A man made of Legos is fishing. The filmmaker takes a picture. He changes the Lego man’s position just slightly. He takes another picture.
Stop-motion animation, which is used in movies such as “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” may seem tedious and intimidating, but for Zach Macias, a second-year Design | Media Arts student, it’s a hobby he’s been practicing for the past few years.
He submitted his short, titled “Stranger Than Fishin’,” to Campus Events Commission’s first Shorts on the Hill film competition. In honor of the 17th annual Shorttakes competition coming up in May, CEC partnered with the Office of Residential Life to experiment with an event that would bring in more participation from Hill residents.
The three-minute short, a play on the phrase “stranger than fiction,” tells the story of a man and his adventures on a fishing trip. Macias said the process of making the film involved taking a series of still photographs in different positions and then playing them back at a particular speed. The final product gives audiences the illusion of movement.
For “Stranger than Fishin’,” Macias decided to use Legos because of their accessibility and the high cost of clay.
“I had some as a kid just lying around the house. I think (they’re) easier to work with ““ easier to build and take apart,” Macias said.
Macias also said that, even though he doesn’t have high expectations, he is definitely more confident with this short than the film he submitted to Shorttakes last year, which did not make the cut.
“(“˜Stranger Than Fishin”) has more to it, a fuller story. I think there’s more appeal to it. I’m really happy with the way it came out. I guess we’ll just have to see what happens,” Macias said.
Rather than having Macias compete on a national scale against film students from other schools, Shorts on the Hill will pit his film against those of other residents, such as third-year English student James Ryan.
Ryan decided to take a more dramatic approach with his short, “V Decides to Die,” a re-enactment of the 2009 drama “Veronika Decides to Die.”
In his short, Ryan is the only actor and acts out every scene.
There is sound and music but no spoken dialogue. Ryan originally made videos with his webcam, but he said his upgrade to a high-definition camera gave him more versatility.
Reza Hessabi, a third-year neuroscience student and CEC film staff member, said Shorts on the Hill was created to include Hill residents in the Shorttakes competition and to level out the playing field.
“Shorts on the Hill gives residents a place to express their ideas on film on a level that is not too strenuous. You’re not going against another Spielberg … you’re going against the guy who lives across from you. You can think of anything you want without any pressure. It’s more egalitarian,” Hessabi said.
Submissions for Shorts on the Hill follow almost the same guidelines as shorts submitted to the Shorttakes film festival: Each short must be no longer than 10 minutes and can be any genre, from comedy to animation to drama. The deadline to submit a short is Thursday.
There is, however, a difference in the prizes. CEC has two set up: one for “audience favorite” and another for “best moment.” Besides winning a Flip video camera, the winner of “audience favorite” will have their clip debuted at the Shorttakes film festival.
“We’ve been encouraging residents to pick up any sort of item, camera or webcam or even their phone and shoot maybe a one- or two-minute video. Every single person on the Hill has some outlook or perspective, and I think residents should see how their peers view a certain subject,” said Anantha Singarajah, a second-year psychobiology student and CEC film staff member.