The murder trial that has captivated America has come to an end with a shocking decision. Casey Anthony was found not guilty of first degree murder of her 2-year-old daughter Caylee Marie by the 12-member jury — consisting of seven women and five men. She was also found not guilty of aggravated child abuse and not guilty of aggravated manslaughter.

The jury’s decision was just read aloud from inside the Orlando, Fla., courthouse after 33 days of dramatic testimony and almost two days of emotional closing arguments.

More news to follow.

The news of the 2011 Student Academy Awards has be one that has made us all at TNC jump up in union to celebrate the huge achievement by such a diverse and talented group of students filmmakers. Their passion, skill, and ability leaves us speechless the more we see and hear from them.

Damon Mohl is nominated in the ‘Alternative’ category for his stunning movie “The Dust Machine” and you can see from his stills he has a vision that leaves a smile on your face…this is a great introduction to a pretty wonderful filmmaker. Part Two will follow tomorrow.

How did you get into filmmaking has this always been a passion?

I have been always been involved in drawing, painting, making and building things from a very young age. During my undergraduate work in Philadelphia at The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts I was primarily focused on large scale representational oil painting and drawing. Building sets and mechanical sculptural props, writing and studying the craft of film making came a bit later for me.

But I have always loved cinema and in many ways it has always been the most fascinating and exciting to me because it is a combination of so many different creative mediums. Since I have devoted my time to making images and my work has always had narrative threads within it, there was absolutely now way I would not eventually explore making my own films.

What was the first film/director that inspired you?

The first couple of films that really stayed with me would have had to have been Werner Herzog’s Aguirre, the Wrath of God as well as Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker.

Those films were really profound experiences early on for me. I could easily add to that seeing Stan Breakage’s work for the first time as an undergraduate in Philadelphia along with many of the other avant-garde experimental film makers who were using cinema as a very personal poetic visionary form of expression. On a side note I was able to meet Werner Herzog my last year as a graduate student at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

It was definitely one of the highlights of my graduate school career. He was there for the annual Conference on World Affairs to participate on a few panels and in Roger Ebert’s cinema interruptus screenings. One morning I asked Werner if he had a few minutes if he would come over and check out my thesis show at the Universities’ Museum and to my surprise he said yes. I even had the chance to show him an extended work-in-progress three-minute trailer/preview for my film. At that point all I had finished was that trailer, but all the sets had been built and all the sequences had been shot. When I told him how many hours of footage I had he said “That’s way too much. You’re going to slow with this. Promise me you will finish it soon.” I promised but post still took me a really long time.

I just had so much footage to go through and so many ideas. I approached the project with a lot of experimentation at every stage from pre-production right into post and I really had to live with it for awhile in order to abandon all of my preconceived notions and discover what the film wanted to be. Anyways he was really encouraging with what I showed him and it was great meeting him, the timing could not have been more perfect or inspiring.

Tell us about your film, what is your approach, how do you come up with your projects?

With this question I could really start to ramble so I will just focus on the initial idea for The Dust Machine. I was sitting in an amazing film theory class on cinema and wonder when this idea suddenly came to me. It was one of those expansive absurd ideas that feels like a lightening bolt. Essentially, it was a question; What if I built a room that had an alarm and a light on the wall and when the alarm went off and the light lit up, dust and dirt poured out of a tube in the wall onto a white tile floor?

That idea opened up a number of questions that I then had to answer. Where did the dirt come from? Who was in the room? How did they collect the dirt? Where did they deposit it after they collected it? Where did it then go? That initial idea just kept growing and growing and it was exciting enough for me to want to make into a short film and basically the primary focus of my graduate school career for my remaining two years.

In graduate school there are just so many directions one can go creatively, so that was a really big decision for me; to focus so early on making just this one short film, because once I started building sets there would be no changing my mind or going back or deciding I wanted to do something else for my thesis project, I would have too much invested in it. I’m really happy I made that initial decision because once a started I never did looked back or even have the slightest notion that I should be doing something else.

Your film has been nominated for a Student Academy Award, a truly magnificent achievement, have you had time to let this settle in?

I would say as much as it can. Judging and awards by their very nature are subjective and I am positive that there were many other amazing student works that my film was up against in the Region 2 Alternative Category. So I’m just honoured that with the regional round, the judges saw something about what I made that stood out and resonated with them.

What did it feel like when you got the news?

I was of course really excited. I spent a long time making this film so to get this type of acknowledgement for my work has been really rewarding in itself. As they say, it is a honor just to be nominated and that really is true. Artists and filmmakers get use to rejection because one is often applying to many things at once: grant opportunities, juried exhibitions, proposals for projects, film festivals, etc. So there are always rejection emails, but the trick is not to take it personally and get discouraged.

Believe in what you are doing and keep applying because occasionally things go the other way and it is just an amazing feeling when it does. You really never do know what tomorrow will bring if you just keep creating and just keep trying.

On another note, I spent a good deal of time near the end of 2010 building an extensive website if anyone is interested in seeing some more of my work, that would be great if they stopped by for a visit: DAMONMOHL.COM

The 2011 Wedding of William and Catherine, now the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, will go down in history as one of the most modern, and most watched, royal weddings of the century. With well over 24 million people in the UK watching the wedding and some 2 billion people worldwide this has been a memorable event that will live on in peoples memories for a long time.

It is said that 2 billion people worldwide watched the royal wedding on Friday 29th March 2011 with close to 24 Million watching it in the UK alone. The biggest pull a royal occasion has pulled, rivalled only of course by the funeral of Princess Diana.

As beautiful as the ceremony was, we all knew that one important thing was missing. The mother who brought up a child so humble yet determined, the woman who truly allowed a prince to marry a ‘commoner’. While she may not have been there in person, her fingerprint were all over the day and she was most definitely there in spirit, shining through William every time he turned to make sure his bride knew that this was ‘their’ day and showing the world that they were truly in love. That’s all his mother would have ever wanted for her eldest son.

As the guests arrived, most notable for the celeb watchers, Victoria and David Beckham, both looking very posh and proper, we were all silently counting down till we William and Harry made their way to Westminster Abbey. Yes everyone wanted to see Kate, see the dress and such like but I don’t think people realised until the minute we saw the boys in the car that we were also as excited to see him. To see if he was happy, to see our baby all grown up on his wedding day. After all, we all feel like we knew Diana and in her absence we’ve all felt the need to protect her boys. I’ll admit I had a little cry when he waved in the car, all dressed up with Harry next to him, a far cry from the 2 little boys crying behind their mothers coffin.

But we did want to see Kate and she did not disappoint. In a clearly Grace Kelly inspired gown (now we know which royal she is taking inspiration from, smart girl!), Kate looked beautiful, her make-up which she applied herself is the same style she always wear, her dress while very beautiful wasn’t the thing that made her look so great. It was the natural glow that only comes with pure joy.

As she walked up to Will at the altar, he seemed adamant not to look but he took a little peek and waited till she was at his side. We all watched as he looked at his darling bride and told her ‘You look beautiful’.

The ceremony was classic with a few little changes such as a prayer that the pair had written themselves. The most important part was the glances and smiles the pair shared throughout, a couple in love on their wedding, unable to take their eyes off each other, basking the celebration of a 10 year relationship finally becoming bound in front of God.

There was the uber awkward moment when the ring almost didn’t fit onto Kate’s hand but thankfully that passed.

We can’t forget the siblings of the couple who also snagged a bit of attention on the day. Pippa Middleton is possibly now the most wanted woman in Britain after seeing her in that Alexander Mcqueen dress while Harry will be hunted down by all those who now want to nab their own prince.

After a taking the landeau state carriage ride back to the palace as man and wife, the world was gifted with not one but two kisses. Unlike the kiss shared by Charles and Diana, these kisses were full of love from both participants, even if they were a bit too quick for my liking.

The couple however redeemed themselves when William drove them to Clarence house in his dad’s Aston Martin. The license plate read ‘JU5T WED’ and after all the public ceremony, the couple were now able to go off and celebrate with their loved ones.

The world will watch this couple as they begin their journey as man and wife and the best part is that we know it’s not going to end up like his parent’s marriage. This couple will make it work and thanks to that, the royal family has just got back the love of its nation.

By Nola Ojomu