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.)
No comments:
Post a Comment