girl’s wish to own the entire plastic Star Wars universe.

The Man himself cans an unpopular character in “Jar-Jar’s Walking Papers,” the winner of Best Animation.

And the Young Jedi Award goes to “Sparring Program,” created by a 17-year-old filmmaker who merged “Star Wars” with “The Matrix.”

What do classic TV characters Mary Richards and Ralph Kramden have in common? Both are immortalized in bronze in their fictional hometowns. While the Honeymooners’ Kramden takes a busman’s holiday at the Port Authority Terminal in New York, Richard’s doppelganger flings her bronze beret into the skies of Minneapolis.

TV Land’s Landmark Initiative presents virtual walking tours so you can inspect both statues. You can also watch footage of the making of Mary’s metallic likeness, including interviews and highlights of the dedication ceremony.

For anyone trying to break into the music industry, the realities of the entertainment business can be daunting. It’s tough to get exposure when promotion and airplay are so narrowly focused. And for music lovers, it’s challenging to ferret out promising new artists, especially if your tastes run outside the mainstream.

WireOnFire.com gives musicians and fans a better solution by offering a well-organized multimedia venue—a streaming promotional network. Listeners get an easier way to browse by tuning in to streaming audio of the site’s featured artists. And from there, it’s easy to check out an artist’s music videos, video interviews, photos, or other materials.

Two new special effects tools for iMovie will have desktop filmmakers imagining new possibilities.

Fans of Ken Burns’s documentary style will be interested in Virtix Zoom for iMovie, a collection of ten special effects for smoothly magnifying and highlighting portions of iMovie clips.

And eZedia’s eZeMatte plug-in lets you overlay a QuickTime-supported image over an iMovie clip in order to show the movie through transparent areas of the image.

Feeling brave? Then check out the spooky front-runners in UrbanChillers.com’s 2 Minute Chillers competition and vote for your favorite.

Take a peek behind the scenes at “Flavors of America,” a PBS cooking show shot on DVCAM and edited with Final Cut Pro and Macintosh computers. (Scroll down the page a bit to see the video.)

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Former ‘Til Tuesday lead singer Aimee Mann has won critical acclaim for all three of her solo albums, including her most recent release, “Bachelor No. 2.” Watch Mann perform five songs at a recent benefit concert for the Hollywood Sunset Free Clinic, including “Save Me,” “Deathly,” and “Choice in the Matter.”

Columbia’s Midweek Music presents two new releases.

The Riddlin’ Kids put a Lone Star twist on pop-driven punk. “I Feel Fine” is their new music video and the first single from their album, “Hurry Up and Wait.” Hear it from May 29 to June 5.

And from June 5 to 12, watch “Somewhere Out There.” It’s a music video of the first single from Our Lady Peace’s fifth album, “Gravity,” which should be released in June.

Bakersfield, California, is a little town west of Death Valley that could double as a David Lynch movie set.

It’s also the home of the rap-metal quintet Korn, whose fifth album, “Untouchables,” arrives in stores on June 11. Before its debut, catch the first single from that new album, “Here to Stay,” on Epic’s New Music Mondays beginning next Monday, June 3.

After living elsewhere for many years, two women return to their northern Florida coastal hometown of Delrona Beach, only to find an all-too-common scenario: their island has been besieged by real estate speculators intent on developing the sleepy resort.

While one woman is faced with selling the restaurant and motel she inherited, the other must deal with long-standing family conflicts that run deep.

Written and directed by John Sayles, “Sunshine State” stars a top-drawer ensemble cast including Angela Bassett, Edie Falco, Miguel Ferrer, Timothy Hutton, Mary Steenburgen, and James McDaniel.

Sunshine State opens in U.S. theaters June 21.

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