Christopher Llewellyn Reed @ Stevenson

2010.08.26_VID222-03_11, originally uploaded by Christopher Llewellyn Reed.

Wow! That was fast!

I hope you had a chance to feel welcomed by our great staff, students and faculty!

And now … the work begins …

2010.08.26_VID222-03_04, originally uploaded by Christopher Llewellyn Reed.

With my apologies to the 70s British New Wave band The Buggles (who sang “Video Killed the Radio Star”), I offer this (far more positive) update.

We are moving beyond tape, and bringing in a full range of middle-range and top-of-the-line Panasonic flash memory cameras.

Here, 2nd-Semester Junior Edward Sovago-Royal shows off his handheld P2 chops as he photographs our Greenspring campus on a beautiful Thursday morning!

2010.08.24_VID222-02_10, originally uploaded by Christopher Llewellyn Reed.

One of my two VID222 (Field Production and Editing II) classes had fun practicing with our Panasonic HVX200 PD high-definition cameras today.

Here, Zak Seidman, KC White, and Tyler Baldwin planned out a short shot to figure out the basic functionality of the camera, in a stairwell in the Rose Dawson Academic Center.

This class will actually be using our new Panasonic HMC-40 cameras, but I wanted them to practice on these ones, as well.

Welcome back to school!  We in the Department of Film/Video/Theatre are excited to be back in action.  I spent my summer writing a book about the history, theory and practice of film editing, to be published soon.  I also got a dog (see below).  How about you?  Any fun stories to tell?

Our Production Studio just got a new addition, as we replace our old television switcher with this new portable one from Newtek – the Tricaster Studio.

Here’s to a fun Fall Semester, and great year!

BerkshiresSummer2010_29, originally uploaded by Christopher Llewellyn Reed.

And school will soon begin again!

I hope that everyone has had a great June, July, and now August, and I look forward to seeing you soon.

In this photo you see my new dog Lizzy after a hike in the Berkshires we took while spending a few vacation days in West Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

Hello!

So I have decided to share, with all who read this blog, a recent addition to my life. I decided to adopt a dog from the MDSPCA – a little Beagle mix.

Here she is, yesterday, playing with a new friend.  Click on the link, above.

Also – I have just updated the Film/Video website – you can check out the link in the right column of this page for recent Stevenson work, or click here: Stevenson Film and Video

Enjoy!

Last week, we held our Senior Film & Video Showcase 2010, on Thursday and Friday evenings.  Both nights were, collectively, a resounding success.  For the first time, we screened the Senior projects from Blu-Ray discs, and the result was the best visual quality screenings we have ever had (I had fun creating the discs, too, as it is always exciting to play with new software).  I will soon add some of these films to our Film & Video website.

Pictured above is the disc menu, showing as the crowd filed in.

So – the year is over – and my blog will now wind down until the Fall.  There may still be a few more postings now and then, but if you come back here and it hasn’t been touched for a while, I hope you’ll understand.

Be well,

Chris

2010.05.08_DailyCamden_12, originally uploaded by Christopher Llewellyn Reed.

Rafael Alfarez has set up a wonderful 6-month project where different people are asked to take photos every day of Orioles Park at Camden Yards.

Saturday, May 8, 2010, was my day.

Check out the site:

The Daily Camden

Rafael is still looking for more people to do this, so if you’re interested, go ahead and contact him through the site.

If you want to see the complete series that I took, click on the photo, above, and you’ll be taken to my flickr site.

Thanks for checking it out!

Chris

So I saw two very interesting films today!

Casino Jack, by documentarian Alex Gibney (Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Taxi to the Dark Side), about disgraced (and incarcerated) lobbyist Jack Abramoff, and Tiny Furniture, by Lena Dunham, about a 22-year-old college graduate’s self-destructive impulses (it’s nice to see a fresh take on this).

I enjoyed both films.  However, I think Gibney’s documentary could lose a half-hour. I got a bit lost in the jumble of details. Also, I worry that he might be heading too much down the Michael Moore path, and assuming that we are already with him, rather than always bringing us to his outrage through sheer filmmaking power. That said, I found the film informative, disturbing, and I wonder Abramoff and Bob Ney are the only two who went to jail . . .

Tiny Furniture was delightful, if stressful (watching someone make all the wrong decisions is tense, indeed!). The film was shot on the Canon 7D, a still camera that can shoot high definition video. The director claims that this is the first feature to be completed using this camera. It looked great. The DP really knew what she was doing. In general, the production value and acting (three of the leads were members of Dunham’s family, including . . . herself, her mother, and her sister) were high. At some point, I got a little tired of watching a story of a young person trying to figure things out – as that is the kind of story I try to help my students make over and over again – but I thought that Ms. Dunham brought some needed fresh perspective to this sometimes tired genre. I laughed a lot – the writing is superb. She is a director to watch!

Both screenings were at the MICA Brown Center – I love that venue – and the Maryland Film Festival staff were on top of their game.  Wish I could watch more films, but I have other things to do this evening.  I’ll be back tomorrow for Putty Hill at the Charles, and maybe more.  We.  Shall.  See!

You should all go!  Here is the link to the Fest: Maryland Film Festival

I think it is wonderful that Baltimore has such an amazing, internationally recognized film festival.  We are very lucky.

However, not every film that one may see will be fantastic.  That’s part of the charm.  And even when I hate movies I see, I believe in people’s right to make them, and I know that other people may like them.

Last night, Friday, May 7, I went to see a shorts collection.  Here is my report:

Full disclosure – both times I have submitted films to the MFF, they have been rejected.

I attended the “Charge of the WTF Brigade Shorts” on Friday evening, May 7, at 7pm, with my girlfriend, Jen.  We had originally intended to go to the “Funny People” shorts program at 6:30pm, but we changed our minds when we realized we’d be rushing things.  And yes, WTF stands for what you think it stands for.  So I thought it would be fun, at least.

My girlfriend Jen and I arrived around 6:40pm, and had to deal with the usual mixed messages from volunteer staff – it’s always the same at these kinds of events, no matter the pre-planning.  Someone outside decides to tell ticket holders to a particular show that they can go in, which then leads to a bit of a mess when it turns out that was incorrect.

No matter.  We made it to our screening, and on the way in I was pleased to see one of my Stevenson University Film/Video students working as a volunteer usher (yay, Fred Ruff!). We sat down, and a few minutes later a very young woman came in – she looked younger than many of my students – and introduced herself as a member of the screening committee (yikes – that young!).  After indicating that there were three films that had directors in the audience, she started the show.

Here were the films (I may be getting the order wrong, as I did not have a pen):

1.  The Feast of Stephen (James Franco, Dir.) – Yes, that’s James Franco, the actor.  He’s in NYU Grad Film now (or just finished), the same program I attended.  This was a meditation on gay male attraction for the forbidden fruit, and quite frankly, I’ve been seeing these films since the mid-90s, and I’m tired of them.  I didn’t think this had anything new to add to the vast repertoire of homoerotic art out there, and was unevenly shot.  I love Franco the actor.  Let’s hope this was not a taste of filmmaking to come.

2.  Woke Up Ugly (Ryan Parker, Dir.) – this had a lot going for it, with a clear narrative and some very interesting and thought-out production and sound design.  It was the longest film of the program, so thankfully it had a real story and script.  I just wished that it didn’t throw this strange Lynchian box at us at the end (I mean a literal box, by the way), as there was nothing earlier to support that plot element.  Then again, this was the WTF collection . . .

3.  The Grass is Greener (Michael Vincent and Molly Donovan) – self-indulgent narcissistic pseudo-intellectual claptrap.  Blah blah blah blah, shall I choose girls or boys, waaaaaah. On the other hand, there were some very nice images, and the second sequence that functioned as the transition from black and white to color – and from reality to fantasy – was actually very well done, with excellent editing and cinematography.  It was a lovely little music video that enchanted me, and made the subsequent horror so repellent.  I especially enjoyed the fact that the directors were in the film.  It takes a lot of (misguided) self-confidence to want to make a film in which you, yourself, are naked and writhing.  And the film is 17 minutes long.  That’s 10 minutes too many!

4.  Delmer Builds a Machine (Landon Zakheim) – in many ways, this is a perfect little short film.  At 2 minutes, this was one of the shortest films in the program.  The kid is delightful.  It’s really great.  Love it, love it, love it.  Well written and well executed.  Almost worth the entire price of admission.

5.  Feeder (Joseph Ernst) – I also really liked this film, although I thought I was going to throw up at the beginning (my girlfriend Jen “took a nap” during the film).  We see everything from the literal back of the actor’s throat.  This includes food, cigarette smoke, drink, another person’s tongue, and yes, vomit.  But it works.  Any longer and I would have thought – no!  But at 4 minutes, it does not overstay it’s welcome.

6.  Hallelujah! Gorilla Revival (Jason LaRay Kenner & Jeremiah Ledbetter) – I have to say that I have very little memory of this film.  I think I was engaged for the first minute, and then zoned out and started watching the paint dry on the wall next to me.

7.  Sapsucker (Christopher Holmes) – this film, about a man chasing a woodpecker through the woods, has a lot to recommend it.  I enjoyed it, for the most part, and thought the story and script were strong.  The execution was weaker, however, and there were some continuity issues with the actor’s chewing tobacco that really bothered me.  So – clever, but needed a more accomplished director (or DP, at least) at the helm.

8.  Vibe Flex (Justin Kelly) – if the purpose of including this in the program was to make me say “WTF,” then this film fulfilled its destiny.

9.  The World of Film Festivals (Jim Jacob) – what can I say?  This quirky, purposefully badly shot and badly acted mockumentary piece on film festivals was very very very funny.  I loved it.

So the show ended, and then the same young woman who had introduced the screening came back in, and did the following, which left me stunned.  Stunned!  I have never seen this happen, anywhere, and I have been to many film festivals and have even worked for one, once.  Plus I run screenings with filmmakers in attendance all the time.

She walks into the middle of the theater and says, “OK, that was the WTF screening.  We have the directors of three films –  Delmer, Grass is Greener, and World of Film Festivals – are there any questions? (note that she is the only one standing, no filmmakers have been called down).  She waits a beat – maybe 2 seconds – and then says, “No?  OK – thank you for coming.”

!!!

So I make my way down the stairs, and there she is, smiling uncomfortably to all who pass.  Standing behind her is the director and star of World of Film Festivals, looking confused.  I go up to her and explain to her that this is not how it’s done, that you need to call the filmmakers down to the front, line them up, and, if you have to, ask questions of them, yourself, to get the ball rolling.  She looks at me, wide-eyed, maybe thinking, “Who is this old bald guy?” and thanks me, telling me that this is good to know, because she hasn’t done this kind of thing before.  OK, but hasn’t she ever been to a screening?  I felt really bad for the directors (even though I didn’t like Grass is Greener – that’s not the point).

Jim Jacob, of World of Film Festivals, chimed in that, yes, this is what she should have done.  Poor guy!  I hope the directors get another chance to answer questions at their second screening, which is today, Saturday, at 7pm.

On my way out, I ran across the street and bought a ticket to Alex Gibney’s Casino Jack, a documentary about Jack Abramoff, which I will see later this morning at 11am.  I love Alex Gibney’s work (Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Taxi to the Dark Side), and he will be there.

And that’s all, for now!

Thanks for reading.

If you want more updates on the festival, be sure to read the blog that my friend Anne Haddad is doing for The Urbanite.  She’s smarter and nicer than I am, so you’ll get a different perspective on things from her.  Here is a link to her site: http://annehaddad.blogspot.com/