Last Saturday, I attended the Derek Freese High School Film and Video Festival right here at Temple University. I've got to say I was surprised by two things: 1. There were very few Temple students actually there. Why???? 2. Some high school kids are REALLY talented.
Some highlights that stuck out to me:
"The Art of The Crime" was a beautiful documentary by Kaitlin Reilly and Emily Drucke about graffiti in New York City. The film did a wonderful job of showing both sides of the argument - is graffiti an art form or is it vandalism? It also showed the in-between, with youngsters taking a boring white wall and turning it into art, but not ever "tagging" someone's personal property. The whole film held together well-it had my attention the whole time and beautifully used appropriate cutaways during interviews. My own attempts at documentary are not even near as complete. Bravo, kids. Bravo.
The funniest one? "Dino-Utopia" by Blair Scott. Very simple plot: a boy tries to decide between playing with his dinosaurs and doing his calculus homework. Even that short description is hilarious. LOVED it.
"Bromance" by Will Wiggins and Lee Cortopassi was also hilarious. Whenever you make a music video and call it "Bromance" and it's made my high school boys, you have a recipe for fun.
"Trauma" by Torriano Johnson and Breaana Rodiguez was quite intense. It was a docu-drama about the effects of drunk driving. At first, I thought there was a mock-crash and some kid filmed it, but then it continued on. And the emotions were quite real. I'm pretty sure I shed a tear watching it. I, like many others, knew someone who was killed because of drunk driving, and it really hit me. What a way to send a powerful message!
The film that blew me away the most was "This Keeps Happening" by Drew Angle. (Click here to watch the entire 20-minute film on vimeo.) The images were absolutely beautiful. Very clear, wonderful colors, great composition. The acting was very well done, and the story was complex and emotional. It was about a suicidal man dealing with his love for his dead sister and the murder he just committed - his dead sister's husband. The man talks to himself - as another version of himself starts talking back. It blew my mind how a 16-18 year old could put something together like that when it's BETTER than a lot of college student films I had seen. Definitely my favorite of the night, and I can't wait for it to be online so I can see it again.
I don't want to make a comment on any of the experimentals, since I don't really understand the genre. And from what I DO understand, you can't critique it. It defies the rules, so how can you critique any of it using rules? I have to mention, though, that these high schoolers understand the genre a lot better than I do!
Best of luck to all the talented highschoolers who participated! I can't wait to see what they are doing five years from now!
(PS - I loved going to this festival, but this blog post is XC for videography class. Yay! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment