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Clockwise from left: Director Daniel DeStefano '07 and guest, Sonya Cooke; the coveted Baldwins; Hello . . . Shovelhead's Tom Ganjamie '06. Photos by Lee Pellegrini
By Cara Feinberg
BOSTON COLLEGE'S FIRST-EVER BALDWIN FILM Awards, bestowed on the night of March 18, 2005, featured klieg lights, paparazzi, and a red carpet rolled out between the snow banks on the stone terrace before Corcoran Commons. There were golden statuettes (eagle-shaped), a pit band to introduce (and cut short) acceptance speeches, and, from celebrity award presenters (BC faculty, mostly, and staff), a steady stream of scripted jokes and spontaneous humor. "The evening was an excellent way to honor student filmmakers—and embarrass faculty," said Mike Civille, the assistant film professor who, as the master of ceremonies in a dark suit and power tie, obligingly delivered the most punch lines and shed the most dignity.
Sponsored by
@BC,
a multimedia Web production of
Boston College Magazine,
the awards, named for the University's mascot, marked the first occasion in the 20 years since BC began offering film classes that student filmmaking has been celebrated outside the confines of the fine arts and communication departments, where the craft is taught. In an interview Professor John Michalczyk, a documentary filmmaker who has taught literature, art, and film analysis at BC since 1974, explained why the time was right. "This generation of students," he said, "grew up starring in home videos, they made their own films in high school." Recalling when editing a movie was lengthy and painstaking labor ("If you made a mistake 20 minutes into the film," said Michalczyk, "you had to go back and physically recut the whole thing"), he said, "Now, with digital technology, they can cut, splice, and set their films to music right on their desktop computers, with programs like Final Cut Pro and Avid." As a result, more students are being drawn to filmmaking, and in a one-semester class, they are able to produce more films. "We've gotten to a point where there is a substantial amount of really good student work," said Michalczyk. "We knew we needed to create more outlets to showcase their films."
The University launched the film studies program within the fine arts department six years ago, offering the option of a major or minor in film history or production. The program now enrolls more than 100 students, and in the last few years, according to Civille, a film community has begun to coalesce on campus—though even today there are students and faculty who are unaware of the program. "If we're lucky," Civille says, "the Baldwins will change that."
OPEN TO all BC undergraduates, the first Baldwin awards not only celebrated BC's film students, they also coaxed out talent from elsewhere on campus. The year's Best Actor, Colin Donohoe '05, is a biology and German double major; John Rafferty '05, the director whose film,
Hot or Not: One Man's Story,
won the Baldwin for Best Comedy, majors in philosophy. Rafferty's seven-minute film traces a geeky college student's quest to be chosen for a date on a website where his attractiveness will be rated democratically. The movie stars Donohoe, who won the role, he said, by sitting in his room doing nothing: "[Rafferty] was going door-to-door, looking for actors, and no one else wanted to do it." Donohoe's amiable shrug of a performance was mostly ad-libbed. "I guess the film turned out pretty well," he said a few days after the awards ceremony, though he was careful to point out that the plot was not biographical.
More than 150 student films and videos were entered in the Baldwin competition, in 12 categories ranging from theatrical (horror, drama, documentary) to technical (cinematography, editing, sound). The judges, five in all, were fine arts, communication, and English faculty. As in Hollywood, the field yielded some blockbusters: 18 films accounted for the 36 total Baldwin nominations. The finalists were declared two weeks before the awards ceremony, and the films aired on BC Cable television. Students, faculty, and staff could view the movies online and vote (only once) for their favorite. More than 400 votes were cast for the Viewers' Choice Award, which was presented along with the Baldwins on awards night.
The awards ceremony took place on the second floor of Corcoran Commons. The room, which seats 300, filled quickly. Attire was advertised as "creative formal," but with the temperature hovering just above freezing, most outfits incorporated fleece or wool.
Clockwise from top left: Dining Services' William Pertla (left) and Raphael Cairo; MC Mike Civille; Sean Conaty '06 and Julia Rosetti '05; Lulu Wang '05 and Tony Hale '05. Photos by Lee Pellegrini
To one side of the stage was a table, upon which rested the golden eagle statuettes, heavy as paperweights. A booth at the rear of the room offered free popcorn and sodas. The sealed envelopes containing the judges' decisions arrived with fanfare after the audience was seated—in a plastic Stop & Shop bag handcuffed to a senior University administrator's wrist. As each nominee was announced, a corresponding film clip played on a large movie screen behind the podium. A drummer, keyboardist, and saxophone player combined for snippets of pop tunes as the winners made their way to the stage. The three had orders to launch into BC's anthem, "For Boston," 30 seconds into any acceptance speech. "Nobody really went over their time limit," keyboardist Patrick Cronin '07 complained afterwards, removing the Ray Charles sunglasses he'd worn during the show.
Cely Garcia, the petite barrista from the Starbucks in McElroy Commons, and Joshua Beekman '06, the towering right guard on BC's football team, announced the award for Best Comedy. To present the Best Documentary award, Michalczyk was paired with Baldwin, the BC mascot, who, due to a last-minute wardrobe malfunction (his eagle suit was locked in a gymnasium closet), could not attend the ceremony and was replaced by a desk lamp, the base of which was a wood carving of an eagle. Richard Blake, SJ, codirector of the film program, arrived in a tuxedo and presented the Best Drama award with the sequin-gowned Barbara Hazard Munro, dean of the Connell School of Nursing. "Now, I want to make clear that I didn't write the jokes," said Blake, who delivered such groaners as this one: "What's the difference between a film graduate and a nursing graduate?"
(Pause. Wait for Munro to ask, "What?")
"When nursing graduates finish their residencies, it's not because their parents kicked them out of the basement."
Director Harrison Wilcox '05
(Before the Styx,
Best Picture) with his mother, Suzanne Wilcox '73, M.Ed.'77. Photo by Lee Pellegrini
The comedy was courtesy of joke-writers Kevin Allocca '06 and Kevin Sawyer '06, both of whom are humor columnists for the
Heights
student newspaper. The two had been invited to come up with the world's best bad jokes. "The good thing was, we had plenty of those," observed Allocca, who said they wrote their material with accompanying snare rim shots and a hiss of cymbals in mind. "When we needed additional inspiration," he said, "we watched videos of the Oscars."
One of the duo's prize scripted moments was delivered by the Viewers' Choice presenters, Cheryl Presley, BC's vice president for student affairs, and identical twins Anthony and William Nunziata '06, well known on campus for singing on the WNBC talent show
Gimme the Mike,
and in performances with the Boston Pops, University Chorale, and BC theater productions.
Presley: I'm Cheryl Presley.
Anthony: I'm Anthony Nunziata.
William: Wait. I thought I was Anthony.
Anthony: I thought you were Will.
William: Really? I guess this means I've been opening your mail for you.
Presley: (INTERRUPTING) We've got a winner to announce here, gentlemen.
William: (TO ANTHONY) I'm actually relieved because, for the life of me, I could not remember subscribing to
Tiger Beat.
Anthony: My magazines arrived?
Allocca, a film studies major, was himself nominated for several Baldwins: twice for Best Actor in films produced by others; and in three categories for the drama
Timber Falls,
which he directed. He came up short in each case, but did not walk away empty-handed;
Skating on Thin Ice,
a film he codirected with communication major William Driscoll '05, and cowrote and costarred in with the cast of Hello . . . Shovelhead, BC's sketch-comedy troupe, took the Viewers' Choice Award. The 16-minute film was originally conceived as this year's season opener for the Hello . . . Shovelhead stage show. It manufactures the post-Olympic experiences of real-life champion speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno (played by Sean Kane '07, with a triangular soul patch painted onto his chin). The Shovelhead cast crowded onto the stage to receive the award. "I'd like to say that I
did
expect this," said straight-faced cast member Griffin Bach '07 (who, with a broad British accent, portrayed the unctuous curator of the National Speed-Skating Museum in the film). Dressed in a white Shovelhead T-shirt, grey sports jacket, and red clip-on bow tie, Bach held a Baldwin high above his head, and the crowd rose to its feet.
Clockwise from top left: Presenters VP Cheryl Presley, Anthony (center) and Will Nunziata '06; Cely Garcia and Joshua Beekman '06; the winning cast of Hello . . . Shovelhead; Director Gavin McGrath '05 and Editor Megan Gargagliano '05. Photos by Lee Pellegrini
TO DELIVER the evening's final award, Mike Civille welcomed Michele Meek '94 onto the stage. Meek is cofounder of BuyIndies.com (which sells independent films) and NewEnglandFilm.com (a resource for local filmmakers), and she has worked as a screenwriter, director, producer, and script reader. Dressed in a diaphanous dark floral dress, she looked no older than most of the students, and the audience laughed nervously as she recounted her experiences in the film business with rejection, the threat of poverty, and uncertainty. But the tension eased as she continued: "You will also feel the late-night buzz of doing what you love. It is always worth it."
Meek encouraged aspiring filmmakers to create their own opportunities, to hold down day jobs for support, to make the most of their network of friends. "One of my BC writing teachers passed on some simple wisdom: Those of you who are still writing in 10 years will be successful at it," she said. "Don't be deterred."
The audience cheered when Meek finished speaking, and continued to clap until she held up the sealed envelope in her hand. "And the Baldwin goes to . . . drumroll, please?" she said, looking at the band.
". . .
Before the Styx!"
Harrison Wilcox '05, a film and history major, jumped up out of his seat, and shrieks rang from the immediate crowd around him.
The film studies program's codirectors, John Michalczyk and Richard Blake, SJ, with Barbara Hazard Munro, dean of the Connell School. Photo by Lee Pellegrini
THE EVENING'S two biggest winners, with three awards apiece, were
Before the Styx,
by Wilcox, and
Homesick,
by Gavin McGrath '05, a political science major.
Before the Styx,
which in addition to Best Picture received Baldwins for Drama and Screenwriting, tracks the eerie experiences of a dead man who doesn't know that he has died. The 14-minute film was shot with some "creative technology," said Wilcox. Instead of renting a jib arm or small crane to get his aerial shots, Wilcox affixed a camera to a wooden flagstaff, and then duct-taped it to his belt, steadying it through a belt loop. For tracking shots, the crew created a dolly from an old shopping cart, using hedge clippers and a blowtorch.
McGrath went with more traditional equipment to make
Homesick,
a wordless short about a lonesome city dweller missing her rural childhood home. "Our cinematographer, Elaine Mak ['05], had a small crane we used for our aerial shots," said McGrath, who filmed most of the six-minute movie in Newbury, Massachusetts. "We had such phenomenal landscape to work with, we were lucky to have her help."
Both McGrath and Wilcox intend to pursue their interest in film after college. "I'd like film to be an arrow in my quiver," said McGrath, who plans to one day use his skill for marketing his own business. Wilcox is more interested in turning out feature films and plans to move to Los Angeles a few days after graduation. "I hope to go to film school eventually," he said, "but ideally, I'd like to get some experience working in the industry first."
McGrath and Wilcox display their Baldwins prominently in their apartments; Wilcox's are on the mantle, McGrath's are on his desk. "I've tried to take good care of them," says McGrath, but one has already lost a beak in a freak accident. His three eagles now wear plastic motorcycle helmets, lifted from toy action figures. "They've got to stay protected," he says. After all, they are his first motion-picture awards.
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