The Director's Cut
April 27, 2007
While dashing from a coffee break in Brown n’ Brew to the start of your creative writing class, perhaps you missed the two students with the video camera as you tripped up the Memorial Steps. While you bent over your laptop cranking out your 2:00 AM paper, did you know that a group of students had just started filming the last scene of their movie?
Tufts may not be known for its film studies program, but each year, a small group of dedicated students launches its Hollywood dreams right here in Medford. Whether behind the lens of a $3,000 camera, drafting a movie script, or creating 3D computer animation, these undergraduates have found their niche at TuftsFilmWorks, the university’s film department based out of the ExCollege. What began in the 1990s as a program with a single 36GB camera (smaller than your average iPod), TuftsFilmWorks has since accrued ten cameras, dolly tracks, and a full-fledged editing laboratory with animation and multimedia capabilities. The program also boasts a Film Studies minor as well as two, full credit ExCollege courses, Making Movies and Advanced Film Making.
Making it Big
Spearheading much of this expansion was Professor Howard Woolf, the father of TuftsFilmWorks and rolemodel to many aspiring Tufts filmmakers. Woolf, however, estimates that only ten percent of these students will ultimately go on to pursue a professional filmmaking career.
He recalls one student who made it to Hollywood because of his full feature film; another is the creative talent behind Two and a Half Men, the popular CBS sitcom. But for most, it’s not about prime time television or Hollywood stardom. “FilmWorks is…about providing people with tools to make changes,” said Woolf. “If you know how to get a group together, know how to keep morale up, know how to follow a schedule, than you’ll be a success at anything you do. If you don’t get up and get your crew going, there is no movie.”
The goal of the program, then, is less about making great movies and more about preparing students for situations in the real world. For example, Woolf has all his students keep a producer’s log because it helps them to “become aware of important decisions, [become] more conscious of why you do something a certain way, and wonder, but what if you did it another way?” It’s about understanding and controlling one’s “creative processes.”
Still, Woolf often wishes he had more time to give to students, but wise budget decisions allowed him to hire a Tufts alumnus part-time as an advisor. Couple this with new equipment and generous donations from alumni, and the FilmWorks program offers students more in 2007 than ever before.
Two dedicated film students, sophomore Benjamin Samuels and junior Nick Pasquariello, are taking full advantage of these newfound resources. Over the course of the school year, the pair has been collaborating on a lengthy period piece called Down and Out. The final product—the culmination of eight months of intense planning, script writing, cast screening, and filming—is a twenty-five minute “genre experiment.” According to the students, one of their main goals was to move beyond the stereotypical college film. Instead of shooting in, say, dorm rooms or on the academic quad, Pasquariello, Samuels, and their cast spent eleven hours (overnight) in a Somerville warehouse—shooting just one scene.
They hope this not-so-little experiment of theirs could get them noticed by the powers that be. “People are looking for innovative films,” said Samuels, “so this is the best chance for filmmakers to come out. [Though] at the end of the day, it’s serendipity. Success could count on whether the elevator opens on the right floor.”
While both are equally enthusiastic about filmmaking, they started their collegiate film careers under very different circumstances. Pasquariello came to Tufts to become an engineer—no questions asked. Then one day, “sitting in my engineering class sophomore year, I realized that I really just wanted to make cartoons.” He has decided to forego film school and try to head straight to Hollywood after graduation. He knows an alumnus who once used a Tufts connection to start as the production assistant in a Scary Movie sequel, and was then quickly promoted because of his work and dedication. Pasquariello hopes to follow a similar route. Samuels, on the other hand, has filmmaking in his genes. With both parents involved in the business, he jokes, “I’ve been fucked from day one!”
“A sky’s the limit, dreamer,” Samuels is balanced out by the realist Pasquariello, who says Samuels always pushes him to reach higher. The fact that they can rely on each other and know what the other is thinking is essential to their success. Their passion for film and cartoons is best articulated when they admit, “We’d rather go down in flames doing something we enjoy than succeed at something we don’t.”
Lights, Camera
One of the great strides the film program has made in recent years is hosting Campus MovieFest, a global competition for collegiate filmmakers (including Samuels and Pasquariello, who participated this time not as teammates, but as competitors).
The idea behind Campus MovieFest is simple: distribute a bunch of camcorders and editing equipment, and give participating student groups one week to produce the best five-minute film they can dream up. At Tufts, filmmakers of all skill levels traversed the campus, working with crews of two to ten students, hoping to receive national fame or perhaps just to have a good time with free Apple-issued equipment. This year, Jumbos proudly submitted 45 short films. Sixteen were selected for the Tufts showcase, and the top three at Tufts made it to the next level in the national competition, the Boston MovieFest.
On April 19, Tufts students were finally able to watch their friends’ pieces as the top sixteen were aired to a full house in Pearson 104. The films ran the gamut of genres, from animated comedies to inspirational feel-goods. The TBS “Very Funny” film award went to Drinkin’ Guy, by Pasquariello and Jimmy Hughes. This was a hilarious stop animation movie that followed the slapstick antics of a cartoon character, Drinkin’ Guy. The TCM “Classic Short” award went to Ashes of Monsters, by Samuels and Nicholas Jandl. This Civil War period piece told an emotional and powerful story of a Union deserter who murdered a black man’s family, but the black man was merciful and left only a note that said he believed that good would come out of the ashes of a monster.
While all were wonderful short movies, the “Best Picture” at Tufts University went to Zachary Baum’s and Nicholas Stepro’s Portrait of a Postman, a dark comedy with bitter irony and excellent cinematography. Ending with “my parents once told me I could do anything I wanted and now I do what I can to get by,” Portrait of a Postman left the audience to question the reality of the American dream in the modern world.
Although Campus MovieFest started at Tufts three years ago, this year’s event marked the first collaboration with TUTV in order to help spread the word. Sophomore Chris Hazenbush, the production manager of TUTV, handled the logistics, from picking judges to booking rooms on campus for the final showcase. As a judge with a background in film and TV production, Hazenbush was impressed at the “wide range of entrants, from stop animation, period pieces, suspense, light comedy, to some that kind of deal with social change.”
“A lot were very good, but some obviously stood out from the others, while others were silly,” Hazenbush noted. “Not everyone is a film student per say, just people who want to express themselves.”
Branching Out
Success or silliness was to be determined on Saturday, April 21, at Boston’s MovieFest. This time, Jumbos did not only have to compete against their peers, but filmmakers from MIT, Northeastern, Boston College, and other Boston-area schools. Students from Emerson College, whose undergraduate film program is renowned throughout the country, also had movies in the running.
Nevertheless, Tufts pulled through with several awards. Samuel’s Ashes of Monsters secured the award for “Best Costumes.” Pasquariello won yet another “Very Funny” award for Drinkin’ Guy, and the Haskell 440s (Sara Sorcher, Brittany Bahamon) won “Best Soundtrack” performed by B.E.A.T.S. for their film Crouching Geek, Hidden Tiki. This news bodes well for Howard Woolf and TuftsFilmWorks. The ability to compete with powerhouse film programs at Emerson and elsewhere means more acclaim for Tufts’ small but burgeoning program.
Woolf generally sees big things for TuftsFilmWorks.Award-winning, Hollywood-bound students is a great thing, but Woolf feels the ability to produce films will soon become essential for all students’ growth—even those who may not have heard of the Film Studies minor. “Expressing yourself visually is going to be commonplace, as familiar to you as writing is to me. 3D is going to be reality. Holographic technology like in Star Wars is going to be reality. This is going to be your world,” he said.
He continued, “Soon everyone is going to have to be competent in how to produce visual information. Film classes will be a requirement like any English class. It’s writing on the wall, die on the vine. We’re branching out.”
Photos courtesy of Campus MovieFest