Aside from the lack of popcorn, Lightworks Winter 2014 was remarkably better than its fall semester counterpart. Not only were the films more polished, but his time the audience was granted the pleasure of actual hosts. The festival programs, were entirely correct this time around, and by the end of the first night, the audience itself was close to filling the entire Natural Science Auditorium.
The key difference between Lightworks and other festivals is that you often see professors sitting down the row from students, just as exciting to see the finished product as the student. Since these films were all made for classes, you can tell which class they came from by their nature.
Films from the 400-level classes are reserved for the end. These films—Toast and (?)–deserve their place at the finale of the festival because their production quality is astonishingly close to a professional big-budget film. Below this are the 300-level films, which entail the intermediate production classes. These categories emphasis narrative, are coherent, and overall films that you would feel comfortable watching with your parents.
Other films get weird and experimental and, in many cases, exciting. One of the best reasons to go to a film festival is to experience all of the avant-garde student films that display raw talent. When I say raw talent, I mean films that make you question what you just watched, yet you want to watch them again. Fancy animated projects manifested themselves as psychedelic dystopian computer work and kaleidoscopic aesthetics. There were also wonderful hand-drawn animations, of a dog disrupting Santa as he gets ready for Christmas Eve.
The animations were juxtaposed with live action pieces that leave you breathless. It is unbelievable the talent that is displayed in these films, both in the dancers moving their bodies on screen and in the plethora of editing techniques that make the films a psychedelic wonderland. They are a comedic, talented, astonishing.
A change from previous years is the influx of silent films. While seeing student projects made on real 16mm film is wonderful, last night seemed to alternate them with their sound-equipped video counterparts. In some instances this meant an awkward transition from a modern video to a more classical art-house piece. I enjoyed both types, but I wonder if it would be possible to separate the categories completely: all of the films in one section and all of the videos in another section. This way the audience could get into a certain mood for one or the other without constant disruption.
The hosts, Chad and Riley, have made quite a name for themselves. Veterans of the acting circuit and appearing in several of the Lighworks films, they made a name for themselves as a duo by appearing in The Secret Show, a quirky underground video podcast that premiered earlier this semester.
Like Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, these comedians were a welcome change from the regular hosting by FVSA students. Keeping up with the fashion of reading live tweets during intermissions, they interacted with the audience and created an organic, relaxing atmosphere for everyone.
Small technical difficulties seemed to plague the projectionists. Since there were so many transitions between 16mm films and videos, the projectionist was constantly changing from one format to the other so the audience would often be waiting in the dark for longer than normal. On top of that, a few of the films were blown out to the extent that one could not tell what was in half of the shots. Most alarming of all as a trace of lag that I saw in a couple of the films. Since most projects are exported in high definition format, I assume the computer has trouble rendering them fast enough sometimes. At any rate, it was a disappointment to see impressive special effects lagging because of the very technology that created them.
To end this on a high note, I only need to remind readers that Lightworks is 100% free. This is a two day festival, over eight hours long, and you can walk inside with nothing but the clothes on your back. It was a pleasure to watch these amazing films knowing that I go to school with the students that make these films. As always, I recommend Lightworks to everyone.
A Couple Samples of the films shown last night:
Kickstarter Video for “George O. Duncan”
“Urban Canvas” Detroit Documentary
The Hosts
