Film Follies showcases a year's worth of work

The hourlong production features a montage of students' graphic design work, from the silly to the serious.

No, Film Follies is not Bob Saget's newest television show or that free video featuring clumsy and unfortunate football players you receive when you order Sports Illustrated.

Film Follies, which will occur at 8 p.m. tomorrow in Keller Conference Center, gives University graphic design majors the opportunity to showcase the results of a year of hard work.

"It's a visual spectacle that incorporates everyone's personality with problem-solving skills to come to visual answers," said Jamie Prokell (senior-graphic design).

Film Follies primarily consists of multimedia film projects from Art 470 (Time and Sequence), taught by Lanny Sommese, professor of art.

"We put together about 20 percent of the stuff we do in the fall," said Sommese, explaining where the students obtain the selection of slides used for the festival.

The production features about 30 different sections of student work, varying in length from one to three minutes, that all together make up an hour-long production.

Months of effort and dedication lie behind the 60-minute show.

"We pull a lot of all-nighters," said Kirsten Welo (senior-graphic design). "Sometimes as much as four or five days a week."

All of the pieces must be set to music and pulsed precisely with the chosen soundtrack, which can be a painstaking and time-consuming process.

But to Welo, the vast amount of time spent on the shorts is well worth the final production.

"It's the most exciting thing when you finish putting it together, and you get a reaction from the people who are watching," she said.

The carefully created pieces are likely to inspire a variety of different reactions in the audience. Some slides deal with subject matter as serious as HIV testing, and others are aimed at causing uncontrollable giggles in viewers.

Welo said one of the more unusual pieces seems to be instructing people how to take a bath, but it's really talking about going to a car wash.

"A lot of the stuff involves a play on words," Welo said.

From the hysterically funny to the deeply sobering, the students behind Film Follies said the entire production should prove engrossing.

"The whole show is good," added Prokell. "From the time the lights go out until they come back on, the theater is on fire."