Student talents revealed at Union Board film fest

The Union Board showcased student talent last weekend when it held the second-annual Student Film Festival in Indiana Memorial Union's Whittenberger Auditorium. The 11 submissions, created by IU students, ranged in genre from silent film to horror. After the movies were screened each night, audience members voted for their favorites for the Audience Choice Awards which were given Saturday night.\nSome of the filmmakers faced last minute challenges in the creation of their movies for the film festival. More than one contestant had to change their soundtrack after discovering they had to copyright or buy rights to all music played in their film.\n"We had to take some of the music out," said senior Parker Wittman of the film he created with senior Angela Lynch titled "The Transport of Light and Memory" which won Thursday night's Audience Choice Award.\nThis documentary featured images of landscape and sunlight from a moving car intertwined with interviews with people about what made them feel peaceful and joyous.\n"Angela and I got really interested in talking to people about moments of contentment throughout the day," Wittman said. "There are different ones for different people."\nWittman said some people need to climb to the top of a mountain to get the type of feeling he was trying to capture on film, while others feel at peace while driving.\n"We were trying to figure out what it is and where it comes from," Wittman said of the feeling. "It was basically us better trying to understand how other people feel it."\nBecause of technical difficulties, two of the films scheduled for Thursday night had to be replayed Friday. One of the films, "Victory Brothers, INC," ended up winning the Audience Choice Award for Friday. \nCreated by juniors Tyler Beem and Drew Lazzara, the film contained three comedic sketches, including a short, stop-action animation piece called "Hangover in a Halfshell" in which a stuffed turtle downs a can of beer. \nBeem described the project as a series of television episodes he and his friends have been compiling since their high school days in Noblesville.\nBeem said most past works involved a lot of improvisation, but this time the creators put more effort into pre-production. \n"We wanted it to be more dialogue-driven this time, instead of just physical humor," Beem said. "I think it turned out pretty well, as far as dialogue."\n"Prodigium," a computer animated film created by recent IU graduate David Sharp and seniors Thomas Murphy and Jeremy Zimmerman, took home the Critics' Choice award. \n"I consider myself a fine artist," Murphy said. "I would like to think some of this rubbed off on the film." \nThe film, which resembled a highly detailed 3-D video game, was about a wizard trapped in a tower, trying to ward off a knight coming to kill him. He casts an evil spell to stop the knight, but instead of summoning an evil monster, he conjures a green, squeaky blob with a daisy growing out of its head. The blob causes mischief and destruction throughout the wizard's lore. Just when the wizard is about to banish the blob, it saves the wizard from death by devouring the knight. The wizard lets the blob back into his lair where sounds of destruction and frustration can be heard from outside the closed door.\n"I didn't realize that students would have access to that sort of technology," said graduate student Anna Tooman, who saw the film. "It looked very professional. It was impressive." \nRachael Bosley, an editor for American Cinematographer magazine, gave a short speech about the nature of independent film Saturday night before the awards were given out and the winning movies were screened.\n"It may be hard to believe, but no one sets out to make a bad movie," Bosley said.\nShe talked about how even the worst movies take a lot of effort, work and consideration to make. \n"If a movie gets made, it's a minor miracle, and if it's good, it's a major one," Bosley said. \nBosley encouraged the student filmmakers to continue with their work, regardless of how the awards turned out.\n"None of you guys should get hung up on the idea of awards," Bosley said. "Francis Ford Coppolla had the worst student films in the entire class. \n-- Contact staff writer Jenica Schultz at jwschult@indiana.edu.