Photo courtesy of Joshua Nimoy "Astronaut Wife," animated
by UCLA Design & Media Arts student Joshua Nimoy, was nominated
for Best Animation.
By Mary Dang
Daily Bruin Contributor
Opening with a flourish but soon sinking into a succession of
unoriginal movies, last Friday’s ninth annual presentation of
Shorttakes wound up no more than average.
UCLA’s own film festival, showcasing about two hours worth
of short animation and live-action flicks, was plagued by overly
high expectations.
The beginning of Shorttakes promised a great festival: the vibe
around Ackerman ballroom was softly electrified with curiosity and
excitement as people swarmed about, whispering for
whispering’s sake. It also didn’t hurt that the Campus
Events staff was giving out free paraphernalia like Movieline
magazines and if you came early enough, even a denim pocket with a
Screen Actor’s Guild flashbulb gadget pen inside.
An amalgamation of movies were shown. One of the most unusual
was “Jane,” a fictional narrative about Jane Cummings,
who has delusions of living in the Victorian era as she deals with
the sensibilities of people in the 21st century. The premise of the
story allowed room for subtle humor whenever Jane gave her Jan
Brady smile as her mind traveled off into Never Never Land when
someone spoke to her.
Another narrative, “Null and Void,” talked about one
man’s life cycle from birth to death and was directed and
acted by UCLA’s Alex Weed.
Criticisms of “Null and Void” were not always based
on the film itself; it was the only movie that suffered audio
problems.
Another unusual piece was “Theremin: Out of the
Ether” directed by USC’s Brian Oakes, who gave his own
interpretation of Leon Theremin, a Russian musician who invented a
device that linked electric sound to the body. The slow-motion
images of a woman practicing ballet were visually placed to match
the sounds of classical music.
After the viewing, a Kodak representative announced the winners.
“The Midnight Express,” by USC’s Ryan Landles,
about a little boy who tries to get some sleep, nabbed both Best
Narrative and Best in Show. UCLA’s Alina Hiu-Fan Chau’s
“E=MC^2,” the story of how Electron and Proton created
the solar system, won Best Animation.
The winners received Kodak gift certificates of $150 for Best
Narrative and Animation and $300 for Best in Show. $75 gift
certificates also went out to honorable mentions
“Jane,” “Toilet Paper,” and “Dream
Apnea.”
As the lights flickered on, most of the audience members
politely clapped and left without any glowing remarks or any
eye-opening comments.
The film festival started with a big pop and faded to a
lackluster end largely due to high expectations of great
“thinking” films. The technical quality of the shorts
was particularly high in “Astronaut Wife” and
“The Toilet Republic,” but overall the film festival
definitely needed a powerful injection of mojo.
However, Shorttakes shouldn’t be forsaken as a wasteland
of derivative movies because there definitely was a lot of
potential in the films.