Filmmakers draw from life for movies

OREM — The winning short films at the 2007 LDS Film Festival were created from real life and actual history.

In Brandon Arnold's film a child's drawing of a turkey — with a bass clarinet for a beak — received a failing grade. The turkey picture comes to life and other animated characters follow. The film blends cartoons with live action.

"(It illustrates) the importance of doing things out of the ordinary," Arnold said. "It shows that supposed weaknesses can become strengths."

Arnold, who lives in Provo and teaches in Salt Lake City at a media-focused charter school, based his whimsical film "Toward a Theory of the Evolution of the Turkey" on the children's story, "Jacob's Chicken" by Milos Macourek.

He wrote the script, directed it and composed original music for the story. He selected actors and crew from friends and family.

Cherie Julander of Orem used a "what if" question as the basis for her short film, "Lightning Bugs." She won first place in the seven-page film competition.

The story asks, "What if an ill boy could see lightning bugs before he died?" Using that premise, she brainstormed with her mother and wrote a beginning of a feature film that tells the story of finding lightning bugs and two brothers' journey to see them. The tender 10-minute film was originally set in Nevada but changed to Ogden.

"A lot of people came up to me (at the festival) to find out what happens next," she said.

Her intent is to produce a film of the brothers' adventures. She turned her seven pages over to Wishplay Productions, then stepped aside and watched the process.

Watching filmmakers work was a learning experience for her, said the former Ricks College theater major. The Idaho school doesn't have a film department, so Julander has taken screenwriting ad playwriting classes where she could.

"Writers and editors have the most influence in filmmaking," she said. "They have the first word and the last word."

Jeff Blake won first place in the 24-hour filmmaking marathon with "It's Not the Ring."

After talking it out at a local restaurant, he and a few friends came up with a simple tale of a young man, played by Christian Busath, who has poor self-confidence. He finds a ring and his confidence blossoms. In the end he gets the girl and finds that she has a similar ring. Then they realize it's not the ring and throw them away.

The theme of the marathon was transformation, but it also had to have a statement, "look at my —" and had to have a reflective object or mirror in the film. The ring fulfilled the phrase requirement. For the reflective object Blake used a spoon showing the reflection of the protagonist.