The College Student: Concentration

The idea for this short came up when I was trying to work on an essay for one of my classes. I usually listen to video game soundtracks to keep me focused on these suffocating assignments. One time, I was listening to a mix of music from various Nintendo games and soon as I heard Moo Moo Farm from Mario Kart 64, I had to take 2 minutes of my time to dance like an idiot. The child-like energy came by really suddenly and left just as quickly. 

I sat on the idea of making a zany short where you see me become euphoric when the music starts playing but I wasn’t sure if the idea had enough substance. On my desk are two toys from my childhood: A Woody doll I bought for $2 at a garage sale and a Sonic toy I bought at a comic book convention in 8th grade. I’ve brought these toys for every single semester of college but because of various life distractions and obligations, all they have ever done is stand awkwardly against a wall or on my alarm clock. They were just what I needed to make the short work. 

The original idea had the College Student(CS) character dive quickly into madness with the music playing although the space around him would reflect on his bleak lifestyle, with brief shots of an unmade bed, debris all over the room, and in hindsight, a depressing shot of someone texting him “STOP CALLING ME”. The original ending cuts from CS leaping in the air with his toys to a medium shot of the back of his head intently typing on the desk, with subsequent shots showing how isolated he is from everything else, and how the toys he interacted with are nowhere to be found. I shared this concept with one of my suite-mates who was worried about how I always injected depression in everything I work on and was troubled by how depression was the punchline of the short.

I retooled the entire idea and tried to maintain a purely comedic tone, making sure that filming the short was as loose and fun as possible. Because of how silly the idea is, I wasn’t completely sure if I was going to follow through with it, especially since the semester's almost over. It was exactly that realization that caused me to take action since, in the past, waiting guaranteed failure. I certainly felt more relaxed filming this than any other project since the focus was on having fun, and I hope that is displayed in the short. I also gave myself some technical challenges to deal with such as making sure the edits were rhythmically in tune with the song and that I was able to have all three of us (Sonic, Woody, and I) onscreen for the penultimate shot. My biggest challenge, though, was pushing down my pretentious filmmaking attitude and telling myself, “Don’t take this seriously. This is supposed to be silly.”

This is, perhaps, the most fun I’ve had working on a project in a long time.  Completing this has already got me excited to write and film more ideas, including a shelved idea that I think deserves a second chance. I won’t mention what it is since it’s better to receive surprises (and it puts less pressure on me). Although I do act like an idiot in the short, I wanted to make sure that this could make anyone in the college community, CWRU or otherwise, suffering through projects and exams take a breather for a short while. We don’t have to take everything so goddamn seriously all the time. Sometimes, we just need to play with our toys.

Music was created by YouTube user Bulby. His channel is filled with fantastic remixes of classic video game music and he even has has his own EP, Bite the Bullet, on his Bandcamp page. Check him out when you've got the chance!

The College Student: Optimism

This was a pet project of mine, filmed simultaneously with another project which I'll talk about another time. The idea stemmed from an actual thought I once had while I was waiting at the line of Einstein's Bagels. It was a difficult day and I wanted to forget about my troubles via flaky bread and moist eggs mixed with melted cheese. I didn't want to make a fuss for anybody unfortunate enough to have wait in line with me so I told myself, "Just think positively right now. Think about anything, really." I tried to change my visible facial expression as I thought about things. The first thought I had is exactly what you see in the short: "Positive, positive charges, electrons, neutrons, atoms, the atomic bomb, Hiroshima." At first, I was mortified by the thought, but I couldn't help but chuckle at how quickly my thoughts delineated into madness. I tried again and that thought also quickly went to hell. I quickly hammered out a screenplay about a college student struggling to focus his thoughts as his paper due date edged closer and closer. I kept the project to myself until I shared it with fellow writer/director Zach Lerner who convinced me to go through with it. I fell in love with the project from that point on, and I wanted to make sure every comic detail was just right before I started filming it. To this day, it's the project that I'm most proud of because of how honest it is compared to other short films I've made. As with any project, there are many things I can't help but nit-pick about, but we'll get to that shortly.

I knew, from the first draft, how risky the material was compared to other projects I've made and I knew that I was dealing with a very volatile concept and anything that crossed the line would've made it tragic instead of comical. It was specifically when I started looking for the public domain clips that I became increasingly guilty with the subject matter. The following four words, in particular, "Hiroshima; The Great Depression; Poverty; Suicide" were really difficult to find appropriate clips of.
Hiroshima: the footage in the short film is original color footage of a US army crew surveying the damage at Hiroshima 9 months later. In this context, the footage is very voyeuristic at how it depicts the tragedy.
The Great Depression: I tried to find very brief clips of people waiting in a soup kitchen but most of it was not in the public domain. What you guys see is footage of tractors in the middle of the 1931 Dust Bowl.
Poverty: the clips I found were really depressing, most of it being starving children in Africa. It and Hiroshima was the first time I hesitated completely and had a moral dilemma before going through with something for comedic purposes. What's in the film is just street performers performing under the bridge in Las Vegas.
Suicide: From the moment I wrote the screenplay, I knew this word would be very problematic. I originally intended showing a noose swinging left and right but I thought that it would be too morbid although the footage I used is also very morbid. What you see a Parisian inventor testing out his parachute system at the very top of the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately, the parachute did not deploy so you see this person fall to his death. It's cut short in the film(we see the person fall) but the implications are there.
Bunnies Humping: Hmm...oh boy, this phrase. When I wrote the screenplay, I tried to figure out what kind of thought would work as a punchline. Then I thought about the most positive and tasteful thing a positive person could think of: BUNNIES, running along a flowery field! How could bunnies go wrong? Why, with the Kama Sutra, of course! The film takes on a completely different meaning once we consider that the college student does think more positively now but with bunny humping as his catalyst. It also comments on how ridiculous the idea of positive thinking is considering how fluid and free flowing a person's thoughts can be. This is also my swipe at meditation as it's something that I've always had difficulty with. Considering how pessimistic my thinking can be from time to time, consider this as a condensed yet filtered look at my process of thought. The really cute piano music that plays was originally from the video of bunnies.

Here are several technical/narrative problems I had with the film. I thought the opening with me running around in circles went on for way too long, and could've been cut short to at least 10-15 seconds. I didn't notice this until after I had uploaded it but when my character says "Bunnies humping", the audio cuts out so you only hear "Hu-". It didn't seem like anyone caught that, though. I'm also very conflicted about the ending and wasn't sure if my last line was good enough or if it should've ended with Sergiy closing the door on my face.

In short, I really enjoyed making this and am very pleased with the feedback I've gotten on it. I look forward to the next project I work on, whatever it may be. Oh, all right.
It's the College Student: Nutrition. Coming to your computer screens in the near future.

Please check out Sergiy Turchyn's channel. He is a fantastic composer and a hilarious person to be around.