{"id":35780,"date":"2023-02-28T13:00:07","date_gmt":"2023-02-28T17:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/?post_type=bu-article&p=35780"},"modified":"2024-01-10T15:22:33","modified_gmt":"2024-01-10T20:22:33","slug":"lights-camera-clown-shoes","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/articles\/lights-camera-clown-shoes\/","title":{"rendered":"Lights, Camera, Clown Shoes!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Zac Vujnov had a great idea <\/strong>for his final film project at COM: a buddy treasure hunt starring a college student and an elderly man. The script got Vujnov (\u201921) accepted into Production III, an undergraduate honors thesis class where he and a team of classmates would produce the film. Then BU began announcing COVID protocols.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All actors would have to come from within the University community? Scratch the elderly lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately, Vujnov had another idea: a faux documentary chronicling a young bowler\u2019s chase of his father\u2019s records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No go: actors would need to be masked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A psychological comedy-thriller about a woman stuck in a bee suit?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nope. Sets would be restricted to groups of 10 or fewer people, with no more than two actors performing\u2014and the pivotal scene involved a large crowd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Roses<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBefore COVID, everyone had all of these crazy, beautiful ideas,\u201d Vujnov says. But public health restrictions threatened those artistic visions. \u201cI wasn\u2019t going to put everyone in surgical masks. I hated the look of that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He had to think of something soon\u2014he was running out of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Student filmmakers have always grappled with low budgets, crowded academic calendars and inexperience. The pandemic made the process nearly impossible. Still, Vujnov wanted to write a script that wouldn\u2019t require compromise. He settled on an idea: a rom-com starring two (almost) silent clowns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roses & Red Noses tells the story of Colin and Carol, who perform for tips in Boston\u2019s Public Garden. The film is goofy, touching and a little mysterious. There\u2019s even a chase scene. And thanks to the filmmakers\u2019 deft storytelling and ability to surmount whatever challenges the pandemic threw at them, the film cleaned up at the 2022 Redstone Film Festival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019d be surprised how difficult it was to find a female clown mask that wasn\u2019t incredibly creepy.<\/p>\u2014Nicole Barradas<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

MASKING UP<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Production III is typically offered in the fall. Student filmmakers have the semester to produce a rough cut for class credit, but final editing and sound mixing can spill into the spring. Because of the pandemic, though, the department postponed its 2020 section to spring 2021, which left no margin for error. The script for Roses & Red Noses was approved just before the start of the semester by Paul Schneider<\/a>, chair of the film and television department and instructor for Production III. Vujnov and his crew had less than four months to cast, rehearse, shoot and edit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Zac
Zac Vujnov – the 2022 Redstone Film Festival winner\n<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Producer Nicole Barradas (\u201921) immediately dissected the script, breaking scenes, equipment and props into a series of spreadsheets to estimate costs and draft schedules. Schneider holds weekly production meetings for each project. One of his most valuable roles, he says, is helping students understand what\u2019s feasible given their resources. \u201cThere are so many logistical challenges,\u201d he says. \u201cFilmmaking is a little bit like fighting a war: if you don\u2019t have any gasoline for the tanks, it doesn\u2019t matter how good the tank is\u2014it won\u2019t run.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One way he\u2019s able to help is with Student Film Fund grants. Each Production III project receives money from the fund, a pool of gifts from dozens of donors, which provides student filmmakers with a level of stability. \u201cIf you never know from year to year whether you\u2019re going to have any funding, it makes it very difficult to plan.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2021, Production III projects received about $500 each. The Roses & Red Noses crew took to social media to raise an additional $2,000. They hit their target just as production began. The film\u2019s closing credits thank 42 donors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Student filmmakers benefit from COM resources in other ways, borrowing cameras, lenses, lights and dollies, for instance. Of course, each script has its own needs and faces unexpected costs. For Roses & Red Noses, one expense was obvious from the title: clown costumes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019d be surprised how difficult it was to find a female clown mask that wasn\u2019t incredibly creepy,\u201d Barradas says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Roses<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The masks also had to be comfortable enough for the actors to wear for long periods of time. And once Colin, played by Fady Demian (CAS\u201922, CFA\u201923), began running around downtown Boston, his clown shoes fell apart. \u201cThey had huge holes in them,\u201d Barradas says. \u201cWe ran through three or four pairs.\u201d More than a year after production began, Amazon\u2019s algorithm continues to recommend clown-related products to Barradas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The biggest expenses? U-Haul truck rentals followed by food for the cast and crew. To get around the lack of public bathrooms near their Public Garden location shoots, Barradas needed a stack of petty cash so anyone in need of a break could go to a nearby coffee shop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We would cut in our separate rooms for eight hours straight… Hard drives were flying all over the place.<\/p>\u2014Zac Vujnov<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

BODY LANGUAGE<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Roses & Red Noses includes just five spoken lines. Despite the silence, there\u2019s no mistaking the sad state of Colin\u2019s life when we meet him at the start of the film. He moves lethargically through a grimy apartment. We can see he\u2019s unhappy despite the red grin painted on his mask. His evolution is communicated almost entirely through motion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To prepare, the actors worked with Yo-EL Cassell, an assistant professor of movement at BU\u2019s College of Fine Arts. He helped them build expressive movements into their performances. \u201cWhen we move, we reveal,\u201d Cassell says. Over the course of the 14-minute film, Colin\u2019s movements evolve from morose to joyous\u2014and reveal the transformation at the heart of Vujnov\u2019s story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Roses<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"Roses<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Once the crew wrapped its last shoot, they scrambled to complete a rough cut of the film to get the class credits they needed to graduate. \u201cWe went from an empty project file to a final cut with titles and graphics in three weeks,\u201d Vujnov says. Conveniently, he was roommates with his editor, Sam Broach (\u201921). \u201cWe would cut in our separate rooms for eight hours straight\u2014I would be mixing all the sounds and making the music and he\u2019d be doing color. Hard drives were flying all over the place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DELAYED GRATIFICATION<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"Roses<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Roses & Red Noses was an unusual film made during an unusual year. \u201cI like to make a lot of crime stuff. I love gritty, dark characters. I like bad people,\u201d Vujnov says. The lighthearted Roses represented none of the above. And yet, he and the cast and crew pulled it off in record time, growing closer as they cleared each hurdle in the production. \u201cOnce all of my original script ideas got thrown to the wayside, this stopped being about me. It\u2019s not my film, it\u2019s our film\u2014these people will be with me for the rest of my life because of this project.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They finished the film in time for graduation, but too late to enter it in the 2021 Redstone Film Festival. The wait was worth it. Vujnov and Barradas, who had since moved to Los Angeles, watched the 2022 awards ceremony online as their film won again and again. Vujnov received the award for best sound design, director of photography Jen Cuciti (\u201921) received best cinematographer, Broach tied for best editing honors\u2014and Roses & Red Noses was named best film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s incredibly hard to make a good film,\u201d Schneider says. \u201cWhen something turns out well, you know it means all the stars were aligned.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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