Last night (Thursday) I went to a showing of short films done by high school kids. Not something I would usually do, but my daughters short - an assignment from her media class - was going to be shown. Her short, which was, unknown to her submitted by her teacher, was one of three comedy shorts selected out of over 100 submissions.
Entitled "Your My Best Friend" she shot it in two days and edited in one. It's about a robot that is excluded from places where humans congregate, and is then befriended by another robot. It's silent, using only "pop" songs (yes, she used "Your My Best Friend" by Queen). The costumes were made out of cardboard boxes decorated with CDs and other various shiny things. Her actors - her boyfriend and another friend - couldn't see at all and had to respond to her verbal directions. She fabricated six different facial expressions for each robot head (smaller cardboard boxes) that could be removed and replaced easily. She would have the actors freeze positions, change the faces, and continue the shot.
The short got a lot of laughs. Despite being a proud poppa I have to say that my daughter has a knack for editing. I provided no assistance other than my computer to do the editing in iMovie, and access to my music library. The camera is a Super 8 camcorder, which was $200 when we bought it 10 years ago. She unfortunately didn't win. The judges were all from the town of the high school that sponsored the event, and so were all of the winners (I think the fix was in...).
I will try to convince her to put it up on YouTube and will post the link if she ever agrees.
Please excuse me for being a proud parent, but sometimes you just can't help it.
And no, she doesn't plan on getting into film work.
Entitled "Your My Best Friend" she shot it in two days and edited in one. It's about a robot that is excluded from places where humans congregate, and is then befriended by another robot. It's silent, using only "pop" songs (yes, she used "Your My Best Friend" by Queen). The costumes were made out of cardboard boxes decorated with CDs and other various shiny things. Her actors - her boyfriend and another friend - couldn't see at all and had to respond to her verbal directions. She fabricated six different facial expressions for each robot head (smaller cardboard boxes) that could be removed and replaced easily. She would have the actors freeze positions, change the faces, and continue the shot.
The short got a lot of laughs. Despite being a proud poppa I have to say that my daughter has a knack for editing. I provided no assistance other than my computer to do the editing in iMovie, and access to my music library. The camera is a Super 8 camcorder, which was $200 when we bought it 10 years ago. She unfortunately didn't win. The judges were all from the town of the high school that sponsored the event, and so were all of the winners (I think the fix was in...).
I will try to convince her to put it up on YouTube and will post the link if she ever agrees.
Please excuse me for being a proud parent, but sometimes you just can't help it.
And no, she doesn't plan on getting into film work.
