The film is a tad eerie because it begins in a noir way – black and white, with no sound. A high school girl sits at a desk in a classroom and writes a note to the guy sitting in front of her. His response?
Leave me alone.
And that propels forward the Lyons Township High School production of “Color Blind,” a roughly five-minute-long film entered into the Student Silent Film Festival, which will take place at 6:45 p.m. Wednesday at the Tivoli Theatre, 5021 Highland Ave. Downers Grove.
The festival is a competition in which students from Lyons and 10 other area high schools create original motion pictures. But unlike other competitions, each production tells a story in visual terms without the benefit of voices or sound effects.
LT senior Eva Eggerding, from Brookfield, plays the role of the high school girl.
The challenges of creating a silent film for the students were many.
“One of the challenges that we faced, when you talk to somebody, you can kind of have a little more emotion, or you act a certain way, or you can enunciate things to bring emotion,” she said. “But with no talking, you have to do it all through your face. You have to do everything visually, instead of listening to it, so that was a challenge.”
There was another practical, and humorous, challenge to making “Color Blind.”
“When you’re doing a silent film, nobody really calls out, ‘Quiet on set,’” Eggerding said. “You’d have people talking or you’d have somebody say something and laugh and have to do it again.”
Bill Allan is the founder and supervisor of television services at Lyons Township, better known as LTTV. He and two other high school media teachers created the inaugural Student Silent Film Festival in 2017.
He sees the challenge of creating a top-notch silent film through a different lens. He earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts in Photo, Film and Electronic Media from the University of Illinois-Chicago, before embarking on a career in the commercial film industry.
In other words, he’s been there, done that.
“Their generation is used to having all the access to sound, to voiceovers, to dialog, to sound effects, to soundtrack and sound music,” Allan said. “To deprive them of the ability to use sound is actually a good thing. It’s a limitation that encourages them to think more creatively, because they then have to express their story ideas just visually.
“So it really brings in a more photographic component, because they have to think, ‘How are we showing that part of the story?’ We can’t cheat.”
As the film progresses, it transitions from black and white to color as the girl realizes she has another male suitor. To tell more would be to give the story away, but the conclusion is both powerful and humorous.
But to say there will be no sound at all is a bit of a misnomer. All festival’s submitted movies will feature a live music accompaniment by Derek Berg, a professional pianist and CEO of the Clarendon Hills Music Academy. The music will be performed on a uniquely designed keyboard rig that employs virtual instruments sampled from classic synthesizers over the period 1950-80.
“The night of the festival is the first time that anyone hears the original compositions,” Allan said. “He’s almost creating a soundscape. He is literally sitting there with a monitor so when key parts come in, he’s cueing certain sound elements and music elements to the scene the students shot.”
The students, all seniors – Eggerding and Fendrick Marcus from Brookfield, Claudio Rodriquez from Countryside (who plays the romantic interest in the color portion of the film), Robert Bucko from Western Springs, and Sean Dunne, Ethan Meuer and Gabriel Paszyna from La Grange – had but 11 days to complete the film and submit it. That included writing the script, filming and editing. Talk about pressure.
But it’s a good pressure, because of how it will set up these students post-high school.
“LTTV in general, all the equipment and the teachers we have here, the knowledge is some of the best in the country,” said Meuer, who is undecided on college right now. “Having that alone is great.”
Marcus is planning on going straight into the film industry after LT.
“The technology that we use and the way that Mr. Allan teaches us, is that this is a Step One,” she said. “It’s a great Step One. We’re getting a lot of access to amazing equipment, and he’s open to almost any project.”
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