Reporter ISSAQUAH | SAMMAMISH
Friday, June 14, 2013
www.issaquahreporter.com
Short on time Action needed on Klahanie to get on November ballot Skyline’s Tucker Russell is up for two Northwest Emmy Regional Awards this weekend in Seattle. His work is up against other top high school directors from Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Montana and Washington.
BY LINDA BALL LBALL@ISSAQUAHREPORTER.COM
KEVIN ENDEJAN, Issaquah & Sammamish Reporter
EYE ON THE PRIZE Skyline student, Tucker Russell, up for a pair of Emmys this weekend
BY KEVIN ENDEJAN KENDEJAN@ISSAQUAHREPORTER.COM
T
ucker Russell hopes for a little bit of “kismet” this weekend — in more ways than one.
Of Arabic origin, the word commonly means “luck,” “fate” or “destiny.” It’s also the title of one of the Skyline senior’s two videos up for Northwest Regional Emmy Awards on June 15 at Seattle’s Paramount Theater. “It makes me a little nervous, I really want to walk away with one of them,” said Russell, who would be the first from his school to earn the honor. Two years ago, Samantha Stendal, a talented Skyline grad and University of Oregon sophomore known for a recent anti-rape video that went viral with 2.4 million views, was up for two Emmys in the high school category. She walked away empty handed. “It would be really nice if this was the first,” said Bob Palmer, the school’s video production instructor. Russell’s video “Kismet,” is a 3 minute, 16 second film synched to the sound of hip hop
WATCH THE VIDEOS To view Tucker Russell’s Emmy nominated videos and other short films, go to tuckerwilderussell.com. artist Mack Miller’s “Man in the Hat.” “I always had this one image of a certain shot and from there it built itself out into an original script that I wrote for it and then adapted the song to it,” Russell said. The video, produced by Jeremy Millar, features Russell and Morgan Huish bumping into one another on a sidewalk. The two drop their phones and glasses, unknowingly mixing them up. They later take the wrong coffee from the counter, which sets in motion a series of events that draw the two back together. Russell’s other video was originally shot for the Issaquah School District’s Influence the Choice competition and finished first in the individual Marijuana category. It features Russell, playing a marijuana user, trying to get a friend, played by Damien Banki, to take a hit. Banki envisions what will happen if he takes the hit, with an effect of the camera shooting into his eye. The path leads to using harder
drugs, eventually showing Banki passing out after snorting cocaine. The camera then shoots back out of Banki’s eye and he denies the hit. Russell, who will attend the University of Arizona next fall, plans on majoring in film production. He hopes to continue producing short films and dabbling in feature length movies and music production — eventually turning it into a career. He said he looks up to a wide variety of directors ranging from the popular Steven Spielberg and J.J. Abrahams to the lesser known Tyler E., a commercial and music video producer. “I just love the fact that film combines several different arts,” said Russell, who only produced his first video two years ago as a sophomore. “You have the music, the sound mixing, the visuals and you put it all together and it makes a story that almost anyone in the world could coherently watch, listen to and get that not other art forms could do.” The graduating senior knows an Emmy would go a long way to boosting his career. “It would a huge deal for me,” Russell said. “I want to be remembered as one of those film makers that not just put up great films but just SEE NOMINEE, 10
The last day to submit language to the county auditor to propose the annexation of Klahanie and surrounding neighborhoods is Aug. 6. That means the city of Issaquah needs to make some decisions in a timely manner. At Tuesday’s meeting of the city’s Land and Shore Committee, the city’s finance director, Diane Marcotte, presented a fiscal analysis of the proposed annexation, based on a report which was prepared by consultants Tom Nesbitt, of Nesbitt Planning and Management, Inc., along with independent consultant Cynthia Stewart. Annexing Klahanie and 12 surrounding neighborhoods would produce about $620,000 in net income for Issaquah, before taking into account start-up costs and a sales tax-credit from the state that the city of Issaquah will have to apply for. Issaquah would gain about $6.47 million annually from additional property tax, some sales tax, state-shared revenues, utility taxes and real estate excise tax. Cost to the city to service the new areas would be about $5.85 million. The Land and Shore committee, consisting of council members Fred Butler, Stacy Goodman and standing in for Tola Marts, Josh Schaer, agreed that the next step is an agenda bill, which will be prepared by city administration. The bill is scheduled to go to the full council at the regular July 1 or July 15 meetings. “It’s time, I believe, to make a decision,” Butler said. This issue came up in 2005, when it was presented SEE KLAHANIE, 10