Bear Island - SCREENING day 8
The screening day has arrived and it is a beautiful morning!
We all meet up at the gym and have a circle with Christine. It is nice to hear that we are all excited to share the films with friends and family! The mentors all express how honoured we feel to be a part of the creative group - we all learned so much!
Everyone helps to set up the gym: projector, screen, speakers, tables, chairs, tablecloths! Then we have one final test screening and one more Question and Answer practice.
At 5pm folks start to arrive and a delicious dinner is served at 5:30...lasagne and caeser salad, with a selection of deserts!! Delicious! Thank you Marty and Helen for making the meal!
After the meal the filmmakers make a GRAND ENTRANCE and high five the audience!
The program starts with the hilarious animations and live action films made on the weekend:
Untitled by Denton and Zachary, Daily Life of the Dinosaur by Maxie, Learn to Fly by Huxley, AAAHHH!!!, Flipping Dinosaurs and Floppy Fish by Alysha and Reckless Rez Wrestling by Denton, Huxley, Mazzy and Zachary.
Then we move into the films made over 4 days....
Paranormal Rezitivity: Cylus, Dorian and Gabe made this film come together really fast. There was the initial rough story line that surfaced day one before lunch...and it shines with the combination of humour and horror. The Paul Bros have stellar performances that were ad-libbed brilliantly and really comes across as authentic. The audience gets lulled into laughter until things start to get crazy and there are real scary moments for sure. (Don't worry, Casey warned the audience before the screening.) The editing and attention to sound really added to the suspense. Cylus, Dorian and Gabe made a fresh and amazing answer to the Blair Witch project and the audience killed themselves laughing as well as hid behind their hands while watching. Bravo!
This is For You: Alexa, Emily and Spencer had an ambitious idea that kept morphing throughout their filmmaking process and this flexibility to meet their story goals was so fun to watch unfold. Every edit improved and improved until the film was finalized. It has a couple of plot twists (no real spoilers here) that was such mature writing and the emotion conveyed in the performers was totally believable and tugged at heartstrings! This film is fresh and new and incorporates the concept and impact of social media as well as leaves you wondering about the characters presented. A film that makes you keep thinking after it is over, is a great film! Bravo!
Lost Music: Angel and Kaiya had a vision and high concept mulit-media film idea right off the bat and their detailed pre-production helped them pull of their epic filming and animation schedule!! A thoughtful and beautifully shot film about connection and re-connection to culture is propelled by stunning visual imagery, animated sequences, music and sound...with only a smattering of dialogue. It feels easy to watch with such high production values that it doesn't come across as a student film at all! Bravo!!
Bird and Fish: Casey really dove in feet first with this ambitious animation set to music. She worked tirelessly, drawing for days to create the massive original back ground for her lyrical story on friendship/love/loss/reconnection and MORE! It is a lovely open ended story that has such magical art direction and incredible original music that it left everyone wanting more! Just what every filmmaker wants to hear! Bravo!!
A truly fantastic group of films, CONGRATULATIONS to all the filmmakers!
