Director's cut

After four weeks of lectures and demonstrations it was time for the students in Cinema 510, Film Directing, to take the camera, start filming and put their craft to good use.

The student directors, using video cameras, will be filming short three-minute scenes taken from previously-made films. Each filmmaker is responsible for finding the actors and editing the finished product.

"They must choose a scene that comes from an existing script," said professor Jameson Goldner, who is teaching the class. "Also, I didn't want them to look at the film version of it before they shoot their scene. I want their own interpretation."

The class of 20 was then divided into two groups of 10. Each member of the group will be directing a scene from the film they have chosen, and the other group members will serve as his or her crew for the filming.

The first scenes were shot last week. Dettra Schmidt, who is a senior majoring in cinema, was the first to go.

She chose a scene from the 1987 film "Heathers," which starred Christian Slater and Winona Ryder. The short three-minute scene is a dream sequence. Ryder's character, Veronica, is dreaming about J.D., Slater's character. In the dream, J.D. is trying to convince Veronica to kill another one of her friends.

"It's the scene where Slater is doing an imitation of the Jack Nicholson character from 'The Shining.' " Schmidt said. "I pretty much played the scene straight rather than surrealistic."

One of the difficulties for Schmidt was the element of time.

"I wished I had more time for rehearsals," Schmidt said. "It was frustrating at times getting everything together in such a short time."

Professor Goldner hopes that the students learn from their experiences.

"I hope they get an appreciation of what goes into the production of a feature film," Goldner said.

Each class member must take a role in the filming of each student's scene. Rotating jobs, each student gets a chance to work in a different aspect of the production, from lighting to sound to props.

"My cast and crew all did an excellent job," Schmidt said. "This was a great learning experience for me."

Goldner said he was happy with the first day of shooting.

"Both crews who shot that day came up with results that were excellent," Goldner said. "I've screened the dailies and I am very impressed at what I saw."

The final edited versions of all 20 scenes will be viewed and graded at the end of the semester by professor Goldner.

"When I walked on the set, I was overwhelmed with the sensation that they're making films here," Goldner said. "You can almost smell it."

[ Golden Gater Online October 5, 1995 ]

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