ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
March 2009 The Galleon
15
Film festival showcases students’ talent By JASON GROBSTEIN ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR The Palm Beach International Film Festival, (PBIFF), is a competition for high school and college students to garner scholarship money and distinction
Photo by Skylar Klager
Harding and Mizel prepare to film a movie.
in the film industry. For the past twelve years, PBIFF has featured the best and brightest of tomorrow’s Spielbergs. This year’s festival will be held from April 23-27. Along with many other participants, senior Kristen Harding, junior Jared Mizel and junior Adam Greenstein are promising directors with a passion for the art of filmmaking. Senior Kristen Harding first started her career as a filmmaker during her freshman year. Through her TV Production class, Harding became interested in film production and therefore created her first film. Harding’s ongoing fascination with film prompted her to attend a film program at the University of Southern California the summer entering her junior year. “Going to the University of Southern California solidified my career choice as a filmmaker,” Harding said. “It also made me appreciate how much work goes into the process of making a movie.” This year, Harding is entering a music video based on the song “Weightless” by Nada Surf. The film depicts inanimate objects coming to life when a human character leaves her bedroom. “Film festivals give me the opportunity to showcase my work on display,” Harding said. “Also, some of them have worthwhile prizes for filmmakers.” Harding has already been accepted into Tisch School of the Arts at New York University and hopes to gain admission to the film school at the University of Southern California. Junior Jared Mizel first became interested in filmmaking and screenwriting during the summer before sophomore year after taking TV Production. During last year’s PBIFF, Mizel entered his
piece in the screenwriting category and won first place. Mizel’s script involved espionage and was about a man who gets mistaken for someone else, putting him in many dramatic situations. “I like to look and see what dilemma the characters can encounter and how they would react to the situation,” Mizel said. Mizel gains his inspiration from old, classical movies. As a filmmaker, Mizel strives to maintain realism in his scripts and films. He hopes to enter into the film industry and be able to control all aspects of his films, including screenwriting and directing. “I see myself starting off writing and then moving on to the larger aspects of filmmaking such as directing and producing,” Mizel said. “I want my movies to change the way people view the cinema.” Junior Adam Greenstein has been filming since he was six and credits his growth as a filmmaker to TV production class. “TV Production taught me how to work in a group and cooperate with other filmmakers,” Greenstein said. “[The class] helped me find out about competitions and other opportunities.” For his first entry into PBIFF, Greenstein directed a commercial for Levi Jeans. The commercial illustrates both people walking in the jeans and the jeans walking without people. To produce the commercial, Greenstein used computer programming to edit the people’s bodies out of the jeans. “Directing this commercial made me realize how much work goes into producing a film,” Greenstein said. “I had to cast my own actors, create the scenery and add all other special effects.” This summer, Greenstein hopes to intern at a news station in order to learn more aspects of the film industry. Jason Grobstein can be contacted at Jasonggalleon@gmail.com
Websites foster instant communication By ALISON SIKES ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR The Internet has made instant gratification a way of life. We can talk to someone in the Eastern hemisphere through video. We can find 212,000 results on how to scramble an egg. We can even upload a viral video, become a celebrity and experience fame for 15 minutes. With sites such as Tumblr, Skype and Twitter making waves on the web, our lives are becoming more intstantly gratified.
Tumblr
Skype
When long-time best friends seniors Hailey In 2005, Estonian entrepreneurs Niklas Zennström It has over six million users and is the third largPerelman, Ileana Diez, Kristen Harding and Vic- and Janus Friis introduced Skype to the world. Skype est social-networking site, and yet, many are not toria Pajaujis discovered that they all shared the is a free, downloadable software that combines many aware of it. Twitter is a free social-messaging sersame dream of operating a blog, the foursome Internet tools into one. Users can instant message, vice that allows users to update their status, blog, created TEAMgirlz on the blogger-friendly site share files, video chat and even make telephone calls and upload pictures. Updates, or tweets, are sent Tumblr. from a user’s phone or computer and dis“It just made sense to have a collective played on his webpage for all of his friends blog,” Pajaujis said. “Hailey asked our to see. It seems that everyone- colleges, friend, who has a blog, for a cool blog site CNN, musicians and even President Barack that was easy to use and he directed us toObama- has a profile on twitter. ward Tumblr, the rest is history.” “It’s a convenient way to serve as a bulletin Tumblr is a free website that allows board for students in preparation for the bloggers to create tumbleblogs, a variatest,” economics teacher Brett Burkey said. tion of a blog that mixes short-form, “I’ve been using Twitter to keep up with my mixed-media posts with extended editostudents. It’s very simple to use. So far, it rial posts. Unlike a conventional blog, has been successful.” Tumblr does not require authors to proAside from letting friends and family vide commentary when they share their know what a user is currently doing, TwitPhoto courtesy of Hsiao Chang ter is being used as a tool for social justice. creations, discoveries or experiences. Pajaujis, Harding, Perelman and Diez blog on their Tumblr website TEAMgirlz. In May 2008, New Scientist found that “I think we all decided that the main focus of our blog was to not have any foTwitter does a better job of informing the over the Internet. Calls made through the program cus at all so our entries are pretty varied,” senior to other users are free, while calls made to landlines masses during emergencies, such as the Virginia Hailey Perelman said. “It keeps it interesting, and mobile phones are charged at a low price. Typi- Tech shootings, than media outlets and governeven for us because we all check the blog to see cally, the cost is the same as a fee for a local number, mental agencies do. For example, The American what the others have posted.” making a call to Delray Beach is the same price as one Red Cross uses Twitter to notify users about local All an aspiring Tumblr user needs to create a to Beijing. disasters and give directions on how to handle situtumbleblog is an opinion. “I use Skype everyday,” senior Marcy Morris said. ations. When US Airways Flight 1549 had to make “I am computer illiterate and so I had Kristen “It makes my life better because I know that calling a an emergency landing in the Hudson River, a passhow me how to set up the page,” Pajaujis said. friend is only a click away.” senger tweeted the first picture of the crashed plane “But for the most part Tumblr is super easy.” via TwitPic, a Twitter application. Alison Sikes can be contacted at Alisonsgalleon@gmail.com