If you think you’re cut out for the film industry, try taking University Honors Art of Film class first.
The class is designed for people who are interested in film but don’t necessarily want to make a career out of it, although some do go on to pursue the film industry. The final project for the class is writing and shooting a short film.
All of the films can be found on the Daily Lobo Film Fest YouTube channel, and students are encouraged to view them and vote for their favorite, said visiting lecturer and teacher of the class, Jonatha Kottler.
“This is the fourth year that we’ve done the class in Honors,” Kottler said. “And this is the first year that we’ve done the online component. I think it’s going to open our students up to a much larger audience … The online idea was something that Pat Lohmann suggested. Given his position at the Lobo and taking the class, he suggested that we go this way.”
Kottler said each year the class hosts a film festival to present the students’ films to the public. The films are given awards from the audience and judges. There is also a suggested donation of $2, and all the proceeds go to a local charity, which for this year will be the Desert Globe Players: Children’s Shakespeare Theater.
Kottler said the online component should help draw students into the class and give them a better idea of what the Honors Program is.
Junior Carissa Simmons made a short film with her classmate Bethany Abrahamson based on a Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, “Rappaccini’s Daughter.”
“It’s basically about this guy who meets a girl and realizes that she is poisonous,” Simmons said. “It’s set in Victorian times. It’s hard to make a period film and we ended up using a computer at one point and there is a tricky underwater scene, but it was fun and exciting.”
Simmons said the class taught her a lot about film that she wasn’t aware of, such as different types of symbolism. They also learned how to write screenplays in the class.
“There are a lot of really interesting readings about visual symbolism,” she said. “Like a bad guy always enters from the right side of the screen, because as Americans we read left to right, so if it comes from the opposite direction it makes us feel uncomfortable.”
Will Schlesinger is also in the class and said he made a film that combined a western feel with the open spaces of the UNM campus.
“It was more of a location thing,” he said. “I just thought that this would be a good scene for a chase scene.”
Schlesinger said he wasn’t expecting the class to be so much work, but he learned more that his film interests lie in the amateur realm.
“It’s a lot of work that goes into the full length films, even the crappy ones” he said. “It makes you realize and appreciate how much effort goes into making really bad films.”
*University Honors Art of Film
Student Film Festival
May 3
1 – 4 p.m.
Bottom floor of the Student Health Center
Can’t make it to the festival?
Visit DailyLobo.com and click on “Art of Film” to vote on the films today*
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