News Story

Media School film students have been on a roll.

And we are not just talking about rolls of film.

Several Media School students recently have won awards or have debuted their work at film festivals around the world, while others are putting finishing touches on films they plan to submit to festivals or competitions. In the process, they are taking advantage of courses that offer hands-on learning and encourage exploration, and they are tapping into collaborations with faculty and fellow students.

Alumna Adrienne Wagner’s short documentary, My Grandpa’s Garage, took first place at the Culver Film Festival and is a CINE Golden Eagle finalist.

“My film explores my personal relationship with my grandfather through his accumulation of things over his 83 years of life. The film walks through our family history told through his collections and the memories that they hold,” said Wagner, BA’15.

The Culver Film Festival celebrates Hoosier student filmmakers with an annual contest. CINE, or the Council on International Non-theatrical Events, was established in 1957 as a way for the U.S. State Department to recognize documentaries. Since then, CINE has gathered an alumni base that includes film stars like Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese.

Wagner’s film also was selected for the Heartland Film Festival, which gives Wagner the chance to be reviewed for an Academy Award, said lecturer Susanne Schwibs, who teaches several film courses and has mentored many of the student filmmakers.

Wagner has left her Indiana roots for film production possibilities in Portland, Oregon.

“I have an assistant editor position next month for a low-budget feature film shooting here,” said Wagner. “I am in the very early pre-production stages of my own new short documentary that I hope to get out and into festivals in the spring.”

Alumnus Matt Dillman, BA’14, was recognized at Culver with third place award for the film American Redneck Samurai. Junior Jonathan Carey from Spencer, Indiana, received fourth place for his film, The Mustache, created in senior lecturer Jim Krause’s film production class.

“It’s a ridiculous film, where this guy is on a date and he is completely bombing it,” Carey said. “He takes a drink and suddenly he has a mustache that starts talking to him and giving him advice.”

Carey thought of the idea himself, filmed it in one day, and edited it twice through before Schwibs selected it for consideration in the Culver competition.

This fall, Carey is taking a motion picture fundamentals course. In the future, Carey would like to work in an internship with an Indianapolis director whom he previously job-shadowed.

“Right now, I’m just trying to take as many film classes as possible,” he said.

Sometimes, students gain experience – and vicarious prestige – working with faculty who are creating their own film projects. Schwibs’ historical documentary for WTIU, Along the Wabash, is in production.

“It’s been a labor of love,” said Schwibs, who has won and been nominated for many Emmy awards in recent years.

Media School seniors Emelie Flower and Adam Lee are assistant camera operators on the documentary, working with Jacob Lindauer, the director of photography, to shoot the film with Canon C300s.

“I love being outdoors and surrounded by nature, so this documentary was exactly what I needed,” Flower said. “I get to do what I’m passionate about, and I get to do it in such beautiful locations along the Wabash River.”

Flower says it has been a rewarding experience working with and learning from professionals on set.

“It’s great to know that at the end of our long days, we’ve shot some beautiful footage that will soon be able to be seen by people everywhere,” she said. “I’m incredibly excited to see our hard work screened on television next March.”

Senior Kevin Nichols’ film, Christmas ’97, has been accepted by the Jornadas de Reapropiación Film Festival Nov. 5-7 in Mexico City. The festival celebrates “found footage,” and all films must have an element of never-used or old film. Nichols heard about the festival from a film studies grad student.

“I made the film at Christmas, and it incorporates two VHS tapes found in the same box in my basement. One is a piece of anti-union propaganda. The other is an old home video from my childhood,” Nichols said in an email. The intention of the film is to explore the ways in which the realms of work and family intersect and the problems that can result from this dependency.”

Veteran film festival winner and Media School doctoral student Russell Sheaffer will premier his latest experimental film, On Surgery, in the Indie Memphis Film Festival beginning Nov. 3. He edited On Surgery with Jacobs School of Music graduate Aaron Michael Smith.

“It was one of the most rewarding, and deeply collaborative experiences,” said Sheaffer, who cut the 16 millimeter film with a medical scalpel in attempt to replicate surgery on the body.

The filmmaking duo will teach a workshop at the New Orleans Film Festival in a few weeks on experimental and collaborative film.  Sheaffer is currently teaching an exploratory film class that introduces aspects of 16 millimeter film.

“It’s more obvious to me that students taking this class are hungry for different ways of making things,” he said.

The students will make their own short film, and at the end of the semester, Sheaffer reserves the time to teach them about entering film festivals. He says that some of them do not know where to start and worry that no one will like what they make.

“What they need to realize is that it might take three people to say no for the one person that says yes,” he said.