OCC film fest: Take 30

Claudia Figueroa

For years, dozens of filmmakers have gathered to view and admire the

work of their comrades. For some, it’s a moment of glory. For others, it

is the end to a long, agonizing process that has left them with little to

hold on to except the hundreds of frames that, when put together, tell a

story.

It isn’t Cannes or even Sundance. It’s Orange Coast College’s 30th

annual Student Film and Video Festival, set to begin at 7 p.m. today in

OCC’s Robert B. Moore Theatre.

The three-hour festival, which features original work by more than 150

students, will showcase films and videos that range from two to 20

minutes in length.

The festival, which is rated PG-13, will offer audiences a glimpse

inside the future of filmmaking as well as provide them with a wide

variety of film genres with work ranging from dramas and comedies to

animation and public service announcements.

One of the evening’s highlights will be the short, “The Gift,” by

Joseph Davis, Alice Svenson and Christian Gutierez.

The film is about a poor man from a small, rural town who -- out of

frustration and loneliness -- packs himself into a box and ships himself

to his girlfriend’s college dormitory.

“The climax of the film occurs when the lead character discovers his

girlfriend lost her innocence,” said Davis, who graduates this semester

with a certificate of achievement in film and video. “Basically he’s

being set up for a big disappointment and doesn’t know it yet.”

Davis, 24, said most of the footage was shot inside a cardboard box.

Other scenes were shot at the Bolsa Chica Wetlands in Huntington Beach.

Davis said the film took four months to complete and cost close to

$2,000.

Throughout the past decade, and even more in recent years, the

festival has generated a following, said OCC film professor Brian Lewis.

“Our initial goal for the festival was to showcase student work, and

to generate interest in our film program,” said Lewis, a 30-year OCC

faculty member who started the festival during his first year on campus.

“We wanted to give students a forum for showing their work.

“When it first started, the festival’s popularity was because it was

the first collegiate film festival in the county. But over the years

we’ve generated a following of people who have come year after year just

because the event is inspirational.”

Lewis said he sees the festival as a showcase for young directors who,

he hopes, will someday make a name for themselves in the film industry.

“These students are our future Coppola, Spielbergs and Stones,” Lewis

said, before revealing that Speilberg snuck into closed film sets in

Hollywood during his early years of filmmaking.

“Directors have to start somewhere, and this is an opportunity to view

their work before they go on to do major work in the film industry.”

About 50% of OCC’s film graduates transfer to a four-year college and

earn bachelor’s degrees in film and video, Lewis said. The remaining 50%

usually enter the industry in some form or another or go out and make

their own independent films.

Lewis said most of his graduates find jobs in the industry working in

the non-Hollywood arena, taking temporary jobs on commercials,

documentaries and education projects. Others find themselves as

apprentices in Hollywood.

Gordon Miller, 33, a former film student at OCC, worked as a second

assistant director on a handful of low-budget independent films after he

left the program in 1995. On the side, Miller found work as a script

reader for Phoenix Pictures, the film company that made “Urban Legend”

and “Thin Red Line.”

Miller said OCC’s film department is on the same par as other

professional film schools, but doesn’t cost as much.

“Students in the program learn all of the technical aspects of

film/video work on the same type of equipment that is being used by

professionals working in the industry,” he said. “But you’re not paying

the high fees you would if you went to UCLA and the classrooms aren’t

compacted with students.”

Lewis said OCC’s film department offers a hands-on program that not only

specializes in film theory, but also gets first-year students working

with cameras during the first week of class.

Lewis said the department’s reputation for producing graduates with a

solid grasp of the technical side of movie and video making is partially

because the department uses modern equipment. Its latest addition is AVID

NT-digital, a state-of-the-art computerized editing system that has the

option of editing film or video, as opposed to manually transferring film

to video or splice editing. As a result, students learn many aspects of

the editing process, Lewis said.

The film department is planning to move into the college’s brand new

$15-million Arts Center in 2002. The facility will feature computerized

editing facilities, a television studio, a screening room, classrooms.

The new facility will be adjacent to the fine arts parking lot.

* WHAT:Orange Coast College Film Festival

* WHEN: 7 p.m. May 19

* WHERE: Orange Coast College’s Robert B. Moore Theater, 2701 Fairview

Road, Costa Mesa

* HOW MUCH: $5

* PHONE: (714) 432-5180