WWW.THEGUARDIANONLINE.COM
OCTOBER 21, 2015
ISSUE NO. 8 VOL. 52
Student Spotlight
An interview with WSU dancer Elizabeth Ramsey Page 6
Haunts Nightmare on Springwood Lane returns to WSU Page 4
NEWS The parking debate intensifies
Page 5
Sports
Soccer’s Senior Day coverage Page 9
Photo provided by Robert DelVecchio
The Big Lens Festival was a showcase for WSU film students to present their creative film work before a supportive audience
WSU film students showcase their creative work at the Big Lens Festival Adam Ramsey Features Editor Ramsey.55@wright.edu
A
fter months of work creating films, several Wright State film students were given the opportunity to show their films to a packed house at the Big Lens Festival, hosted by the WSU Motion Pictures program. Robert DelVecchio, part of the Media Relations Team for the Big Lens Festival, said that the festival works as a promotional tool for students in the program that are looking to find careers in the film industry. “It’s to promote all the different films that have come from the student body in the past year or so,” DelVecchio said. “It’s an opportunity to showcase them for the community and to help get recognition for their work. Everyone’s trying to get their careers going.” DelVecchio is also a senior Film Production major and helped produce “Oasis,” a film
shown at the festival, written and directed by Samantha Drake. The 12 films featured at Big Lens spanned a variety of genres, including narrative work, dance film and documentary.
J. Russell Johnson, Professor for the Motion Pictures program was impressed with the quality of the work shown at Big Lens. “They’re all so mature and really hardcore movie makers. I was thinking of a lot of the great art films that were “The stories, the cine- made in the 60’s and the earmatography, they’re just ly 70’s that were really kind evoked by a lot of the films such a wonderful group of tonight,” Johnson said. “The of students. I’d much performances were just so rather watch these films wonderful too. The stories, cinematography, they’re than 95% of what I see the just such a wonderful group in theaters.” of students. I’d much rather watch these films than 95% -J. Russell Johnson of what I see in theaters.” According to DelVecchio, “Really, there’s not any- it is common for student film thing typical,” DelVecchio said. makers to apply to multiple “There’s a huge array. You film festivals after showing at have different people coming Big Lens. from different backgrounds, “That’s really the point, to so they have a different sensi- get that work out there. You bility. Some people are drawn really don’t want to just do to drama, others are drawn to all that work and leave it at comedy.” Big Lens,” DelVecchio said.
“They’ll be applying to multiple festivals and will be trying to see what happens. Whether you get into a festival or not, you kind of just have to sit back and hope for the best.” Johnson said that he could see the films shown at this year’s Big Lens going “very far” at larger festivals like Sundance. The success of the film program stems from the support of the film community in Dayton, as well as the support of the university. “There’s a wonderful film community in Dayton and a lot of support from wonderful film makers like Patrick Steele and he lends great support to our student film makers and so many other people. So many people are willing to help our students produce films,” Johnson said. “Also, in the last five years, the university has gotten behind the program and that has really helped it grow. I think its future is very bright.”