When the Technical Theatre and Theatre classes of Chapel Hill High School were given the task to film, direct and act in short films, senior Olivia Ingledue skipped one the lengthiest processes of filmmaking: brainstorming.
“I knew from the second the film project was announced how I wanted to do it and what I wanted to make it about.”
Her finished product, After the Show, is a painfully realistic and personal tale regarding the aftermath of sexual assault, an issue Ingledue has a personal history with and one she had never confronted in an artistic medium before.
“I had only ever told the story to maybe three people. Everything expressed in the film was based on my very raw emotions that I still feel to this day,” she said.
Ingledue’s film starts suddenly, as a dimly lit living room sets the scene with its merging reds and blacks. Ingledue’s intent was to expose the vulnerability and chaos that’s in the mind of the protagonist Opal, a character who is not mentioned by name in the movie to represent the loss of self-idenity victims of sexual assault face. With frantic displays of emotions and low, stagnant camera positioning that makes the audience feel powerless, Ingledue vividly recaptured her trauma.
The entire movie was filmed, written and directed by Ingledue alone. While the process was a way to confront her deepest troubles, it certainly came with its hardships. But with each roadbump, Ingledue gained another thematic device.
“There was no cameraman! The film’s static style of filming is sort of a contrast to the chaos Opal experiences, which I thought was pretty cool,” Ingledue said. “This also explains why the film is shot as though someone is just watching Opal go through the whole process on her own.”
Of the 12 films submitted, six were chosen to be screened at Hanes Theatre on February 24. The length of each was usually short, as student films could not run longer than ten minutes.
Not every film at the showcase was as solemn as Ingledue’s, but every short was unique and came with its own style.
A Quick Stop, a film written by Tatum Chewning and starring Lola Oliverio, Linden Clemmens and Julian Brown, is a goofy dark comedy that, while short, packs a twisted punch. The story’s premise is based on a short story Chewning wrote and follows two characters who go out to buy a snack and then are faced with a horrific situation. The four-minute film is filled with dynamic dialogue sequences from Oliverio and Clemmens and fluent camerawork by Chewning, all topped by an unexpected ending that leaves the audience oddly shocked.
Chewning said she was glad to work with a production team she was close with.
“It was nice that I was in a group with people I knew and liked—everyone was comfortable with each other,” she said.
Legend of the Space Uber ended the evening, combining large spectacle, surreal comedy and cliches to create a self-aware comedy that isn’t serious and knows it isn’t. The animated portions of the film allow for the visual comedy to shine through, exerting the creativity of Anatoly Yashin, Ira Moringstar, Jonathan Mucino and Tori Noel.
At the end of the night, audience members received a ballot to vote on best film, best screenplay, best production and best ensemble. The awards will be given out at the theatre classes’ annual awards show The Lindy’s.
Other films included Dum With a B, a self-aware comedy starring Lucy Marques, Mae Vanfleet, Trey Purves, Eden Barker, Sania Khazim and Olivia Rossma; A Whisper at the Edge of the Universe, a dialogue-based sci-fi epic that sees Emmanuel Eggleton and Armoni Albertier conversing in the face of death; and Cargo, a witty silent comedy by Sam Klosowski, Andrew McLamb, Adrain Vanderputten, Luke Sparrow and J.C. Stephens.
