Stop-motion gave way to claymation, which gave way to suspense, which turned into melodrama before it all climaxed in a hard-boiled film noir.
That was the scene at the Union Theatre Saturday night, as three student filmmakers at the U publicly unveiled a series of short films.
U senior Leah Waldner and juniors Danny Letz and Sam Potter held a public screening of 10 short films Saturday, as dozens of locals packed the theater to see the culmination of months of time and effort.
“The more films we get, the more of these we’re going to do?I really like involving different filmmakers,” said Potter, who showed four of his films at the event. “I don’t want to do a film festival, I’d rather just do showings because it’s less time-consuming.”
Experimenting with a variety of different styles, genres and filmmaking tactics, the three put together a 70-minute program of their combined work.
Waldner, whose focus is in animation, kicked off the screening with four films. Among her efforts was “Stanley,” which featured a man telling his psychiatrist of a strange dream he’s been having about wearing a sparkly red dress and a blonde wig and having very large breasts while belting out the legendary song “Where the Boys Are” on an otherwise empty stage.
Strange? In the post-screening Q&A session conducted by the three, Waldner said she doesn’t always know how she comes up with her ideas, but that her chosen emphasis — animation — offers her plenty of artistic freedom.
“For me, it’s easier than (for Danny and Sam) because I’m an animator and I don’t have to focus on reality. Whatever comes to my imagination, I can basically create it,” she said.
Waldner, who graduates from the U this spring, has been making short films for about eight years, dating back to her high school days. She said she has done live-action work in the past — primarily in documentary form — but that for the past few years she has chosen to focus on animation, not only allowing her the freedom to put practically any thinkable idea on screen, but also to cut her costs down.
“My budget usually consists of $10 in paper and glue and using my boyfriend for his voice,” Waldner said. “(My films) are usually all done in under one week total production.”
That is not the case for Potter and Letz, who collaborate on many projects, a number of which require more lengthy pre- and post-production times — and a fair amount of money in equipment rentals.
“I’m pretty much broke right now,” Potter said.
“We usually get away with it because we don’t pay any of our crew or our actors,” Letz said. “The only thing we can really offer is food for while they’re there and then a coffee?and sometimes gas.”
Potter screened three dramatic narratives and one documentary, “Dan Weldon: Living the Blues Dream,” about a blues singer/guitarist from Ogden. Weldon also starred in Potter’s “A Moment of Clarity,” a surreal human drama about a teenage kid running away from home.
Potter considers “Clarity” one of his most ambitious projects, and he’s currently working on submitting it to film festivals.
Letz, who frequently shows up as Potter’s director of photography and supporting actor, and the two young filmmakers have even used some of the same actors, including Malcom Clarke, who starred in Potter’s “Lillies” and Letz’s “The Flirtatious Type,” the first entry in Letz’s envisioned four-part noir thriller.
“The Flirtatious Type” was the final film of Saturday’s program and Letz’s second offering, after “A Lover’s Discourse,” a somewhat satirical slice-of-life dialogue between two 20-something lovers.
Letz and Potter — both of whom have been student filmmakers for about a year and a half — originally got together not through the U’s film department, but through a work relationship. They both worked at Applebee’s and got to talking about movies. Their respective work shown on Saturday night was the result of several months of collaboration between them.
“You talk to everybody, and they say ‘Oh yeah, I want to make movies,’ but then nobody ever does,” Letz said.
“We wanted to be the ones who actually did something,” Potter said.
The three filmmakers plan on continuing to screen their films locally. One possibility they are exploring is a venue at Weber State University, and they are going to attempt to screen at the Tower Theatre as well.