Film Production Commons^™

Student Film Festival 2023 Playbill, Providence College

Playbill and Promotion

Providence College Department of Theatre, Dance & Film

John Bowab Studio Theatre, Smith Arts Center

Student Film Festival 2023

Thursday, May 4, 2023, 7PM

Festival Director, Father Kenneth Gumbert

Competing Films:

Trepidation..............................................Directed by Sara D'Andrea

The Score............................................Directed By Aiden Fitzsimons

Memories...................................................Directed By Ryan Twomey

From Zero to Forty Three...........Directed By Rebekah Powers

The Run That Fell Short........................Directed by Peter DiBiasi

September 11th, 2001............................Directed by Katrina Hunt

Saturday................................................Directed By Kathryn Galusha

Judges: Erica Tortolani, Shawn Quirk, John Smith, & Neal Mercier

A New Era, Bridget Dietz

Whittier Scholars Program

This piece of art is a short film about a girl who returns to her old high school to become an assistant football coach due to struggling to find her identity outside of sports. Over the last several years, we have seen many women play very significant roles in football, which is primarily a male dominated sport. This film demonstrates an accurate depiction of the challenges women may face when they work in a position that is superior in a male dominated field. Additionally, the film also displays the struggles that athletes often face when they retire from a sport, …

The Theory Of Shot Composition Applied To Various Genres Of Film, Elizabeth Scott

Senior Honors Theses

I am fascinated by the composition of shots in movies, specifically as it applies to the various different genres. However, there seems to be a lack of research into this particular area of the theory of composition. In that case, I am planning to research the history and theory of shot composition as it applies to films throughout the history of film and into modern times. This will be supplemented by my own experience in the Fall of 2022 where I will be a Director of Photography for four individual films of varying genres as well as by a film …

Making The Subconscious Conscious - Showcasing Unresolved Childhood Trauma Through Animation, Alexis Hunter

All Theses

The focus of this work is to shed light on unresolved childhood trauma that can contribute to mental hardships - whether people are aware of its presence in their lives or not. In this paper, I will discuss childhood trauma, its impact on adult life when left unresolved, self-parenting as a method to manage it, and how it is portrayed in various media. Drawing inspiration from my research on trauma and visual storytelling, I will present a proof-of-concept for a 2D animated short film, Strongholds, which visualizes the internal mental struggles through the character dynamics of the personifications of the …

Nightmares And Hand Grenades: Dreams As A Storytelling Tool, Olivia Felber

All Theses

Dreams and nightmares feature prominently in art, story, and religious practice and tradition throughout history. In this paper I will discuss their prominence throughout these facets in daily life, and the various ways that we, as humans, have tried to elucidate meaning from them. I will study the nature and definition of dreams and nightmares through a scientific, cultural, and historical approach. I will also discuss folklore and the interpretation of nightmarish imagery in the context of an otherworldly adventure through a nightmare. These topics and themes will be shown, explained, and discussed through the methodology of my project- a …

Using Visual Effects As A Means Of Establishing Or Reinforcing Scale In 3d Visual Works, Eric Dinicolantonio

All Theses

In 3D animation, visual effects help to establish and reinforce the scale of different characters and objects that are otherwise unclear. In the Fall of 2022, I taught a class about visual effects to several students. At the time, I had difficulty explaining the importance of properly scaling your 3D effects in order to add realism. With physically based effects, we must respect the laws of physics to create a visually realistic and understandable visual effect. Going through several of my previous projects, I found that I had made mistakes with scaling several of my effects. With this paper, I …

Kitchen Witch: Animated Independent Property Pitch Bible Research And Development, Kelsey Eaves

All Theses

My thesis project centers around the production process for creating an animated program. My paper is a record of the development of my pitch bible and my efforts to raise outside interest in the property. I intend to use my work here to enter the animation industry as a jumping off point in my career. My research materials include various “Art Of” production books, Creating Cartoons with Character by Rocko’s Modern Life creator Joe Murray, and firsthand interviews from present and former television industry personnel. In this text I explore television animation pre production to highlight the creation of an …

“Block Island Stories”: Preserving And Showcasing Block Island’S Rigorous History Through Virtual Adaptation, Alexander Pretorius

Senior Honors Projects

No abstract provided.

Learning Documentary Film Production By Doing, Erin Lucille Grasty

Journalism

No abstract provided.

How Do Stories Affect Careers?, Victoria Read

Honors Projects

Determining viable professional careers is one of the most important parts of going to college. Artistic careers, including those in film, are both competitive and dependent on the responses of critics and audiences. People in film careers take different paths; one of them is writing screenplays. Researching screenwriting and the careers of two professional women screenwriters, Diablo Cody and Nancy Meyers, I sought to answer three central questions: how does writing create career paths, what are those careers, and what is it like writing a story?

Through the research on screenwriting, I became familiar with story structures such Joseph Campbell’s …

Pro-Life Vs. Pro-Choice: Eye-To-Eye, Kristen Via

Undergraduate Theses

This is a documentary focused on the topic of abortion that will stand as an archive of the events that have happened over the last year as well as an archive of the feelings of different people looking toward the future. This documentary is aimed to inform future generations more intimately of all the events that have transpired within the years 2022 and 2023 in addition to the feelings of many different people surrounding those events.

"Real Women Have Bodies": A Study In Adaptation, Madison Ephlin

Honors Projects

The art of adaptation is a difficult process, and is often hard to please general audiences that have a connection to the source material. As a student who studies both English Literature and Film Production, the question asked through this study is what does it take to write a “successful” adaptation? What qualifies as “successful”? How does an adaptation balance the themes, characterization, and plot of a piece of literature with the continuous momentum and visual complexity that the medium of film requires, all in 120 pages or less? This study engages with these questions by actively practicing adaptation, adapting …

The Evolution Of Computer Generated Images And Special Effects Design In The Jurassic Park Trilogy, Samantha Renee Pearson

Whittier Scholars Program

Based on Michael Crichton’s unpublished novel, The Andromeda Strain, the awe-inspiring Jurassic Park trilogy (1993-2001) emerged from Steven Spielburg’s determination to make extinct characters come to life again. Early on in their careers, Crichton and Spielburg met at Universal Studios while working on Duel (1971) with ambitions to direct a film that would completely immerse their audience into a dinosaur-encompassing world. About five years later, Spielberg attempted to form a digital rendering for his film Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), but later concluded that “‘The technology wasn’t there yet'” (Mottram 20).

Fast-forward to 1990, Spielburg was fixated on …

Flm170.1 Storytelling For The Screen: Inheritance [Film] Example 2, Sae University College

Exemplars

FLM170 Project 1 Distinction

The Call Sheet: A Six-Part Podcast Interview Series On The Film Industry In Nebraska, Tanner Dykstra

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

My University of Nebraska-Lincoln Honors Thesis project is a six-part podcast interview series entitled The Call Sheet. This is classified as an Applied Knowledge project and encapsulates my interests and areas of study in Journalism, Broadcasting, and Film Studies. I sought out interviews with people who currently reside or once resided in the state of Nebraska who work in association with the film industry. This industry is broad, and my interview subjects reflected this. The six episodes comprising my project are as follows: writer/director Aliza Brugger, writer/professor Michael Svoboda, director of the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center Danny Lee …

Cashing Out (Documentary), Girard Tecson

Theses and Dissertations

My 30-minute documentary film, Cashing Out, explores my journey into the world of sneaker culture and the major impact it made in my life.

In Search Of Pandora Experimentia, Brian Hauser

Faculty Contributions to Books

Wes Craven's first film was a 45-minute color 16mm student film titled Pandora Experimentia, for which Craven served as director of photography when he was a faculty member at Clarkson College of Technology in 1968. This essay tells the story of the making and exhibition of this early Craven film before he left teaching to pursue a successful career in filmmaking.

Ruffled: Examining Feminism & Femininity Through Animation, Savannah Berry

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The animated short film Ruffled confronts the subjects of Feminism and Femininity through the after-hour musings of a young seamstress. Sewing to patterns and working from their papered paradigms she discovers her unique voice that is both referential of the past while remaining distinctly modern. The struggle twenty-first century Feminists may encounter when determining their place within a history rich with prejudice, confrontation, and triumph is metaphorically represented in each of the character's attempts at garment creation. Within the film, not only does this clothing harken back to vintage apparel but whimsically transforms her surroundings to reflect three visually distinct …

Painting And Fear: The Creation Of Death's Visage, Mark A. Felbinger

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Death's Visage is a feature film that was created from an idea developed due to a personal relationship with an artist, who was a professional illustrator and painter. The film follows a young woman who becomes entrapped in a demonic sphere and time zone where her fear is the demon's gratification. She questions the events that are unfolding, which creates herpsychological turmoil, while taking place in the family home that is in an older established middle-class neighborhood.

Death's Visage was a micro-budgeted film produced for $20,778. The capital needed for this film meets the University of Central Florida Feature Film …

Easy Prey, Annika L. Norris

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Easy Prey is a three-dimensional (3D) animated action comedy short film about stereotypes, expectations, and portrayals of strength that follows a ballerina as she is cornered in an alley. The fight that ensues expresses women's empowerment, physically and emotionally, by challenging preconceptions of ballerinas and the performance of femininity. This expression is founded on the intentional inclusion and exclusion of common cinematic tropes to efficiently convey key information while undermining common stereotypes. The action and atmosphere utilize classic film techniques to heighten and release tension. Easy Prey is inspired by my personal journey in healing my relationship with femininity and …