Noah Landry, the director of Zero O’Clock, was amused by the outcome of his crew work, as well as the films produced by his other classmates in the short film screening event hosted on April 22 at Humber’s Lakeshore campus.
Landry said the event, where more than 225 people attended, was phenomenal and that the experience was amazing.
“Everyone did such a great, great job. And honestly, I think we were able to make some of the best films that this program's ever seen, and I'm honoured to be part of that lot, you know, Zero O'Clock means so much to me, this is my sort of directorial debut," he said. "And I just, it turned out so, so amazing. Everyone did such an amazing job.”
Landry said the kids starring in the film did an outstanding job.
Max Keys, one of the child actors starring Zero O’Clock who played Weston, said his favourite thing about making the movie and being part of it was that he had fun as he got to hang out with his new best friend and co-star, Mason Lam.
“It was about friendship and (cherishing) the moments that you have, and don't take your friends for granted,” Keys said.
Lam, who played Jamie in the movie as Weston’s best friend, said his favourite scene was the pillow fort scene, as he was comfortable in it.
“I loved bonding with Max/Weston, and it was nice to get deeper into the story about, like, why Jamie is sad because of his parents? But he's able to be happier because of Weston,” he said.
Landry said the challenging part of making the film was the post-production, as it was the most stressful part of the entire production.
“It's fine-tuning everything, it's taking everything from the production and just making sure it all fits,” he said.
“If anyone out there is looking into getting into just film making in general, post-production, (is) daunting, it's so, so stressful, but it is so worth it to just push through and make something amazing,” Landry said.
Jayde Sobota was the producer of The Women’s Room, a movie that brought awareness to social issues that most women have been through.
“It's basically about a series of really unfortunate events that tend to happen a lot to specifically women in clubs," she said. "So a woman has a very bad interaction with a man, and she ends up hiding in the women's room and finds a safe space there, and a lot of other women to lift her up.
“It's not really a story that has an ending, because this is a situation that, at the moment, in the world we're living in, does not have an ending, unfortunately," Sobota said. "And so, it's not really a film to watch to find a conclusion or to feel better about it.
"It's more to take the situation into our own hands and decide how we're going to move forward with it and handle it. Which I think makes it really special,” she said.
Sobota said every step of the way when making the movie was a challenge, but choosing the topic was a big one, as their story revolved around sexual assault.
“Humber has done stories like that, but I don't think enough to provide proper insight on how to handle certain events on set. And just (the) cast well-being, crew's well-being in general, so that was a really tough obstacle," Sobota said. "But I just did my best at keeping people fueled, water, snacks, making sure that the energy was up there and positive.”
Heidi Nickel, who played Charlie in The Women’s Room, said that everyone was very professional in handling their roles and communicating throughout the project.
“It's always good to have a very uplifting and supportive team. Especially when dealing with a topic such as this,” Nickel said.
She said the TV screening was fun, and that she enjoyed watching all the films with different genres and aspects from each production.
“It honestly just shows the diversity and the variety of all the different mediums that students wanted to explore, and I'm honestly super proud of everybody for doing really, really challenging films,” Nickel said.
“It just kind of felt like everybody pushed in, and really went out there, and wasn't afraid to hold back, which was great, and it obviously showed in the end product too,” she said.
Carter Lind, the director of Places in 5!, a film written by his classmate, Meagan King, said the film is about a group of high school drama students putting on a performance, where the main character, Layla, has stage fright, so she stays backstage organizing everything.
“Five minutes before their performance on opening night, she finds out that her lead actress isn't going to be showing up, and the understudy is sick,” Lind said.
With the help of her friends encouraging her, as she knows all the lines and blocking, they help her overcome her fear and take on the lead role, so the play can go on, he said.
Lind said it was challenging to find a filming location, as students had to be on location and in the studio for this semester’s project, which was different from previous years, and they didn’t have much reference.
“So trying to find a theatre that was available, trying to find one that could fit within our budget, and one that would fit creatively with our vision and what our art team was doing in the studio was quite a challenge, but I think by the end of it, we were all very happy with what we were able to produce,” he said.
“I think for our film and for all of the films this year, there were a lot of challenges that nobody would see that went on behind the scenes. So much teamwork to overcome different obstacles,” Lind said.
He wanted to congratulate everybody for their films and their hard work, as the event was well put together.
“I hope that people who are here at the screening or who might watch them afterwards can truly appreciate all the work that all the students have put in this year,” Lind said.
Justin Egan-Costello, director of Paid in Pieces, said the TV screening was amazing, and whether one worked on two or three of the films, it was incredible to see the final product.
“There were a few comedies, but ours was one of the more serious ones. Very dramatic,” he said.
“A man wants to sell his traumatic memories to try to be a better husband for his wife, and it kind of backfires, and he turns into his father. He turns into exactly what he didn't want to be, and he exhibits the abuse that he tried to rid his mind of. It just comes out naturally in him, and he takes it out on his wife,” Egan-Costello said.
He said the hardest challenge when making the film was to learn to be more serious when directing the film.
“I am such a happy, positive, joking-around guy, and having to take that hat off to be on set with such a serious subject matter was probably the hardest thing I had to learn how to do,” he said.
“I am incredibly proud of every single one of my peers, and whether people are friends or whether they get along or not, everybody's still united and created incredible works of art,” Egan-Costello said.
Phinehas Iaboni is the director of Space Baby, a fun '80s throwback film about two university guys who find an alien baby and decide to raise it themselves. The script was written by Audrey Johnston, one of his classmates in the program.
He said the most challenging part of making Space Baby was to fit everything that they wanted, as there were many fun ideas and jokes, so trying to jam-pack in as much as they possibly could was quite difficult.
“This was an amazing experience, and it's so incredible getting to work with such a talented crew that everyone was just putting in their absolute all, and I feel like it really shows because we made something amazing,” Iaboni said.
Joseph Liu, director of Please Hold, a cinematic comedy film that made the crowd laugh throughout the entire movie, said the most challenging part when making the movie was to get a prop gun, as the movie was about a bank robbery, but their producer made a great job and got it.
Liu said they shot their bank scene at Humber’s LRC sixth floor, but the crew did such a good job that the place wasn’t even recognizable.
"I'm so happy with what we've done, and I think it's a good movie for people to watch," Liu said as they hope to showcase it to a bigger audience, so they could enjoy it as well.
