Editorial Note: Correction to the story called “Film festival fever”
On the cover of this week’s issue, which features the FAU Film Club, the date of their upcoming film festival was incorrectly reported. The correct date is April 23.
On page 8 Film Club President Matthew Schlissel is listed as a “pre-law major.” He is a film major. We regret these errors.
FEATURE
When Matthew Schlissel realized that it was up to him to bring back the FAU Film Club, he did.
In fall 2009, Schlissel, a sophomore film major, was looking to join the Film Club on the advice of Ryan Kaplan, one of the club’s ex-presidents, with whom he had worked on a film during the summer. When he looked for the club on campus, all he found were dead ends.”I went to school and asked what was going on with the club. I called the contact information, and no one responded. I asked people who I knew were in the club the year prior, and no one knew what was going on,” said Schlissel. “Apparently, there was no club; there was nothing. I decided to start it up again.”
To do this, Schlissel had to re-register the club. This entailed getting the necessary signatures for its creation, obtaining the club’s constitution, updating it and finding an adviser. After he had completed all of these steps, Schlissel approached David Sharvit, the Film Club’s most recent ex-president before its disappearance, and got from him access to the club’s e-mail account.
“I saw a lot of unanswered e-mails, and I responded to them. People e-mailed the club, asking what was going on,” Schlissel said regarding attendance of the club’s first meeting in October 2009. “I didn’t really have to promote the club.”
According to Schlissel, at this point, he took control of the club, naming himself its president. Dillan Cohen, a junior communication major and a Film Club member, agrees with Schlissel’s position.
“It’s not just that he handles the club well; he built it from the ground up,” said Cohen.
On matters of submitted scripts and movies to be made, however, the club operates more equally.
“We just talked about it and voted on it. It’s been 100 percent democratic,” he said of the club’s filmmaking process.
According to Ryan Kaplan, Schlissel has improved on the product put out by the club.
“It’s pretty incredible where Matt has taken the Film Club. I think they made maybe 12 mini-films just this past school year,” said the FAU alum. “My last term we made maybe three five-minute films.”
In order to put out these movies, Schlissel sometimes has to delegate work to qualified members, which is not always easy.
“I haven’t had a problem with people who aren’t good at doing something; I have a problem with people not wanting to do something. They want the least amount of responsibility,” he said about the different duties within the club.
Dillan Cohen explained that Schlissel is able to command the club well when need be, but is also able to promote ideas on the set.
“When he comes to meetings, he makes sure we stay focused and on track. But on the film set, he’s there for suggestions, and he allows creativity,” said Cohen.
While the club has its own camera, light kit and tripod, some equipment needs to be borrowed from Owl TV. According to Schlissel, the arrangement works well now, but it wasn’t always so.
“We would ask them to use their equipment, and it would be a bit of a struggle. But now it’s great,” he said.
In 2009, when the club started, Schlissel asked Chris Robe, an assistant professor in the School of Communication and Multimedia Studies, to be its adviser. Robe agreed, and also proposed what would later become the annual FAU Film Festival.
“He threw out the idea of the film festival at the end of the year to show all the movies we’ve made. I thought that was the greatest idea I’ve ever heard,” said Schlissel. “I’ve been dreaming about it since that moment.”
To learn more about the FAU Film Club, go to www.faufilmclub.com.
[Sabrina Koramblyum contributed to the reporting in this article.]
The first of hopefully not so many
Liz Dzuro
Photo Editor
The first annual FAU Film Festival will be showcasing 13 student-made movies but will only last four hours.
Each film is an average of 10 minutes long, with the exception of the film Dual Enrollment, which is 35 minutes long. This means that if each film is played back to back, this festival will last exactly two hours and 22 minutes. The event will go from 5:30 p.m. till 9:30 p.m. on Friday, April 23, in Room 101 of the Performing Arts Building on the Boca campus. The event will also include performances by Hoot/Wisdom Recordings band Bell Tower Falls and student artist Joy. The film submissions were open to all students, and almost half are Film Club productions. These films have been made throughout this spring semester, with one that is trying to be finished in time for the festival.
But all their hard work did not yield great results.
Major problems with plot lines, sound quality and just plain bad acting prevented these films from entering the atmosphere of being taken seriously. But if you want to get a good laugh, then check them out.
Here are my thoughts concerning the Film Club productions:
Dual Enrollment
The longest of the Film Club films, this is three times longer than the rest but still didn’t have much character development or a detailed plot. I guess what it was supposed to be about was a young drug dealer whose opposite best friend is trying to convince him to go to college, and he struggles with the options of getting an education to get him a career with a good salary or making quick money in the life of drugs. But each scene focused a bit too long on mundane details, like the routine of getting ready in the morning or driving places with no important dialog, rather than moving the storyline forward. If the story jumped ahead a year to when he starts attending college and is still dealing drugs to pay for tuition, it would be one part The Wackness, two parts Charlie Bartlett, with the flavor of being at FAU thrown in to equal a great movie.
The Wonderful World of Waking Up
The best out of the five because it has well-executed story, script delivery and camera techniques. The characters’ sentence wording is a bit cryptic, but for a good reason that is all revealed in a eureka moment that ties everything together, like it should.
Dog Eat Dog
A poor retelling of an outlandish parking lot brawl with the clear moral of the story being that FAU’s parking situation is horrible, or as the narrator describes, it “sucks monkey balls.” With dub overs and a music-laced fight scene that is reminiscent of Ocean’s Eleven, it pains me to compare this film to anything associated with Brad Pitt.
Carly’s Night Out
This is not a film; it’s a public service announcement about rape. The first-person camera technique is a unique way to portray the situation, but this night out that Carly is having is at a lame house party where she gets slipped a roofie by a guy wearing his sunglasses at night. So, if you don’t want to be taken advantage of, just stay away from the ’80s.
Karma Carousel
Nothing spectacular about this one, neither good nor bad. It’s about people being nice to other people in a pay-it-forward kind of way.
Watch movies, save boobs
Stephanie Colaianni
Assistant Art Director
Luna, the “whole nutrition bar for women,” has managed to put together a film festival. The FAU Jupiter campus will be home to this year’s festival. The small group of people, backed by the nutrition bar company, has raised more than $470,000 toward women-targeted organizations and more than $300,000 toward the Breast Cancer Fund.
This festival travels across the U.S on a 36-date tour. The 10 films are all made by females from all across the world and spread among topics such as body image to relationships to cultural diversity.
All of the proceeds made from this night will be sent to the Breast Cancer Fund and FAU student scholarships.
FAU’s John D. MacArthur campus
Lifelong Learning Society Auditorium
5353 Parkside Drive, Jupiter
Adults $10, students $5
For tickets, call (561) 799-8667
Tuesday, April 27, @ 6:30 p.m.
If you’re an ambitious female filmmaker, you can submit your work to www.lunafest.org and walk away with a prize of $1,000.
Worldly films
Burt Reynolds, The Kinks, Egyptian garbage and a man named Steven who is now called Susan all have something in common: They will come together in a film festival.
The Palm Beach International Film Festival brings 90-plus short and long films from all over the world to unite in a five-day event. Students can pay $25 for a pass to view as many of these films as they like.
Reynolds, not only known for his mustache but for being an actor/producer/director, will be receiving this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award. The Silver Screen Splash ceremony will be held in Lake Worth on Friday, April 23.
Her Name Was Steven
This film documents the life of Steven Stanton, a former Largo, Fla., city manager as he undergoes a sex change to become Susan.
Show time – 7 p.m. @ the Lake Worth Playhouse on Friday, April 23
Bass Ackwards
An American film about a man’s journey in a Volkswagen bus.
Show times – 4:30 p.m. @ Muvico Parisian on Friday, April 23, & 7 p.m. @ Muvico Parisian on Monday, April 26
Do It Again
Geoff Edgers, a Boston Globe staff writer, is a man on a mission to reunite ’60s rock band The Kinks. Clive Davis and Sting are just a few he manages to meet on his way in the documentary film Do It Again.
Show times – 9:30 p.m. @ the Lake Worth Playhouse on Friday, April 23, & 2:30 p.m. @ Muvico Parisian on Saturday, April 24
For more information on the films, times and locations, check out: www.pbifilmfest.org.
