It is said in the film itself that more can be said about the short film “Color Blind”.
This is a fairly straight conspiracy – a girl and boy meet and, suddenly, their black and white world burst into color. But it is also a silent film and was made in 11 days and it was made by high school students of Leon’s Township High School, so in a way, it says a lot.
The film was one of the 11 silent shorts, which started a student Silent Film Festival at Tivoli Theater in Downers Grove, since last week 2017.
The organizer of the festival Bill Alan said that the screening of this year was the greatest because the epidemic had briefly closed the world. Dozens of people came out, buying tickets and popcorn and soda – like any other film festival.
It featured filmmakers of high schools throughout the suburbs and it preferred to do both the students in front of the camera and behind it. And it also provided them with an original soundtrack. As soon as the films rolled, the founder of Clarendon Hills Music Academy, Derek Berg performed with him, matched the film’s beating with a synthesized score.
“If you pay to professional musicians to do so, you will pay around $ 400 per hour. And it’s like a deal, ”Allen told the crowd. “The fact is that we are capable of doing so and in this historical, renovated theater is that it is amazing for us.”
Allen should know, he is an experienced of Chicago television and film industry and these days he teaches television and movies in Leones Township.
His students already knew that the night was special. None of the students of LTS behind “color blind” were not the first filmmaker-they are taking a media class and they are involved in the activities of the after school TV club, but they have ever been together on such a small notice simultaneously Did not work so that it could tell a silent story. In the evening, not only the short film, but most of the people in their cooperation and audience will ever know anything.
For example, silent movies are not very silent.
To catch the sound, without a microphone, the actor, crew and the earshot can say anything that they like loudly.
“It was not calm,” LTHS Eva Eggering said, one of the young people who find romance in the “color blind”.
“We had a lot of blueupers,” Claudio Rodriguez said, put as a boy. Or, they were, the voice of the film.
Aggering added, without sound, laughter and jokes did not matter as much.
“Some of the stuff used in the film was Blown,” he said.
But beyond this, lack of sound proved to be a challenge many times. Eggerding acted, but never without dialogue, so he said that he needs to ensure that he does not look foolish. The director and editor were in charge of drawing the line between Frederick Marcus, acting and overacting. But still, microphone deficiency was helpful.
“I had to make sure that facial reactions were clear, but not even on your face,” he said. “But then, the middle-view, you can give direction, which helped.”
Finding a new way to tell a story was part of the assignment, Alan said. And in a medium like film, which includes sound for a better part of a century, it can be difficult to find out what is an interesting, broader chain of silent moving images.
Allen said, “He has no crutches to bend when he used dialogue, voiceover, sound effects or music to set the mood or tell the story.” “In the silent film, all this is to be done with shots, compositions, angles, lighting, camera movements, actors’ expressions and further.
He said that even in films that have parts without dialogue, there are usually music or other ambient sounds that help clarify action on the screen. All sounds help only tell a story, not only words.
“Most high school media programs do not produce a lot of silent films, so this project was certainly a challenge, especially for students in this generation who are saturated with all kinds of media,” he said. “I think over the years, this film festival focused the students on the visual story; His shots, lighting, location, cupboards, props, and their actors were all at the point. More emphasis on visual components and dialogue, sound effects and low dependence on music. This made the students out of the familiar area and challenged them, which is always good in my opinion. ,
At the end of the evening, three schools moved with top prizes – no special order: oak forest high “unexpected,” with “panel with” panel with “and Neka Valley High” Friends “, which also took home Award for audience’s choice.