On Sunday night, the Davenport Lounge screened independent student films to a full house. Lizzy Lynch, a senior in the School of International Service, said the screenings occur "when people want to use the [Davenport] as a venue." The Lounge, she said, tries to "provide a space for creative expression."
One of the student filmmakers featured was Travis Stewart, a senior in the School of Communication. The 16mm film he directed, entitled "An Uncanny Affair," was first filmed for his Dramatic Production class.
The film "plays with the concept of time," according to Stewart. There are three time cycles and every time the audience sees the story line, it gets to recycle and see more of the action, he explained.
The film was well received by its audience, who was invited to the screening via Facebook.
The film contains a simulated sex scene. Stewart said for the film they did "an all-nude shoot to make everyone feel more comfortable." This meant that the director, cast and crew were all naked during the filming of the scene.
The filming, though successful in the end, did encounter some minor hiccups. Partway through filming, Stewart said, "there were some people peeping in from the apartment next door." By the time the cast and crew realized, Stewart said, "they had started to make popcorn."
The students across the way said that they were quite surprised when they realized what was going on.
"They left the curtains open!" Alyssa Klein, a senior in SIS, said. "From our perspective, three floors up, it looked like a quality film."
"We can't wait to see it closer up and are awfully sorry to have missed the release," Rachel McElroy, a senior in SIS, said.
Stewart and his crew also filmed a hilarious scene in which students Hunter Herrick and Ben Engel, playing movers, carried a mattress across the Key Bridge - a scene Stewart said they did not have a permit to shoot.
Stewart acts as a clown in his piece, drawing inspiration from his Aunt Betty, who is a real-life clown, he said.
Other actors in the film included students Zac Childers and Megan Helton.
Stewart said that Liang Cai, his director of photography, shot much of the film sitting on top of a car on a mattress. The director attributed the film's completion to Cai.
Annie Gardner, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences and organizer of the Davenport's open mic nights, said AU "is generally billed as a left-brained, straight-laced poli sci school with events for networking and resume building."
She said AU has "seen a revival in [artistic] events in the past four years ... through various means such as open mic nights, shows played in Kay [Spiritual Life Center] and the AU Independent Arts Collective."
Events such as these, she said, "bring together a great community of creative and multitalented students and give [students] something beyond suit-and-tie affairs."
If students want to screen a film or hold some other type of event in the Davenport Lounge, Lynch said all they have to do is contact a staff member or come visit and make sure the date is available.
