Chris Smith has made a name for himself at UCLA. Literally. It’s “The Juggler.”
Whether you’ve seen him juggling at a sporting event, participating in Spring Sing, or if you’re one of his 1,273 Facebook friends at UCLA, Smith, a fourth-year theater student, is widely known as an entertainer with a lot of balls in the air. Energetic in person and animated on stage, he seems to be an inexhaustible source of enthusiasm and creativity. However, even the ever-exuberant Juggler casts a shadow.
Smith’s troubled past is the source material for his first feature film, “Shadow in the Trees,” which he began three years ago after the death of his father. The movie will premiere at Ackerman Grand Ballroom this Sunday.
“It’s nerve-racking to show people this dark, emotional side of me. I”˜ve always been the class clown,” Smith said.
Smith’s father gave his life to save a boy from drowning in January 2004 and the impact of the loss has been with Smith for the past three years.
“We lost the core of our family and the house and my family ““ it all felt empty,” Smith said. “He was taken from me so quickly and I wanted so much for a kind of sign or connection or way to see my dad again. It was a really dark place to be.”
With no comfort from his surroundings, Chris dealt with his grief in a way that only an entertainer would: he gave it an audience. The journals he kept since his father’s death coalesced into an idea for a movie. Smith used the project as an outlet for his frustration and loss.
“We started shooting in July of 2004 and every day for six months we worked on storyboard, location scouting, script drafting, casting and getting funds from the community,” Smith said.
“Shadow in the Trees” quickly became more than a creative outlet for painful emotions.
“I wanted to show that I was OK, that my family was OK and, most of all, that it was OK what had happened to my dad. The movie was instrumental in helping me move on,” he said.
As Smith worked toward its initial premier as a charity event in South Lake Tahoe in September 2005, the importance of completing the movie became apparent.
“I think he made the movie because he had to,” said Mark Iverson, a UCLA film student, friend and fellow 2007 Spring Sing Company member. “There are certain filmmakers who just have a story that they can’t help but tell. He just needed to do it for his father, for himself and for what was happening to his family.”
The ebullient, enterprising Juggler you see at sporting events is proof of the cathartic power of art. During the process of making the film, Smith managed to recoup both a sense of personal normalcy and invaluable film-making experience.
“”˜Shadow in the Trees’ single-handedly taught me that I can be a filmmaker and that I can do this. This movie is almost like a thesis and I just went to three years of film school for 60 grand (the total cost of the movie).”
His movie “Shadow in the Trees” is in its final form for submission to film festivals. Thanks to Smith’s collaboration with UCLA Henry Mancini Institute alumnus Jeff Toyne, who has orchestrated for movies such as “Charlie’s Angels 2: Full Throttle” and “Hannibal Rising,” the supernatural thriller is sure to raise hairs.
“One of the things music can do for an indie film is go a long way toward creating the illusion of expensive production value and that can really help draw the audience into the story,” Toyne said.
However, “Shadow in the Trees” does more than sound professional.
“The thing that’s so great about “Shadow in the Trees” is that it has the duality of both an emotional film and a thriller. Chris’s movie really hits you and makes you jump out of your seat and at the same time there’s also a lot of emotion created out of the passing of his father,” said Iverson, who attended a private screening earlier this week.
Many have already seen Smith’s work ““ the same camera that shot the footage for “Shadow in the Trees” was used to shoot the Company videos for Spring Sing 2007. Smith hopes to create an occasion for people to come together and remember the inspirational story of his father.
“I hope that this Sunday, when I show the product of these three years of work to thousands of people, I’ll feel a big weight off my shoulders,” Smith said. “If it weren’t for my dad, I wouldn’t be at UCLA. … I wouldn’t be acting or pursuing this path. I’m just learning every day how someone can still affect you after they’re gone.”