Short
films to display storytelling
By Christine G. Adamo
On-line Forty-Niner
 Whittling
120 minutes of film down to nine is a feat.
Just ask Tammy Eastepp and Garrett Grundman,
film and electronics arts majors at Cal
State Long Beach.
Eastepp’s
film, “Me Amore,” and Grundman’s, “A Question
of Honor,” will be among a near dozen previewed
at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center
Saturday night as part of this semester’s
“Student Film-makers’ Showcase.”
“My
goal was to tell the story [of a migrant
worker’s struggles] without including too
much extra, in order to keep the attention
of the viewer and to progress the story
along,” Eastepp said.
“Me
Amore” was shot in five days over two weekends
at 16 locations in and around the port city
of Wilmington. The area’s industrial feel
was heightened by Eastepp’s collaboration
with Director of Photography Danny Chapnick,
who suggested to adapt the scenes’ color
temperatures to match their moods.
Other
submissions include Grundman’s psychological
civil war drama, also cut from 120 minutes
to just over nine, and Doug Hovey’s “Sweet
Dreams.”
“Sweet
Dreams” clocks in at just under the department-established
12-minute guideline, and is based on the
real-life experience of Hovey’s uncle.
“This
is a story of unfortunate circumstance,”
Hovey said of his heavily-improvised short
film. “The script and locations were hesitant;
the actors had the freedom to rewrite and
ad lib which made the film more important
[to them] and [led to] a more natural performance.”
Pam
Bassuk, a part-time lecturer at CSULB, helped
select and oversee the development of the
projects. Bassuck said she was pleased with
the level of cooperation that existed between
the filmmakers and their crews.
“There
are very few programs that pull undergraduates
together like this,” Bassuk said of the
collaboration. “It was unbelievable the
amount of support [the students] gave one
another…this was an incredibly dedicated
group of students; very professional.”
“One
thing that makes our school different from
UCLA and USC,” she continued, “is that nothing
is handed to [our students]. That forces
them to focus more on storytelling; it makes
them hustle.”
Ezequiel
Casares, whose romantic comedy “Momentum”
runs five and a half minutes long, said
the reward in all this will be having his
film screened at such a large venue in front
of a “real” audience. He looks forward to
the entire experience.
“Momentum
is embedded in so many peoples’ expressions,”
Casares said. “It compresses the idea of
how things happen to people — in a sophisticated
way.”
The
momentum is certainly building for these
budding filmmakers. Bassuk said she believes
the twice-yearly showcase gives film and
electronic arts students at CSULB a decided
advantage over the competition.
“Our
students leave with a short film in their
pocket,” she said.
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