Every semester, Columbia’s School of Film and Television kicks off with a Capstone Production Salon, an event designed to connect students with capstone film projects in need of cast and crew.
The production salons allow students, especially first-years and sophomores, to get career experience by introducing them to roles in lighting, production design and other key positions.
The first salon took place on Tuesday, Feb. 3 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at 1104 S. Wabash Ave. building, with more than 20 projects looking for a cast and crew of students eager to bring their passion projects to life.
Junior film and television student Natan Mekonnen said a growing trend this year among projects is high-concept short films, which feature more fantastical plots and events instead of typical, grounded dramas.
“Everyone’s getting really cerebral,” Mekonnen said. “I really like that people are really branching out and starting to get ambitious with their stories that they’re telling.”
Michael Kowalkowski, a junior fine arts and art management for live performance double major, said he was excited to explore projects that had a more hand-made feel in his work as a production designer.
“I like the more arts and crafts like approach,” Kowalkowski said. “That’s fun because I get to really just do arts and crafts for the project, and I think that’s what I try to lean towards.”
Senior film and television major Motley Jones is the production designer of “Reunion Day,” an ambitious short film following a high school reunion that ends in a break-in and fight scene.
“I’m excited to source a class ring, that’s going to be a really fun hunt to go on. But then there are some special effects that I get to play around with, which include breaking a window, and then someone getting waterboarded,” they said.
The wacky, crazy comedy also seems to be making a comeback this year, as director and senior film and television student Colin Sullivan portrays in his film, “The Worst Best Man.” This story is about a best man at a wedding who attempts to frame his best friend for adultery by hiring strippers for his bachelor party, only to, instead, be given a mime, a magician, and Keanu Reeves.
“After the slew of modern dark dramas and superhero movies, I think everyone wants to laugh again. I think we all need a little bit of an escape,” Sullivan said.
Among the 2000s-comedy inspired romps, there’s also the more emotional, sincere “One Last Question.” According to director and senior BFA screenwriting student Noah Keathly, the film is meant to recapture the look and feel of classics such as “The Breakfast Club” and “The Dead Poets Society,” while also channeling the ‘50s beat-poet anti-authority spirit and the ‘90s grunge culture.
“The beat generation had a lot of mistrust in the government. That’s also the case in the nineties with this rebel generation,” he said. “That’s kind of what poetry is: outsiders in the world who are looking in on it and see it for all of its flaws and coming together to vent about that.”
There are also plenty of horror and thriller projects amongst the bunch, including “Obsessive,” directed and written by sophomore MFA directing student Maddy Briggs, which aims to take a satirical bite out of our generation’s true crime obsession.
“I got super passionate about the explosion of true crime across streaming services and how a crime will happen,” she said. “And so I chose to do a very dramatized version where, what happens when we keep focusing on these things? What happens to our morality?”
Bringing a softer fantasy edge is junior directing BFA student Lucas Stall, the writer and director of “Nature is Nocturnal,” a film inspired by “The Wizard of Oz” that explores life, death, and his love of birds — inspired by his grandma, who recently passed.
“I was dealing with the loss of my grandmother this year, and she always talked about birds, and we actually talked about owls and their meaning and a lot of stuff like that,” he said.
Some of the other projects this semester even include stories about presidential assassinations, triumphant soccer games and reconnecting with resurrected friends.
The Capstone Production Salon will have a second night on Thursday, Feb. 5 from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in Columbia’s 1104 S. Wabash Ave building on the 8th floor. Some of the projects from the first salon will have a second run.
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