News: Fall 03 Student Film Screening | Melville Shavelson Grants in Filmmaking Awards | New Course Added | Visiting Advance Filmmaking Instructor Scores Big in Berlin | Application and Proposal Guidelines for 493 Advance Film and Video Projects |
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Student Film Screenings - Fall 03
Student Films I
Sunday, December 7, 7:30 Willard Straight Hall
The premiere of a wide range of projects from the filmmakers in the Intro to 16mm filmmaking class (T.A. 377) and the Summer Animation class (T.A. 324). From the Intro class, work by Yauny Wheaton, Eduardo Wong, Sarah Jacobs, Jeff De Picciotto, Andy Guess, Georgia Gruzen, Andrew Mittman, Evelyn Lee, Jean-Sebastien Brunie, Jayant Kulkarni and Debra Tennenbaum. From the Animation class, work by Brad Albright, David Beal, Carter Ford, Chris Lewis, Christopher Long and Sasha Shumyatsky.
Student Films II
Sunday December 14, 7:30 Willard Straight Hall
New original film and digital videos produced this semester by the talented filmmakers in Intermediate Film & Video Projects: Narrative & Documentary (T.A. 477). On the program: Lauren Wells' Step 2, an exploration into the fears and desires of the adjusted and the comfortable; Enrique Leal's lfr6, a documentary about your not-so-average Cornell student; Henrique Suguri's The Proxy, a narrative about a very unusual triangle; Christina Won's Lost Cause, the story of a guy, the girl who doesn't love him, and the best friend he doesn't like, stuck in a world that makes no sense; Seth Levi's God's Machine: Tivo, a student documentary so big it had to be made in color; Gaea Denker-Lehrman's Bypass, which asks the question "What would you do with a new body?" and follows the lives of several Ithaca-area gastric bypass patients in the weeks immediately following their surgery; and Josh Morse's My First Documentary, about his Mom's paintings, her father, the Holocaust and himself. Also, catch Jeff Cedeno's great camera work in two of the films.
The Film Program of the Department of Theatre, Film & Dance
ANNOUNCES CORNELL’S Melville Shavelson (’37) Grants in Filmmaking for 2003
for Production in T.A. 493 Advanced Film & Video Projects, Spring, 2003
Best Screenplay Award to the Project:
"A Darker Shade of Dim"
$500 to Daniel Antoniazzi, Ben Shiffrin & Lauren Wells
Film Production Awards: $1000 to Gaea Denker-Lehrman & Lela Klein — Documentary
$800 to Ben Shiffrin & Lauren Wells for "A Darker Shade of Dim"
$800 to Henrique Suguri for "Spring Cleaning"
$500 to Lauren Haber for "Keep Me Company"
$400 to Matt Siegler for "X-Craft Raid"
Film Faculty Jury: Amy Villarejo, Sabine Haenni, Marilyn Rivchin
and visiting screenwriting lecturer, Thomas Richardson
New Course Added for Summer Session 2003!
Note: This course will be offered again Summer 2004, details will be posted in the spring.
Film Animation Workshop: Experimental and Traditional Animation on the Oxberry
Instructor: Lynn Tomlinson ('88)
Six Week Session: June 23- Aug. 5, 2003
The class will meet M-F 1-2:30. Students may stay afterwards for open workshop time.
Limited to 10 students. Students will work individually and in pairs.
The art of animation is art that involves not just two or three dimensions--it is the art of time and motion. Learning traditional and experimental methods of animation expands our range in this age of technology by an emphasis on tactile processes - drawing, sculpting and painting - and recording the images we create to capture movement and expression. This course investigates innovative ways of animating sequential images and objects, modeling our projects on the work of artists who have pushed the potential of animation in new directions. In addition to introducing the fundamentals of traditional animation and the mechanics used to capture the illusion of movement, we will explore a variety of experimental and fine-arts approaches to animation.
During the first two weeks students create a number of exercises while trying a variety of animation techniques, including hand-drawing, cut-out silhouette, collage, paint- and clay-on-glass, stop-motion puppets, replacement animation, and rotoscoping (tracing film). Students will learn to use the Master Series Oxberry Animation Stand, and will use computers as a testing and editing tool. The last half of the course will be spent in intensive production of a 30 second sync-sound animated spot, shot on 16mm film on the Oxberry, transfered to DV and edited digitally. Creative content will be emphasized as well as technique. Lectures and screenings of animated films will include discussions of abstract animation (Oscar Fischinger, Mary Ellen Bute) self-reflexive animation (i.e. George Griffin's Lineage), multi-cultural influences (Faith Hubley's films), literary adaptation (Svankmaier's Alice), the personal journey (Suzan Pitt's Joy Street and Joanna Priestly's All My Relations) animation and the uncanny (The Brothers Quay), animation and performance (Winsor McCay's Gertie the dinosaur and Kathy Rose's work). Students will learn about animation story-telling and storyboarding and the unique qualities of animation as an art form.
Visiting Advanced Filmmaking Instructor Scores BIG in Berlin
Worldwide release of film in negotiations:
A PASSAGE TO OTTAWA, a film by Visiting Lecturer Jameel Khaja was awarded "Special Jury Mention" at the Berlin Film Festival in February. A PASSAGE TO OTTAWA, Jameel's debut as a feature film writer, co-producer, and co-editor screened in the Kinderfilm section of this prestigious event. The film is about an eight year old East Indian boy named Omi who travels to Canada's capital in search of a magical superhero to take home for his ailing mother. A PASSAGE TO OTTAWA screened four times during the week of the Berlinale. Previously the film has won the Best Feature Film Award at the Austin Film Festival for Writers, the Best First Feature Award at Cinefest Canada, and it has also screened as part of festivals in Bombay and New York City. The executive producers are negotiating a limited release sometime this Spring for Canada, Europe, and Asia.
As the son of an East Indian father and an American mother, Jameel drew heavily upon his family background for the story, the characters of mixed race, and for the people who ultimately made up the film's production team. Jameel's eight year old cousin played the lead role of Omi; another cousin created the comic book animation that inspires Omi's quest; and a pivotal home movie sequence of "Omi's mother" was contributed by Jameel's father who shot the material more than 30 years ago in India on Super 8 film. The woman in this film is in fact the young actor's real mother--also Jameel's cousin.
You can read more about the film at www.transvisionfilms.com
APPLICATION & PROPOSAL GUIDELINES
T.A. 493 Advanced Film & Video Projects - Spring, 2004
T. A. 493 in Spring, 2004 includes production of original projects in dramatic narrative, documentary, experimental and animation projects. Students may choose to film in 16mm or digital video; they will work in crews on each others’ projects; all projects will be edited digitally. Proposed projects should be in the 15-25-minute length range.
A maximum of 6 projects will be accepted. If there are collaborations, a maximum of 10 students may be accepted into the course. Collaborative projects are encouraged. Two-three students may jointly propose a single project; all would take the course for credit and be responsible for conceptualization, production and post-production.
Open to film majors (and possibly) non-majors who have completed at least T.A. 377, 277 or equivalent course; preferably those who have also had T.A. 477 or 478 and/or Screenwriting or Directing