LAMORINDA WEEKLY | Iron Filmmaker: A Tale of Two Films


Campolindo team JOLAZ, Oles Bober seated, from left Lucas Silva, Zach Foxworthy and Jonathan Rowland. Ailan Evans not pictured. Photos C. Tyson

Right after the Saturday morning briefing October 27 at the Rheem Theatre, five Campolindo High School students huddled together in the parking lot, already agreeing to construct a psychological thriller. Team JOLAZ - the name comprised from the first initials of Jonathan Rowland, Oles Bober, Lucas Silva, Ailan Evans and Zach Foxworthy - is one of 23 teams competing this year in the Iron Filmmaker contest, one of the components of the California Independent Film Festival. The teams had 24 hours to make a three-minute-maximum length film using this year's genre and theme - horror and trick-or-treat - announced at the very last minute of the mandatory filmmaker briefing.

"Show us some creativity - that's what we're looking for," said Iron Filmmaker organizer Adam Reeves, owner of event sponsor ITB Designs, as he briefed the teams on what's acceptable and what's not. While clearly spelling out that he believes in free speech, Reeves cautioned against nudity, strong profanity, graphic violence and copyright infringement. With cash prizes for first, second and third place along with "best performance" and "audience favorite," these mostly young filmmakers were off and running with the clock ticking until their 10 a.m. deadline the next morning to turn in their finished films.

Team JOLAZ was ready to rumble inside Rowland's parent's garage in Moraga. By mid-day, the team was filming with some borrowed equipment from the video department at Campolindo, the group clearly familiar with shots, lighting and more, thanks to Campo teacher Justin Seligman's video production class. Rowland and Bober discussed whether to use an "over the shoulder shot" or "worm's eye view" of a pivotal coin toss that decided the fate of their two captured actors, Silva and Foxworthy. Evans played the faceless murderer.

Rowland explained, "As we film, we transfer the files and do a rough edit," with Bober looking for gaps and "continuity errors." Both have been serious about film since ninth grade; now that they are juniors, they've already toured some colleges that offer film programs. "I've been working with film since freshman year, and I'm really hooked," said Bober.

Armed with Rice Krispies Treats to snack on and fake blood from the drugstore, JOLAZ worked together, combining roughly 90 shots into the one-and-a-half-minute film.

Thirty minutes after midnight, team JOLAZ's finished product "Gambling Men" was in the can, or rather on the DVD, ready to turn in.

Another Moraga contestant, Stuart Creque - a business analyst/web developer by day who enjoys writing screenplays in his free time - calls his team "Creque's Alley" after family property in the Virgin Islands. It was easy to see the direction he took from this year's prompt, creating the very short film called "All Zombies' Eve."

The making of the film was almost all in the family. Creque credits his wife with the initial idea, inspired by "Night Gallery." Daughter Hannah played a zombie, and daughter Miriam Viess-Creque and her boyfriend Steven Brom played the householders who try to fend off a zombie invasion. Creque came up with a funny, clever concept and did all the filming which started around 10 p.m. for full darkness effect and to allow plenty of time for costuming and zombie makeup; the crew wrapped up around 11:30 p.m. "The challenging part was editing; that took until 4:30 in the morning," said the elder Creque who filmed on an iPod4 and edited on his laptop.

The end result is only 45 seconds long. Viewers should pay attention lest they miss the cow brain in the film purchased at Lunardi's which Creque describes as "very effective."

You can see how it all turns out for team JOLAZ and Creque's Alley when all of the contestants' films are screened at 9 a.m. Saturday, November 10 at the Rheem Theatre.