Students from Sheridan College will be screening their creations this week at film.ca cinemas.
On April 22, first-year Bachelor of Film and Television students will present their two-minute short narrative scenes and entries from a "48-hour film challenge."
The Media Arts program takes over on April 23 and April 29 with experimental movies, documentaries, commercials and dramatic productions.
Each two-hour event begins at 7:00 p.m and includes an intermission. The doors open at 6:30 p.m. Tickets cost $5. All money raised will be used to support the year-end Screen Arts Award show at TIFF BellLightbox.
“At the end of each screening, the audience members have the opportunity to select their favourite production (People’s Choice) and the winner from each year is announced at the Screen Arts Award show,” said Lisa Dermentjian, senior support services officer for Sheridan’s Department of Film, Television and Journalism programs.
Film.ca and Sheridan have had a partnership for three years. Opportunistic students have even filmed their projects inside the theatre.
“We’ve been really inspired by the young people that are making these student films and by the college itself. We figured it was something we needed to expand and become more involved with. What better way to do it than to actually offer showing these films?” said Jeff Knoll, CEO of film.ca.
Nick Coffin, a second-year Media Arts student, has worked on several of the shorts.
He wrote, produced and co-directed a two-minute drama called Rhetoric. It follows a high-school student who’s “pushed to his breaking point during an audition for 12 Angry Men.”
“I am proud of my crew for helping me with this project even though we were always so busy with a million other things,” said Coffin.
Other featured projects include:
Zeugma — “A Visual Aesthetics piece that demonstrates parallels between cityscapes and nature.” Consisting of time-lapse video and “heavy post-production editing.” Created by Coffin and fellow director Jeff Kaczmarek during a two month period.
Furry — A seven-minute comedy-drama. “The film follows an oddball character named boomer who's searching for love in all the wrong places. Boomer is also a man who fully believes he is a dog.”
Death of the Author — A thriller that centres on a book critic who kidnaps a best selling author. The critic believes his victim is ruining modern day literature.
Coffin is anxious and excited to have his films viewed by an audience.
“It’s exciting to be in the theatre and observe how people react,” he said. "I also understand that not everyone will understand or pick up on certain elements of the films, but that’s okay. I enjoy making films and take pride in what we do as young filmmakers.”
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