Audience members get their photo taken on the red carpet. Photo by: Will Richards
Glitz, glamour and good films filled the halls of Bardo Arts center as WCU’s Stage and Screen and Film and Television Production programs put on their 8-th annual Controlled Chaos Film Festival on Friday, April 29, 2016.
The students at WCU outdid themselves this year with the quality and quantity of work that was presented. The festival was made up of a total of 25 student made films covering a wide variety of themes, tones and genres. The length of the movies also varied, some were short 15 second projects the students created in their classes to the longer senior thesis films that were up to 20 minutes long.
“It went really well! You know it’s hard to mix all these random things together it’s kind of difficult…but I think it worked out. The two major films ‘Up the Hill’ and ‘Love is the Longest Con’ turned out amazing and I know they worked up until the very last minute to get them perfect, so I’m really proud of them” said Jonathan Alexander, rising senior in the FTP program, and writer of next fall’s senior thesis.
Some of the hits of the evening included “Love is the Longest Con,” the fall senior thesis film written by Mikayla Ronnow and directed by Jason Miller. In this short film noir inspired movie, a con man makes his living by seducing women and stealing their expensive jewelry as he sneaks out of their hotel rooms in the morning. However, after he falls in love with a ‘femme fatale’ his life is flipped upside down, and in the end he finds himself on the wrong end of a con.
There were also a total of six documentaries that were shown as well during the festival. One, called “Undefeatable,” centered itself around the lives of twin football coaches Josh and Jay Brooks as they trained their football team in Franklin, North Carolina. This documentary was directed and produced by Samuel Wallace and edited by Wallace and Andrew Dunbar.
Audience members waiting for the festival to begin. Photo by: Will Richards
Hundreds of students, faculty and local movie lovers got dressed up and came to support their local artists.
“I thought it was great! Really interesting. I mean I’ve been here for five years and this is the first one I’ve ever been to because a couple of my friends were directors for some of these pieces… Which is funny because I know how talented they are, but being able to see a student performance to this stature where they are fund raising and doing all of the design themselves all the scripts themselves and directing it themselves. It’s tremendous and it’s something that I don’t think any other university [does] or can say that they do. I think this festival is something we should keep around for the students so that they can get this opportunity to showcase their abilities,” said audience member Daniel Scott.
Controlled Chaos was more than just a night to enjoy what the next generation of filmmakers had to offer. Each of the tickets were $10 and most of the proceeds went to help fund next year’s creations and films. So everyone in the audience not only were entertained but also, in a small way, will be a part of next year’s festival as well.
