THUNDER BAY - From dramas to comedies to stop-motion animation, future filmmakers are sharing their skills and ideas with audiences on the big screen.
On Friday, Apr. 21, Confederation College is hosting its annual Film Night, showcasing the work by this year’s film production graduates at 7 p.m.
Lee Chambers, a film professor at Confederation College, said this year there are 32 students screening short films between five and 10 minutes long. The films cover a wide variety of genres, which Chambers said highlights the creative diversity of this year’s graduates.
“While we try to teach them some of the technical aspects of cinematography or sound design, art direction, or lighting and all those things, it’s still an art form,” he said. “It’s an art form where the stories, whether they are music videos, comedies, dramas, thrillers, animation, it all comes from the mind of the filmmakers who made them. Every year it’s always a wide variety of work.”
The annual Film Night has been held for more than 40 years and in that time, filmmaking technology has come a long way, and the college has been keeping pace with industry standard equipment, including the use of an ARRI Alexa camera.
“We are shooting on the same thing Hollywood features shoot on,” Chambers said. “The students master up into 5.1 surround sound. We are mastering up cinema quality material for audiences to view.”
While the films are part of a thesis project that the students complete during the year, they are made for the same reason as any other film – for the audience.
“We’re not making movies for ourselves, we are making movies for an audience,” Chambers said. “The lights go off, the screen goes on, and the sound comes up, whether it’s five or 10 minutes, to hear an audience react, whether it’s to laugh or to cry, it can be quite an exhilarating experience.”
And seeing the support of audiences throughout the years is important for students participating in the program and who work for more than seven months on a film project bringing their ideas and passion to life.
“If someone can come out of the audience and be made to think about something new or take a new perspective on things, whether it’s educating an audience on a subject they know little about, or if it’s just pure entertainment,” Chambers said. “Movies do that. They are sometimes a reflection of our own lives. To have an audience enjoy your work is pretty satisfying.”
Confederation College’s Film Night will be taking place on Friday, Apr. 21 at the Confederation College Lecture Theatre. Admission is free but donations are accepted at the door. For more information, visit www.conflix.com.
