University of Torontos Film Festival 2009 turned out to be a successful and educational experience for not only potential film students but those merely interested in film production and movies themselves. The Thursday screenings introduced the audience to a whole new level of film construction and the process of creating a masterpiece. Alongside the Open Call Shorts 2 — a group of short films — was focus on film editing and how movies become what they are on the big screen.
The short stories presented in the first part of the screening ranged from the portrayal of foreign culture to students lifestyle, relationships and love. The topics that the films embodied were current to young adults and allowed for parallelisms to ones everyday life.
A short film that resonated with intrigue and creativity, Shikashika was an enjoyment to watch as it drowned the audience in a very beautiful Peruvian setting. The movements of the camera and extended close-ups captured the realism and feelings through the actors facial expressions.
On the other hand, the short film titled Boyfriend Latte, though initially creative, had a highly unrealistic plot along with severe bouts of overacting. The background music was fitted to each of the short films to better express feelings of sadness, drunkenness, love or mere happiness and laughter. The setting and scene development in each of the short films were chosen carefully and allowed the theme to reverberate between the audience and the screen.
The second part of the Thursday night screening was an exceptional documentary by Alex Shuper on film editing titled Edgecodes: The Art of Motion Picture Editing. A former U of T film student, Alex Shuper came back to where it all started to present his work.
Shupers documentary examines the magic of film editing and the process of bringing a particular idea on the big screen. To do so, he brought together popular editors who shared with the audience their knowledge, opinions and ideas on film editing. Every point or idea that each editor discussed was accompanied by an example of its use.
Shuper takes successful movies to portray the points and ideas discussed by the editors, providing the audience a visual paradigm. Shuper takes the audience back to the early stages of editing straight through to how it has shaped filmmaking today.
Taken as a whole, the University of Toronto Film Festival is a great way to introduce future film makers, actors, and prominent ideas that could all potentially become Hollywood material.
