Student Films

As promised, here are some of my college film projects.  Please keep in mind that they were made 20+ years ago, on real, actual FILM.  Time and environment have contributed to a certain level of degradation (but that happens to us all eventually).



First up, Like Cockatoos.  Inspired by the song by The Cure, this was my second-year animation final at Mission College.  The first year, my short film The Big Surprise earned an A+ as it was the only film in the class to use synced audio.  For the second year, I expanded my scope and drew hundreds of 11x14" "cels" in the incredibly messy medium of charcoal.  Shot on 16mm, the project ran late, so I was forced to turn in a backup project for my final.  Said backup project used some of the footage from Like Cockatoos, but was a weaker piece in general, despite earning an A-.



Next, Ding Dong's Day Off.  When fellow filmmaker David Beach and I enrolled in the Film/TV program at DeAnza College, we found old Aptos High School friend Mark Cordell Holmes in our class.  Mark and his creative partner Rob Wison and I teamed up on a couple shorts.  This is the first.  Mark directed the film segment (on good old Super-8 film, transferred to pro VHS for editing) of me as the victim, freaking out when confronted by Ding Dong the homicidal clown (played by Rob).  What are you gonna do with that pie, Ding Dong?  Mark, Rob and I all appear in the video PSA segment (Mark is the Robert Stack-esque spokesclown, as well as the guy under the car).  This is by far Raechelle's most favorite thing I've ever done. /sarcasm



Last but not least, Rob's Dream.  I decided on the title after we'd turned in the project with a slightly different name.  Okay, a very different name.  Leather Biker Chicks in Bondage.  We wanted to get the attention of the class.   Shot on Super-8 in black & white for the dream sequences and color for the waking sequences, the three of us co-wrote, co-directed and co-performed in it.  We shot all over the San Jose foothills and Palo Alto, including my alma mater, Palo Alto High School, and the once-famous graffiti-covered back alley of the New Varsity Theatre, which is now a Borders Books.  In the running shot starting at about 4:06, Rob actually sat on the hood of Mark's car as I shot hanging out of the passenger side window.  Now THAT'S guerrilla filmmaking!

While in the edit bay working on Rob's Dream, I was approached by David Beach to put together some video footage to portray the television making love to its human admirer in his short film Tube.  Using nothing but soap operas, game shows and commercials, I think I managed to come up with a pretty sexual sequence of images.

In other news, while searching through the archives of mostly fire-damaged materials to put on YouTube, I ran across the raw footage of Samantha's San Francisco State film final, Kings.  I think it's all there, pending the actual tape being intact.  Sigh.  There's a long-term project if I've ever seen one.

Enjoy.