By Susan Kemp
Thirteen seniors in professor Austin Shaw’s Senior Motion Media Design Project II class this winter presented their senior show “Lucky 13” to a packed crowd at the CSF building Wednesday night.
While the tone of the show remained unified—the opening sequence showed each student posing for a mock yearbook photo, taking on quirky personalities reminiscent of the Breakfast Club—by the show’s end, one thing was evident: each student artist brought a unique style and voice to the project.
The class, Senior Project II, aims to create an open-ending environment for students to take a project in their own direction.
“I wanted them to make something they were passionate about, and I think they did,” said Professor Shaw.
Students took the opportunity in numerous directions, from drawing, to animation, to 4D and film work.
“It’s an opportunity for each of us to make our own decisions,” said fourth-year motion media student Molly Oski.
The show, which ran roughly an hour, ran a sequence of shorts, varying from just a few seconds to Nath Milburn’s wacky but addictive 10-minute animation, which closed the show, chronicling none other than a young cloud attending school at Mount Feathertop Academy, only to quickly become part of the search for his roommate’s lost cotton candy converter.
Milburn was not the only student to embrace comedy. In Jake Allen’s zany animated retelling of “The Three Little Pigs,” the pigs might just be a little more equipped this time: robo-legs, rockets … these pigs mean business.
For the “Lucky 13,” the night was not just filled with the outlandish. A few of the student shorts tackled social issues, such as Alexa Cohen, whose motion typography piece asked, “Have you ever wondered what’s in your food?” while encouraging viewers to eat more from the ground and less processed food.
Dani Johnson also used type in her PSA about considering the impact people make on the oceans. She experimented with the weight and movement of type, by creating the illusion of the typography floating and transitioning under water.
Other students created titling sequences for movies, while still others shot the film footage themselves. Aline Lopes’ piece “Ode to Youth” combined footage from the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival with type and music performed by Miggs Son Daddy. The piece, with its de-saturated, vintage coloring and poignant lyrics, seemed to set the tone of the night, a culmination of four years of hard work. Lopes’ type swerved on the screen as Miggs sings, “Even if I had a million wishes. I still would never do it different.”
The show included work by Jake Allen, Kevin Beisel, Emily Brearey, Alexa Cohen, Mike Hines, Dani Johnson, Britt Kirmes, Nath Milburn, Molly Oski, Carolyn Schneeweiss, Tyne Sebastian, Brian Wooden and Aline Lopes.
