The 2006 BC 251 Mini-movie Showcase: December 2006

Tuesday, December 5, 2006

The Winners

The BC 251 Mini-Movie Showcase Winners

Woosub Lee and Shayn Marti helped lead group projects to top honors in this showcase as well as scored big with their individual mini-movies.

The Audience/Fan Favorite
We had a crowd of 40 on hand for our Lunchtime Mini-movie Showcase. Members of the audience voted on their favorite student film.

RACIST FART by Woosub Lee received the top number of votes with DAY IN REVERSE coming in second. Lee also worked on DAY IN REVERSE with his co-producers Alex Hines, Nicole Piszczor and Christina Roseoto.

Racist Fart
by Woosub Lee

Day in Reverse
by Alex Hines, Nicole Piszczor & Christina Roseto

Guest Judge Awards

Our visiting judge for the 2006 Mini-movie Showcase was Jimm Needle ('03 Broadcast Communications) who is a videographer, director and producer working in digital media in Cleveland. In addition to working with industrial clients he recently produced and directed a DVD for the band Missing Pages featuring concert and concept videos.

Jimm choice as best of showcase as a group project was Toothbrush. He selected Nightmare on Campus as the best of showcase for the individual entry.

TOOTHBRUSH by Megan Alexander, Tom Benoit, Amanda Conway & Shayna Marti

NIGHTMARE ON CAMPUS by Shayna Marti

More Entries in the 2005 BC 251 Mini-Movie Showcase

Presented in alphabetical order

The Audition Tape by Alex Hines

Bad Hair Day by Shayna Marti

Boredom by Katie Hilliard, Doug Kunst, Nicole Natiello & Kristin Nikoliason

Chris’ Personal Dance Party by Leah Hast

Cup Bustin’ by David Greig

A Dorm Room Christmas by Kristin Nikolaison

The Greatest Game Ever Played by Doug Kunst

The Last Chip by Katie Hilliard

The Music Never Dies by Megan Alexander

My Family Thanksgiving by Nicole Piszczor

My Friends & I by Danielle Adams

Not Another Audition Tape (or Who Needs American Idol)by Danielle Adams, David
Greig, Leah Hast, Thomas Miller

No Work and ALL PLAY by Nicole Natiello

Procrastination At Work by Tom Benoit

STRESS by Thomas Miller

A Thanksgiving Treat in the Making by Christina Roseto

My Favorite

Despite the perceived limitations of using stills from a digital camera for a mini-movie, Nicole Pisczcor shot interesting and varied pictures. My Family's Thanksgiving is my favorite. She had the wide, medium close up from different angles. Her shots illustrated an emotional texture that reached me as a viewer. Her sequence of shots and use of movement told a genuine, human story.

Jimm Needle said he felt like he had spent Thanksgiving with her family.

He even remarked he'd like to meet Nicole and talk to her as she clearly has an eye for storytelling.

I appreciated the simple, intimate story she told and appreciate her willingness to share with the world. While I enjoyed several of the projects, I thought My Family's Thanksgiving captured the spirit of the assignment and demonstrated Nicole's growth with the camera and with the editing. She has clearly grown as a storyteller. Well done, Nicky!

The Mini-Movie Project

Why do a mini-movie project for class? The goal is for students to transfer the skills, experiences and professional practices learned from shooting and editing sports, news and commercials back to the domain of the home user. I want students to shift back to consumer products such as video cell phones, digital cameras and typical video editing software found on most PCs. I want them to apply the video production techniques and approaches learned in BC 251 to the digital technology now available to everyone.

Assessment

The winning entries demonstrated solid applications of the established outcomes.

Jimm Needle was on the mark with his criticism that many shots shake too much. He said students should use a tripod. If they don't have a tripod then made due with whatever you have. He points out you can take some duct tape and tape your video cell phone to a broom handle to create a homemade tripod.

However, if you must go hand held then stay wide and you and your body become the zoom.

CLOSER is better when you go hand held. Zooming will only amplify any movement as your focal length is reduced.

Unfortunately not everyone applied the standards establishied for other class projects such as shooting news stories, sports and commercials.

However, students were told to have fun and make their own movie with their own gear. While the subject matter may skew to the younger demographic, many of the 20 projects demonstrated an improvement of skill and an application of techniques covered in class.

The 2006 BC 251 Mini-movie Showcase