Young filmmakers celebrated at Fanshawe College's First Take Film Festival
Budding filmmaker Kailee McArthur doesn’t know what the future holds.
Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page.
Article content
Budding filmmaker Kailee McArthur doesn’t know what the future holds.
But McArthur and several other young filmmakers from Fanshawe College will show off their talents Thursday at the first-ever online screening of their work at the 2020 First-Take Film Festival.
Fourteen short films created by students of Fanshawe’s advanced filmmaking program will be screened at the festival, which also is a celebration of the talents of students from other programs, including theatre arts, audio post production — whose work on the films is also graded — and visual effects.
The festival usually is held at Wolf Performance Hall, but was cancelled because of the pandemic.
When the college closed, students went to work in isolation to finish their films, which include narrative and documentary films between four and a half and 16 minutes in length.
“With everything that’s going on, we thought we’d try it online this year because we can’t get together,” said McArthur, one of the producers of the show with a film in the festival, Fortissimo>Pianissimo.
“I think it’s a very interesting project, especially because we have international students, some of whom have gone home, if they could, because now their families and friends will also be able to watch the festival, so we’ll be reaching a lot more people than we would at a gathering. This makes it a lot easier for us to reach a lot more people and a much broader demographic than we would have.”
A jury of community and industry professionals will choose award winners after the festival, which can be viewed free online at filmfanshawe.ca/firsttake Thursday at 7 p.m. until 10 p.m.
Advanced filmmaking is a one-year post-graduate program for students who’ve graduated from other related programs at college or university. McArthur graduated from Laurier University where she also studied film, but went to Fanshawe to learn the technical aspects of filmmaking.
“I think I’d like to go into editing,” said McArthur, who prefers art house-style films.
“I like the idea of being on a set, but it also means a lot of really, really long hours if you’re directing or behind the camera.”
Prof. Charlie Egleston, who’s been teaching filmmaking for a decade, said he is “proud” of the students who’ve overcome “major hurdles” to get their films completed in isolation, some on computers provided by the college so they could work at home.
“Because it’s a post-graduate program, the level of professionalism expected is quite high and this class is exceptional, one of the best we’ve had over the years,” said Egleston.
“The incredible amount of resilience they’ve shown to finish their films in isolation is incredible and then the audio post-production students also mixed the sound on their own. We’re very proud and the quality of the films is always a surprise for viewers when they see them and these are the strongest of the films made.”
Student Alex (Cosmo) Lutz has two films in the festival, the documentary Roadie about a hung-over rock band manager scrambling to get the band on stage on time and the documentary Unbeatable, the “inspirational true story” about the friendship of Sarnia high school football stars Dan Edwards and Zach Androschuk “in the aftermath of a freak accident that left Dan paralyzed from the neck down.”
“I think it’s pretty awesome, considering the global circumstances with the pandemic,” said Lutz, of the virtual festival.
“We (students) have been able to evolve and adapt to present an online format. I think it’s a really good thing for the school and I think that’s good because we’re part of history in a sense.”
Lutz, a Western University English literature graduate who travelled for several years before returning to Canada to study filmmaking to help “tell my stories” said he’s hoping to get into the film industry, but recognizes he’s got to prove his talent before “someone hands me a big-budget film to make.”
“I need to show I can do it,“ said Lutz. “But I’m writing scripts and hopefully I’ll get to produce one of my own films one day.”
Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.