Anne Hathaway (excited and enthusiastic): And the Oscar goes to….(drumroll)…Ashley Barlev for her performance in Seasonal Love.
Ashley Barlev: AAAHHHHH!
Ok, so maybe I’ve just dreamed the impossible since I was only an extra in the film; however, I could be nominated for my role as the costume designer. Since our movie will premiere on December 20, 2010, it is perfectly feasible for us to win an oscar in the academy awards ceremony held on February 27, 2011. Maybe the award will go to Olivia and Jeff for their performance, maybe to me for my work as the production designer, or maybe our movie will earn the title of best short film. More important, however, I think all of our classmates in Honors 125 will find the movie to be entertaining and enjoyable.
When I first read the assignment description posted on the eportfolios website, I immediately realized that this project would be different from any other assignment or exam I’ve ever had to complete. I would be encouraged to use a different part of my brain, in order to expose my creative side. In my opinion, I was successful in completing the task at hand, despite the challenges originally present.
From the very first day of the project, when we were choosing our groups in class, the six people of group A became inseparable. After reading the script, we immediately settled on the idea of Seasonal Love, with each season in the movie emphasizing a different, but imperative part of a love story. We planned out the story, and assigned each person in the group to a different season to create the pieces of the storyboard, as well as one person to the prologue and one to the epilogue. Although it is difficult to capture movement in still paintings and collages, our storyboard nevertheless conveyed beautifully the main ideas of each scene. Two thumbs up!
Next, it was time to begin filming. The first season we filmed was spring. Our aim was to show the youthful, naïve love experienced by teenagers. The costumes that seemed most appropriate were jeans and a t-shirt for the boy, and a schoolgirl uniform for the girl. Unfortunately, we filmed this scene in November, on a particularly cold day, and Jeff and Olivia were freezing. Still, there was no way around it – why would people wear winter jackets in the spring? We wanted to overemphasize the season in each scene, and it would not have been appropriate for the actors to wear heavier clothes. Choosing costumes for each season was the most difficult aspect in my opinion, since we didn’t have an unlimited budget to work with, and, as a result, we relied mostly on the clothes that people had in their wardrobes.
Due to slight technicalities in our script, leading to the need for small revisions of summer and fall, the next season we filmed was winter. Lucky for me, Professor Healey is involved with the costumes of the drama department, so I was able to acquire a gray hair wig from the costume room. In this scene we had to show Jeff dying on a couch and Olivia washing dishes (performing lonely tasks), so we filmed the scene in a dorm room in the Summit. Jeff and Olivia were thrilled to find that The Summit is well heated!
Over the course of the next week or two, we filmed the summer and fall scenes as well. I had my debut in the summer scene and experienced my three minutes of fame, which was definitely my favorite part of the project. Overall, I found the filmmaking to be an exciting adventure. I have acted in seven shows; however, never in a movie, and I certainly have never been in charge of costume and set design. I typically find myself to be more of a science person, but in the end, it was worthwhile to have a project completely different from my chemistry and other finals, even if it was difficult to plan meeting times with all members of our group. Although I still don’t see myself having a career in filmmaking, or any aspect of it, this project was a different kind of experience that I am sure I will remember in years to come.
(Applause)
