“My Brother” by Max Cantor

“My Brother” was an entry for Elon’s 50/50 Film festival. Watch more here.

INTERVIEW WITH MAX CANTOR

When you first got the prompt for “The Other” what were some of your initial thoughts and ideas? Why did you settle on this story?

I liked the prompt initially but I still had no clue what approach our team would take. We knew that we didn’t want to make an obvious piece. We didn’t want to do something about homelessness or race or sexual orientation because we thought that was an easy way to play on the emotions of the audience. It’s easy to make people feel sad or moved, but it’s harder to make people feel involved. We didn’t want anyone to be “moved.” It just seems like such a cheap reaction to aim for. So we drank a lot of coffee and shot around a bunch of ideas and we kind of settled on this irreverent, screwball comedy of errors about a pair of brothers, one of whom was blind and one of whom had bandaged hands because of a construction accident. After a few more beers and cups of coffee that original notion evolved into a serious film about the bonds of brotherhood. Go figure.

What was the biggest challenge about writing, shooting and editing this film in 50 hours?

We wrote the film Friday night, shot all day Saturday, and did most of the editing Sunday morning. The hardest thing was probably just not having the benefit of hindsight when it came to editing. I’m a big proponent of shooting a film and waiting a few days to edit because I think it gives you a fresh objective perspective. It’s easy to get attached to the footage you shot because of how it felt at the time, but it’s more important to be mindful of how it works into the overall scheme of the film. Content comes first, frills second, and I think I would have edited very differently if we had the luxury of going back to look at it. But that’s the fun thing about a project like this. It forces you to rely on your gut and be resourceful and just do it off the cuff.

Some other 50/50 contestants drew from their personal experiences as “The Other” to make their films. Was any part of “you” or “your team” in this short?

Not really. Chris and Eddie are really great at playing blind together though and I’ve seen them each do it in public and get away with it. When we were brainstorming they start doing that as a joke and we just ran with it. I do also have a serious fear of going blind in my old age. That would suck so much. Other than that, no.

“Nesting Dolls” by Caroline Key

I.

Painted eyes on wood
set still in time like a
gravestone etched with
words telling of a life lived and
gone, now just a memory that sits
like this doll on a shelf,
without use but a presence,
a gift from someplace far away
that I’ve never known and will
never know except through
smirks that says she’s
hiding something, there’s
something we don’t know.

II.

A small crowd gathers
around a wooden casket
across the street, there’s
a funeral at the church with
boarded windows and
No Trespassing signs.
The church is of no service
anymore, no singing can be heard
from inside the brick walls and
grave stones stoop
in the grass out back, some with
plastic flowers worn from
winds and rains.

III.

But at the funeral no one looks sad
because they know they are giving
the Lord a gift today, a gift they will
deliver in boxes.
I hear the sounds of tractor
and there is a slight mishap
lowering the casket straight
down, straight into the protective
granite box like nesting dolls,
a box then
a box then
surprise!
The gift is
the littlest one, the little man
stone cold, perhaps smiling and
dreaming of salvation.

“Friend of a Friend” by John David Parsons

Click below to hear “Friend of a Friend,” a song by John David Parsons

INTERVIEW WITH JOHN DAVID PARSONS

Briefly explain how you make your music.
I identify with the computer more than I do with a real instrument, so it’s always a challenge to push myself toward more organic sounds.  In this track, the guitar and the vocals are the only real instruments.  Bass, orchestra, horns, percussion and drums are all generated by the computer.  I know, sad, right?  It’s getting easier to get realistic sounds out of a software simulation.  Having an orchestra in your song is no longer reserved for the A-list musicians with a big studio budget.  Music production is more democratic now.

What inspired you to write this song?

A difficult breakup inspired this song.  The main lyric explores the circular nature of being in a relationship.  “A friend of a friend, who once was his woman’s man…”  Basically, I am the friend of my girl friend, and I was once was the man in that woman’s life.

What do you think makes music a powerful medium for storytelling?
Most people would consider eye sight as the most important of the five senses – and I would agree.  For that reason, I think reading a book evokes stronger imagery than watching a movie.  In the same way, I believe listening to a song evokes more emotion than looking at a painting.  Music is a powerful medium for storytelling because it leaves so much interpretation open to the listener.  The same song can have different meaning to different people, and that makes the story deeper and more detailed. Because the meaning of a song is not written in stone, the listener can mold its meaning to connect with them in any way that is most effective.

“A Weekend in Amsterdam” by Max Cantor

INTERVIEW WITH MAX CANTOR

Explain a little bit about the technique you used in this film and how you go about editing it.

Shooting in Amsterdam was great, mostly just because it was in Amsterdam which is a great city and so fun to explore. I was abroad in the fall and was lucky enough to get to go around on little weekend getaway trips to other countries. By the time I got to Amsterdam, I felt like I’d been taking a lot of the same kinds of pictures in all these beautiful cities and I wanted to try something different. The idea for the video came about kind of by chance. We obviously wanted to get the full Amsterdam experience, so we spent a lot of our time in the coffeeshops. I am always shooting, so I was taking pictures in there the light was so low in the shops that my shutter always open for long exposures. Because I was shooting digital, I wasn’t worried about the number of frames I could take, so I just held down the shutter and took hundreds of photos framed the same way in these shops. As a result, I started noticing that all the pictures blended together to tell a story in fractured time, like an old Lumiere film shot in 16 fps. Then I decided to just shoot constantly as if holding a video camera and even adding a little movement to the camera that you can’t get in photographs. It was a bitch to edit but I had a blast doing it. It’s my little homage to a beautiful city.

How many photos did you use? How many did you take?

I took about 2,500 and I used almost all of them.

Do you feel any different when you’re working with subjects you know (like your friends) versus ones that you don’t (like people in Elon’s athletics department.)

I like to do both really but it’s totally different. When you’re working with a subject you know you can kind of lull them into a state where they totally trust you. It can be a lot more fun sometimes because it feels like just hanging out with a friend. When you’re shooting with strangers, half the battle is getting them to be comfortable with you. But that’s a great time in itself because it gives you the chance to meet people you might otherwise never meet. It’s crazy how holding a camera gives you the justification to walk up to a stranger and strike up a conversation, totally invade their privacy, follow them, get to know them, etc. I love that. That’s the best feeling – making a connection with someone just for the hell of it. That’s something you can’t get out of working with friends.

Learn more about Max Cantor by clicking on the “Meet the Artists” link at the top of this page.

“Identity” by Mike Allen & Crew

Identity was one of a group of films that were made during Elon’s 50/50 film festival.

Crew: Mike Allen, Andy Newman, David Magida

Starring: Richard McNolty

Featuring: Alyson Wells, Rafe Andrews, Brandon Curry, Alex Carmine, Georgia Freed

ABOUT 50/50 FILM FESTIVAL: Modeled after many 48-hour film festivals taking place around the United States, the Elon University 50/50 Film Festival will demand that filmmaking teams write, shoot, edit and finalize their short film in only 50 hours. The extra twist to this film festival is that the teams will be limited to a maximum of 50 spoken words in their script, thus putting a premium on using visual story-telling techniques. For this short film creaters were to explore the concept of “the other.”  The other race, the other nationality, the other gender, the other sexual orientation, the other religion, the other social class, the other age, the other subculture, the other political affiliation, the other personal background, the other….well, you get the picture.

INTERVIEW WITH MIKE ALLEN

What were some of the things you prioritized when filming a short in such a small amount of time?
When we first got the theme of the “other”, we immediately thought about how we could use a lot of people to tell a story about fitting in. Putting together the cast was our first priority, and the actors who worked with us were what made “Identity” special, and I think that shows in the sort of tongue-in-cheek, fun sort of way we looked at the project.

What were some obstacles you faced?
We definitely prioritized the story and visual elements of the project, but working on such a tight schedule, the main thing to prioritize is flexibility. Improvisation was pretty much our most important tool. Between all the people that worked on the project, each of us probably had a different priority — for me, behind the camera, my priority was aesthetics. But the actors prioritized having fun with their characters and being natural around each other, and I think you can tell when you watch it. Especially in the last shot, where everyone’s together.

One of the things we were most afraid of was the weather, which went sour on us: it rained steadily all weekend. But we actually built the story around that, in a way, by filming inside, or making sure it made sense for it to be raining when we did shoot outside. Other than that, our main obstacle was the time crunch, which was both a curse and a blessing in the sense that it was a very exciting, high stress time, but once it was over, all we had to do was sit back and hope that people liked it.

Were you pleased with how it turned out?
It didn’t turn out exactly like we imagined, but we’re happy, especially with the overwhelming amount of support from people on YouTube. A lot of people helped make this project possible, a lot of them without much thanks, and it’s people like them that make making movies fun.

Learn more about Mike Allen by clicking on the “Meet The Artists” tab at the top of this page.

PARTICIPATE: The BEST PICTURE EVER

We all have that one photo hiding somewhere in the depths of our computer files. You know, the one that you consider your greatest photographic accomplishment. It might be:

The brilliant green leaf speckled in water droplets.
The homeless man playing chess in the park with a young boy.
Your mother with her head thrown back in a fit of laughter.
Your dog’s eager smile as she sticks her head out your car window.

Well now is your chance to show off your work. Whether you’re an experienced photographer with a vibrant library of photos to choose from or a neophyte who’s still working to master the point and shoot, we want to see your BEST PICTURE EVER. Don’t be shy.

Send your BEST PICTURE EVER and a short reason why to olivia.hubert.allen@gmail.com and we’ll post it below.

Click here to see BEST PICTURES EVER.

“Pioneers of the Game: The Stu MacFarlane Story” by Conor Britain

INTERVIEW WITH CONOR BRITAIN

You’ve produced a lot of real sports videos, what is the fun in making a spoof like this one?

To be honest that video was one of the first real cracks I took at the sporting world. I’ve watched a lot of dramatic ESPN shows and I knew I wanted to capture that aura and poke fun at it a little bit. I had heard about the monster golf phenomenon through the grapevine and it just seemed like a perfect segment for the [student produced television] show I was working on at the time. All the interviews were staged but improv for the most part. All the narration was scripted. It was a good early project in that in combined documentary techniques but also cinematic storytelling and real plot development and conflict.

How did the storyline for this segment evolve? Is it scripted?

It was basically I wrote down what I wanted the plot to be. Basically it’s a familiar storyline: guy get famous, runs into a problem, all of a sudden he’s at the bottom and has to work his way back up. That’s about as successful a story line as any. Part of why it worked so well is it was so over the top. It was fun applying dramatic rise and fall of conflict to this silly little thing, Monster Golf.

“Craig The Magician” by Erin Barnett

“Minneapolis, August 1st, 2007” by Caroline Key

I think I died for a minute
or two, my organs frozen
in my ribcage like those
little hamsters in the box
those boys left out overnight
in subzero temperatures last
January, half by accident, half
out of curiosity to see what
happens when a creature dies
with its eyes open, expression
still on face, a surprised
wide-eyed look of desperation
like Anne’s mother must have
worn falling into the Mississippi
on the day the bridge collapsed.

I felt my body rise above
the thirty-inch television when
my friend called with the news and
I imagined the water
rippling not from waves but from
bodies, steel and red Mercedes
with Anne’s mother inside praying
for one more day, to watch one more
dance, to never fight with her daughters
again and that’s how I’ll remember
her, always nagging and I wish
I could think of something nicer,
like the time she made scarves
for every girl on the dance team,
but I really just think of the nagging
and it’s funny how certain memories
stick like that.

Through the smoke and the rubble
I imagine Mom and Dad standing near
the edge listening to ambulances and
screams from below watching clouds
of smoke rise smelling of dirt and hot metal as a
a school bus dangles on the edge of a crack,
children jumping through windows
as it moans at the weight-shifts balancing
on a traffic divide, a  marigold bomb
ready to drop at any moment.

Mom and Dad made it over with five minutes
to spare on their way to the Guthrie
before highway thirty-five
waved like our kickline split ripple,
the best part of the routine, starting
from the middle and working outwards
slowly, down up down the waves
glide to the ends of the hitched line
into a dramatic split hitting the ground
hard but the adrenaline helps for a smooth
fall.  Cheers and screams drown the music
but we knew that dance like
city roads in a hometown, the grid
of memories of times driving first
cars on highways for the first time and
the terror of knowing you could die
from a split-second slipup in driver’s ed knowledge
or a careless glance through the side mirror.

And when the boys snapped those little
rodents in half the next morning,
their bodies breaking like popsicles
and no blood spilling from their
fragile ivory bodies I think,
when the screw comes loose and
the river water, icy even in August, chokes
the screams of stunned victims,
our world could suddenly shatter
like ice on metal and we’d be too unaware to
even feel the temperature dropping.

INTERVIEW WITH CAROLINE KEY

Why was it important to you to write this poem?

I grew up in a suburb outside of Minneapolis and my parents moved my freshmen year of college to Chapel Hill. I went home to Minneapolis to see friends and it happened to be the day after I arrived that the bridge collapsed. It was really scary because my parents were heading downtown that night, and I knew they were going to have to cross that bridge to get into the city. My friend called me and said turn on the tv, and then I saw what had happened. I knew that my parents would have been going over that bridge at about that time. I couldn’t get them on the cell phone. No cell phones were working. Luckily they had passed over the bridge about five minutes before it collapsed. But it was a very scary time.

My friend Anne’s mom was one of the people who died. It was a really horrible week to be there. It was an important thing that I wanted to write about.

Did you have an audience in mind when writing this poem or was it in some ways for yourself?

I definitely wanted to make people aware of what happened. A lot of people hadn’t heard about it. The original title of the poem was jut Minneapolis and a lot of people in my writing class just didn’t know that it had happened. It was trying to make people aware of what happened but also I was expressing my feelings about it.

What emotion does your best work come from?

It sounds sort of morbid, but I usually write about death in some way. I don’t really know why that is. I guess it’s something that there is a lot of emotion about. I think a lot about how people react to death. I guess it’s just a topic that naturally seems to keep coming up in my poetry. I don’t try to do it, it’s just a natural thing.

To learn more about Caroline Key click on the Meet the Artists tab at the top of this page.

PARTICIPATE: What can you do with six words?

Some of the sweetest, most telling stories can be told in six words or less, as Hemingway found with this short story:

“For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn.”

Now writers across the world are adopting six (or seven) word form and testing out their skills in creative brevity. What can you do with six words? Below are a few one-liners from around the Internet. Get inspired and find your story. Comment with your work!

Grading papers while drunk had repercussions.  (By The Constructivist at Acephalous)

‘The sky’s falling!’ ‘Don’t be stu—’ (By Toadmonster at Acephalous)

Spooning: “We should see other people.” (ByAcephalous at Acephalous)

She was still freezing under her blankets. (By Magzdoodle at Young Writers Project)

I don’t need seven words, just three (By musicofautum at Young Writers Project)

His twin kissed her. They divorced. (By Yehuda at Yehuda)

“Fits all.” Not me. I dieted. (By Yehuda at Yehuda)

She moved her pawn. I resigned. (By Yehuda at Yehuda)

Ate the yogurt; still can’t poop! (By Anonymous to Salute These Shorts)

Now go forth and write! Comment with your best 6 or 7 word stories. Feel free to post as many as you’d like.