Getting Involved

Athens Video Works is Ohio University's own production company based out of the Radio-Television Building here on campus. It is run by Keith Newman, an OU professor of telecommunications. There are several shows that are filmed in the R-TV building, from a children's show to a sports news show. The shows air on Channel 25 in Athens County from 9-10 p.m. My personal favorites are "Jukebox" and "Friday's Live."

"Jukebox" is a show that airs each month and features a new local band with interviews and a live performance by the band.

"Friday's Live" is AVW's version of "Saturday Night Live" with sketch comedies and a new musical guest on each episode. There is a live taping of the show every Friday at 6:45 p.m. in Studio C on the sixth floor of the R-TV building. But be sure to get there early; seats fill up fast!

Check out the AVW website (or send an e-mail to info@avwproductions.com) to find a show you would like to work with whether you are interested in writing, directing, producing, editing, acting, broadcasting or just want to work the camera. These student-run productions are always looking for new, fellow students who want to get involved; they could always use an extra set of hands!

Interviewing The Talent

I chose to interview four members of Athens Video Works' comedy show, "Friday's Live", who I knew were all actively involved in the 48-hour Shootout each year: Aaron Missler, Anthony Fabiano, Margie Pandora, Sarah Baker and Zachary Small. Since they all had busy schedules, I asked them three questions through e-mail, giving them the liberty to respond at their liesure. Each person has been accurately quoted, word-for-word, according to their e-mail responses.

Questions:
1. What is your favorite thing about being in the 48-hour Shootout? Why?
2. What has been your favorite experience working on a shootout film? Why?
3. Do you have a funny story about the shootout that you would like to share?

AARON MISSLER: He is a junior digital medias major and was the director of The Legion project "Trapped By Spoon." He is also a member of OU Siggraph that makes some very entertaining animated short films. (This photo was taken while Missler enthusiastically told the crew exactly how he wanted the next scene to look.)

1. "[My] favorite thing about Shootout is seeing the finished product. While you're making the short everything is so hectic you sometimes get frustrated, but that all just melts away when you're relaxing with everybody and just watching what you all worked on. It makes the lack of sleep worth it."

2. "After the Short is submitted and before the screening starts our group, for the past two shootouts, would stand outside and smoke "completion cigars" as a kind of bonding celebratory act that we completed our task."

3. "Everyone was so sleep deprived this year that some of the team members fell asleep on the floor, some stopped speaking mid-sentence and just go in to a daze, and some of us started dancing around obnoxiously to stay awake. There never is just one instance with us; the whole experience is sustained hilarity."


ANTHONY FABIANO: He is a senior here at OU and is the executive producer of "Friday's Live." He was the director and an actor for Baby Hollywood's production. (This photo was taken by Caitlin Corns during an infamous "Friday's Live" Party.)

1. "I think the thing I like most about Shootout is how unpredictable it is. I like going into it not knowing what you are going to be working, not knowing what genre you will be working in and not knowing the prop central to your piece."

2. "I think this year was my favorite experience working on Shootout because we got to work on a genre we were unfamiliar in: drama. It was a great challenge and that is always so much fun to face a challenge."

3. "During the piece we shot at this really shady motel, and I am pretty sure most our of cast and crew thought the end was near."


MARGIE PANDORA: She is a sophomore organizational communications major and an actor on "Friday's Live." She acted in the Legion's production "Trapped By Spoon." (This photo was taken by Caitlin Corns during an episode of "Friday's Live" that Pandora hosted.)

1. "Just the whole idea of shootout, really. Developing, writing, shooting, and editing a short in that little of time. It makes whatever you do that much more impressive."

2. "Well, this was my first shootout, and even if this hadn't been, this one would definitely be my favorite. I know of other groups that fight like dogs all throughout the process. We didn't have any of that, it was really like hanging out with all my friends for a weekend and we happen to make a short movie as well. Also, getting covered in all the blood and gore was pretty cool too!"

3. "I think the funniest thing for me was when Aaron and Josh were putting the prostetics on my eyes. I was sitting in their bathroom for about an hour, each of them working on one of my eyes. I obviously couldn't see anything, but I could feel them putting on all this blood and "meat" as Aaron referred to it, which was really corn starch mixed with fake blood. I honestly thought it wasn't going to look good, or scarey at all. Then people started coming in and looking at me, and all I could hear was their reaction. I remember Zach saying something to the effect of it made him want to vomit. But the best one was hearing, I think Aaron's roommate, Matt, say it looked like my face had been blown off by a shotgun!"

SARAH BAKER: She is a fifth-year senior and a psychology and English major. She is the floor manager on "Friday's Live," which makes her second in command to the executive producer, as she relays information from the floor to the director in the booth. She was an actress in Baby Hollywood's film. (This photo was taken by Caitlin Corns at a "Friday's Live" party)

1. "My favorite thing about ShootOut is being able to do something so creative in only 48 hours. I had the real pleasure of working with a production company (Baby Hollywood in association with Easy Fix Productions) that was truly professional and on the ball. While most teams were still writing and didn't plan to start shooting until Saturday morning, we shot our first scene around 1am. We didn't wrap until 7pm on Saturday."

2. "This was my 3rd year of doing ShootOut. Each year has been a new and wonderful experience. From creating a parody of Blue's Clues (called "Lou's Clues" that actually won 2nd place that year) to making a drama about the McCarthyism and Hollywood in the 1950s ("Red Planet: Hollywood"). I've had the pleasure with working with very talented people and I even when there were times where we didn't think we would make it, I wouldn't trade it for the world."

3. "A funny story about ShootOut....hmmmm...Okay. So in our film "Red Planet: Hollywood", we needed a bedroom scene that didn't look like a college student's bedroom so we rented a room at the Sunset Motel (on Columbus Rd.). It was, by far, the shadiest motel I had ever seen. It looked like a motel where certain illegal substances are dealt and "professional" women take their clients. We felt dirty just standing in the room. I felt bad for Danny Cox and Lauren Salandra (two of our actors) who had to actually lie in the bed. The bathroom was filthy and we half expected to find a dead body under the bed. Truly the place where horror movies are made. Oh but they best part is yet to come. So there's a mini-fridge in the room, much like the mini-fridges in the dorms. For some reason (I can't exactly remember why) we dared our producer, Anthony Fabiano (Fabs), to look inside. He found a box from D.P. Dough with a half-eaten calzone. It was the most disgusting thing I have ever seen. We still talk about it."


ZACHARY SMALL: He is a junior video production major. He was the lead editor on the Legion's production "Trapped By Spoon" and has done the graphics for past episodes of "Friday's Live." (This photo was taken during some down time while filming for the shootout.)

1. "My favorite thing about being in shootout is that for one weekend everything else gets put aside so students can come together to make completely random movies."

2. "My favorite experience from a working standpoint has been working on the post production. Editing, to me, is the most fun."

3."During this past shootout I accidentally got drunk at our first night of shooting. We had picked up a case of beer and what started out as just a few beers out of thirst quickly became several beers and deep heartfelt conversations about life, movies, and love. I severely regretted it waking up the next day at 11 considering our shoot ran to 6 A.M., and I was probably still drunk the next day for awhile but it was still fun."

If Things Went My Way

Now it is my turn to tell you who I would have chosen had I been a judge at the 48-hour Shootout:

My choice as the first place winner would have been "Nonfiction" by Mata Hari. Their genre was pure horror, their prop was a necklace, and their line: "I'm taking a class on it. "

"Nonfiction" is about a boy who is taking the nonfiction writing course here at Ohio University. He is in the library when he runs across this girl he has obvious feelings for and who has already taken the class. He sits down to talk to her about his idea for his final story "The Necklace." His idea for his story is to make it a murder mystery where the main girl is given a necklace by a secret admirer who has been stalking her for years, but she never seems to return his smiles. In the end she is murdered by the stalker with the necklace he gave her. The girl he is telling the story to decides his story is not good enough--he needs to make the girl suffer by sending her several pieces of jewelry and cryptic note, then kill her by stabbing her several times before slitting her throat. I wish I could post this phenomenal video in my blog, but out of respect for the director who plans to enter the film in another contest, I am unable to post the link.

If you would like to know the ending then continue reading this paragraph. The mystery is whether the story is true or false, because the girl getting her throat slit in the final scene is the same girl from the library. "But then she hears it...the sound of his boots finding the solid ground, and the feeling of the knife finding her throat, and...how about you finish it?" says the girl. "No, it's your story now," the boy replies in a disturbing voice.

"Nonfiction" was a hair-raising, eye-popping, brain-twisting film that surpasses anything anyone expected to see done in just 48 short hours. The editing was smooth, and there was no music, just sounds of paper being shuffled and crackling noises in the background to add to the intensity of the story. The lighting was perfectly done and each scene was clear as a whistle, with depth-of-field camera shots and a mysterious silhouette of the murderer. I cannot imagine why this movie did not win anything--besides maybe the judges got too spooked to watch!

As my second place winner I would have chosen "Wake Up" by OU Siggraph, the team that originally tied with Boogie Array for third place. I enjoyed this movie because it was something that took time and patience and used its line, prop, and genre of instructional video in an entertaining, humorous way. Despite the movie having a few little bumps in the flow, everyone in the audience laughed and enjoyed it from beginning to end. I think it fascilitated the idea of the film very nicely, but at least it won something; they deserved it.

As my third place, I would have chosen the Legion's "Trapped By Spoon." You could say that I have a bias towards this particular film, but I honestly did no work on it. I also know the crew of the Legion as well as I know the crew of Baby Hollywood and Parkersburg Project; so I can honestly say that I chose this movie purely based on my enjoyment of the finished product and because most people I talked to said they were shocked the Legion did not at least receive honorable mention. Their film was centered around the prop they were given--a spoon--and they clearly used the genre of horror, as well as their line: "You won't do it." The photo below is a rather disturbing still frame of Margie Pandora's shining moment at the end of their film.

The editing was smooth, although there was a couple close up scenes that turned out blurry, but the music/sounds were perfectly throughout the movie. Margie's make-up was terrifying in the end, and the acting was convincing. Every person in the room jumped, gasped, or laughed at the sudden excitement as the end approached and Margie came on screen with her face bloodied and ripped apart, and the sound of someone screaming filled the room. Once again, I guess the judges were just too scared--or they clearly missed the reactions of the entire audience that filled the bottom section of the Memorial Auditorium here on Ohio University's College Green. (Check out their film at the bottom of my blog, or click here to watch it on YouTube.)

And The Winner Is...

A couple friends and I attended the showing of the finished films at 6:30 p.m., Sunday, February 8, 2009, at Memorial Auditorium on Ohio University's North Green. There were 27 films shown with either the genre of drama, comedy, pure horror, suspense/thriller, mystery, science fiction, action/adventure, instructional, documentary, or mockumentary. Each team was given a prop: a flannel shirt, three eggs, aluminum foil, a banana and a frying pan were among the more random items chosen. Along with a prop, each team was given a line that had to be used at some point in the film; "You look like Helen Keller," was one of the more humorously used ones. Other lines were silly sayings like, "That's what she said," or more serious ones like, "I can't even look at you."

This year had perhaps the most frustrating results. First prize went to "A New Frontier" by ClayNation Productions. The film genre was science fiction, their prop was a flannel shirt, and their line was, "I curse the day you were born." The film was claymation which involves making clay figures and moving them centimeter by centimeter, taking still frames, and then making them all flow together into a smoothly running movie. ClayNation was very successful with their time-consuming project--the movie was practically flawless for how difficult it is to make a film in claymation in such a short period of time. Although I did not find it to be the most stimulating short film, and it was no where near being one of my favorites, it did successfully meet all the requirements and a lot of time and effort and thought process went into the making of it. I will let you be the judge.


The second place prize was perhaps the most dissappointing for me. I, by no means, found it entertaining and believe it was only chosen because the director is a senior film productions major who is active in the communications school and Athens Video Works. It is unfortunate that I feel this film was chosen due to the head of Athens Video Works being biased toward his favorite students. The dialogue is very generic and the idea of having a group of friends sitting around playing charades and arguing about each persons sexual experience with another person in the group is nothing that takes too much time or thought process to write, produce, or direct. It rips off the idea of "The Office" and tries too hard to use the same style, but if you like when artists recycle other people's ideas, then this film might just be your thing! Here is "Game Night" by TDW Productions. Their genre, comedy; their prop, a notebook; their line "It's not my problem."


The third place winner was a tie between OU Siggraph's hilarious instructional video on on different ways to wake oneself up in the morning and Boogie Array's quasi-action/adventure film. There were a few editing glitches in the flow of the OU Siggraph's movie that caused it to pause or seem to skip during the showing, but this video remains one of my favorites because of the original idea of making it animated; it was overall the most entertaining with its use of slapstick comedy and the truth of how hard it is for college students to wake up each morning. The movie follows an animated, yellow man who trys a new way of waking himself up in the morning using tactics anywhere from blaring your music to getting a pet that will bug you in the mornings to putting a spring on your bed that releases and slams you against the wall each morning. It was a cartoon that most of the students in the room, or anywhere on campus for that matter, could identify with. Unfortunately, the film is not available for me to post on my blog, but the title of it was "Wake Up." Their prop was a clock and their line was, "Can you get that for me?"

Boogie Array's film "What A Racket" was a about a man working at a retail store. During the film, the man's crush invites him to her birthday party in the park. He wants to buy her a tennis racket, but someone else buys the only one in the store. The movie follows with the man chasing the racket all over campus as it gets passed from person to person. The movie was mildly entertaining, but it did not meet the genre of action or adventure. The team did properly use their prop, which was a tennis racket, and their line, "I can't even look at you." The video cannot be embedded into my blog, but it is available for your viewing pleasure on YouTube.

Scene One...Take two...Action!

It's 6:30 p.m. on Friday, February 6, 2009, and Director Aaron Missler comes sauntering into Alden Library room 250-- the 48-hour Shootout has officially begun for The Legion Production Company.

Each group entered in the 48-hour Shootout sends one person to a meeting at the South Pole on South Green to represent their production company. That person will return to their group with three things: a genre, a prop, and a line. This year, The Legion received the genre of horror; their prop was a spoon and their line was, "You won't do it." At this moment, the meeting commences as ideas are being bounced off the walls due to loud voices and everyone's extreme love for his own idea. After four hours of debating, the group finally settles down to hammer out a script; the movie must be five minutes long.

The idea was for Matt Karp to play the lead as the boyfriend who is delusional and sees a vision in a spoon of him murdering his girlfriend, played by Margie Pandora. There was blood and screaming and extreme sweating, mostly due to very hot lighting, and the movie was filmed in just 14 hours! Editing commenced while the filming was still in progress. This editing process, lead by Editor Zach Small, took the team over 24 hours to complete. They were just in time to turn it in before the 6:30 Sunday evening showing. Team Legion was satisfied with how the film turned out and stood proud with victory cigars outside on College Green before the public showing.

The 48-hour Shootout is a toiling weekend that allow telecommunication majors to show off their movie-making skills. It begins at 6:00 Friday evening of the first weekend in February and ends that following Sunday at 6:00 p.m. The event ends with a three and a half hour showing of all the completed films. A first, second and third place winner is chosen by a panel of judges, led by Athens Video Works' fearless leader Keith Newman, at the end of the showing. This year, 32 production companies entered, but only 27 turned in a finished film.

There was a lot of toiling over various aspects of the film. Of course the editing takes time, and a whole lot of patience that I definitely do not have, and getting the right shot is aggravating. It took several takes of each scene before Missler and Director of Photography Joe Kell got a shot they could both happy with. But perhaps the most fun and time consuming part of filming was making the blood with corn syrup, water, and red food coloring. It was necessary that the blood be the correct color and texture to seem convincing! Once the blood was made, it was funneled into a tube that was then taped to Margie underneath her clothes. There were three little slits where the tube ran across the right side of her neck and shoulder, which is where the blood came out when Producer Josh Beebe blew through the end of the tube. While Matt ran a knife across Margie's neck and blood spewed onto her skin and down her clothes, her smile never wavered and she remained as still as brick house. It was a messy, sticky adventure for the team...but mostly for poor Margie who had to remain in her "blood" stained clothes in order to film the final scene of the movie. (If you are interested in making your own fake blood, check out this wiki.)

The group did most of their shooting in Missler's University Courtyard apartment, but the office scenes were shot in the AVW office on the third floor of the Baker Center. I was with the group during the second day of filming beginning at 1 p.m. in Baker and finishing up around 9:30 p.m. at the apartment. The lighting made everyone sweat, the lack of sleep made the whole crew easily aggravated and most of the crew forgot to eat, but all-in-all they had a great time and made an amazing student film. I thoroughly enjoyed sitting off to the side and watching the magic happen.

Although The Legion did not win any awards, but I had many people telling me that this was the first time a horror shoot out film had ever made them flinch. The film had an interesting plot and great student acting; Margie's makeup during the ending of the film was absolutely terrifying and completely unexpected, which made people jump out of their skin. Check out The Legion Production Company's film: Trapped By Spoon

(All pictures posted in this blog were taken by me unless noted otherwise.)