Making the campus scene
Local college students get ready for their close-ups as part of a national filmmaking contest
''Mike we are doing this scene now, so get over here as soon as you can!" Kristin Oliveri yells into her cellphone.
Oliveri and six other students are standing outside a classroom at Northeastern University, frantically trying to round up as many of their friends as possible for their next camera shot.
''Just bring anyone you know," Jari Majewski, a freshman journalism major, urges a friend on the phone.
Mike Sovak, a sophomore business major, runs breathlessly into the classroom 15 minutes later.
''I hope you all know I left in the middle of a date to do this," he says.
Oliveri and Majewski are on one of 62 teams from Northeastern participating in Campus MovieFest, a national project designed to introduce college students to the power of filmmaking. This is the first time the event has been held in Boston, drawing students from Northeastern, Boston College, Tufts, MIT, and Emerson College. Working in teams, the students are given a digital camcorder and Apple laptop computer courtesy of an assortment of corporate sponsors to make a five-minute film, in a week, depicting campus life.
The brainchild of four alumni from Atlanta's Emory University, Campus Moviefest was created in 2001 and has since been extending its reach to other cities. Boston, with its array of colleges and universities, was a natural stop for the project. ''The goal of this event is to enhance school spirit, student teamwork, creativity, community, and leadership," said Campus Moviefest cofounder Dan Costa.
Each participating school in Boston will hold a Campus MovieFest night on its campus, where a panel of faculty and student judges will select the top 15 films to be viewed and choose three winners from among them. Northeastern's movie night is tonight in the Curry Student Center Ballroom.
The first-prize team from each school will win round-trip Delta Airline tickets to anywhere in the United States, second prize will be iPod Shuffles for each team member, and the third-place team will get a Boston prize pack, including dinner gift certificates, movie vouchers, and amusement park admission tickets.
Once all of the schools have completed filming, a Boston-wide Campus MovieFest Grand Finale will be held at the Aquarium
Quiet on the set
On a recent Friday evening, while most Northeastern students were busy getting ready for a night out, Oliveri and her team are sitting in a classroom trying to make a movie. Student Jonathan Cohn holds a camera over his right shoulder and shouts directions to his peers scattered around the classroom.
The classroom scene will be part of the movie's parody of thefacebook.com, a popular social networking website used by college students. The scene will feature interviews with students describing their Internet addiction, a mock thefacebook counseling session, and one student dressed as ''Thefacebook Man," who runs up to innocent bystanders and pokes them with a finger.
'' OK everyone, pretend you're writing," Cohn said.
A girl wearing a blue shirt in the front row can't control her laughter. She begins to snicker as Cohn pans through the crowd of students.
''Well everyone except for her," Cohn says, sighing. ''We can cut her out of that shot."
Cohn, the designated team cameraman and movie director, suggests that one of the actors hide beneath his desk and play on his laptop to portray a student feeding his Internet addiction during a mock thefacebook counseling session. He directs Sovak, who is playing the teacher/counselor, to react with anger when he realizes the student is hiding.
Sovak approaches the student beneath his desk and grabs the laptop from his hands.
He flings the white laptop onto the desk and slams the lid closed.
The crowd of actors gasps as the lid shuts with a loud bang.
''That's my laptop!" Cohn yells as he continues to film the scene. ''It's not a fake one!"
Laughter arises from the group.
Claymation takes shape
Across town, on a Saturday afternoon, five students are sitting on red upholstered couches molding bright magenta and blue clay in the Xavier Lounge at Boston College. ''Bohemian Rhapsody" blasts from Chris Boniakowsi's laptop.
''I remember we saw the sign [for Campus Moviefest] and we're like, Claymation!" says Boniakowski, an English major. His team is among 55 groups at BC participating in Campus MovieFest.
Boniakowski adjusts the camera as Jonathan Bauer attempts to move the circle of blue clay men a quarter of an inch forward. Bauer, a philosophy and English major, looks as if he just woke up, his shaggy brown hair falling carelessly about his head. ''We worked from 10 p.m. until 2 this morning," Bauer says. ''We still have more shots to do than have been done. I hope we can be editing by tonight."
Bauer took a film class while he was in high school. He has experience with Claymation, a movie process using clay figures and digital photography. .
Steph Andrews stands over a wooden table covered in white paper, neon-colored paints, and a red plastic Dixie cup filled with dirty water. Andrews is painting a black gravel road on the blank paper.
''This is for the protest scene," she explains.
''Since they [Bauer and Boniakowski] are filming that, I'm doing this," says Andrews, as she dips a paintbrush into black paint. The protest scene will be part of the team's Claymation creation, which is about ''cutting the strings," and allowing good to conquer evil.
Bauer grabs a red clay figure that he affectionately refers to as ''spoon man," and the hero of the movie. He places spoon man into a diorama that resembles a beat-up factory with a fireplace spewing red and orange clay fire.
Boniakowski presses the button on the digital camera and waits to hear the faint ''beep" to confirm that the shot has been taken.
Bauer quickly leans his arm into the diorama to move spoon man up farther.
''Wait!" yells Boniakowski.
Before Bauer has a chance to remove his arm from inside the factory walls, he knocks over several of the blue clay men.
''Oops," says Bauer.
Confusion in the crowd
Back on the Northeastern campus, it's early Saturday evening and Cohn's team is attempting to finish filming in the fading sunlight.
Sovak is placing a huge sandwich board over T.J. Lamanna's shoulders. The words, ''Facebook Man," are written neatly on Lamanna's back. ''Is it on tight enough?" asks Sovak.
Lamanna nods and approaches a crowd of people gathered at the Northeastern Green Line T stop. Looks of surprise and confusion form on the faces of several people waiting for the train. Lamanna lurks in the crowd, randomly poking innocent bystanders and snickering as he runs away.
Cohn films from about 10 yards behind Lamanna, trying hard not to laugh.
''That's what is so tough about making this movie," Cohn said. ''When one person laughs, we all laugh."
