How long can they milk the Oscars? Sitting on my couch watching JoanRivers and Melissa Rivers discuss the type of double-sided tape that best holds dresses to one’s cleavage and Cameron Diaz’s failure to wear a nice pair of Spanx to hide her panty line, I am pretty convinced that the Oscars have been talked dry. But for all of my new knowledge on the glitz and glamour of the red carpet, I somehow do not know any more about the films that are supposed to be the focus of the whole evening. What goes into making a film?
Creative Campus explored this question with its Coffee Shop Cinema Film Festival on March 2. The film festival was originally scheduled to last three days beginning Thursday, March 1. However, owing to complications with the weather and venue, the film festival was condensed into one night and held at the Capture Studio Café on University Boulevard.
The films ranged widely in genre, from experimental to narrative and documentary to poetic. The student filmmaker both introduced his or her film and answered questions from the audience after the short was shown.
“Where did you get your inspiration?” “How was it going from being a still photographer to editing video?” “How did you get that camera angle?” “Did you set out to create that effect or did it just happen?”
The eager voices of the audience members clambered in as soon as the applause died down. For once, the art was not being sifted through a filter of some glamour-atti who diverted attention away from the innovators. On Friday night, the artists were real — right there sipping on their chai drinks at the ultra-modern figure-eight tables.
One attendee, junior Trevor Newberry, said, “Just knowing what goes into independent films helps you, helps me, to appreciate them.” Trevor is a performing musician and a novice actor himself. “I think Amanda [Rivera]'s film was really interesting because of the approach it took from visual poetry. So, I enjoyed that and that was a different concept for me,” he said.
Part of the vision of the Creative Campus Initiative is to broaden and deepen the scope of arts, culture and creativity. Creative Campus intern Abi Wright, who orchestrated the film festival, thought this event accomplished that part of the vision.
“I was glad that people talked and responded and asked questions.” Wright said. “I think people got a deeper understanding of what goes into film.”
The director of the Creative Campus Initiative, Scott Bridges, stated simply, “This was good stuff. It was a nice pilot and a nice spot — a nontraditional venue.”
Now, if we could only get Joan and Melissa to keep it that short and sweet.
