Movie by UM students debuts at film festival

ORONO – Working all night, napping on the production room floor and letting other work slide were just parts of the sacrifice made by two dozen University of Maine film students whose efforts were rewarded July 10 with the debut of their movie at the Maine International Film Festival in Waterville.

“It was crazy, but we got it done,” said musician Justin Taylor of Vassalboro, a junior studying film and music in the University of Maine’s new media program. “When we were doing postproduction, I slept on the production room floor for about two hours a night because I also had classes.”

Taylor spent two days composing and recording the musical score for the 20-minute film, “Float,” the intriguing story of three friends trying to honor the last wishes of a fourth friend who dies unexpectedly.

“Float,” produced under the guidance of executive director Raphael DiLuzio, assistant professor of new media who teaches several courses on film production, was one of 32 short movies submitted to the Maine Film Office for consideration and one of only nine selected for inclusion in the Maine Filmmakers Forum on July 10 at the Waterville Opera House.

“It’s sort of a minifestival within the Maine International Film Festival,” said Greg Gadberry, assistant director of the Maine Film Office. Competition, he said, “was pretty stiff. The Maine Filmmakers Forum has become increasingly competitive over the years.”

“‘Float,'” he said, “holds up very well against the other films that we’re showing this year. The jury was very impressed by the originality, the technical expertise and the acting, all of which came together in a very nice little package.”

Director and co-writer Ivor Hadziabdic, a UM senior from Croatia who studies video and video installation in the new media department, said “Float” is about a group of friends, four men who work together as a team, bonded and guided by the oldest of the four.

“The guy that dies was pretty much the bond that holds them together and after he dies, they are beginning to re-examine their values. It’s basically about friendships falling apart,” Hadziabdic said.

The older man, a day before dying of apparent natural causes in his apartment, expressed a desire to “just float” after he dies, so the remaining friends decide to send his body, along with hundreds of colorful origami figures created by the dead friend, down a river in a rubber raft.

According to two other new media graduate students, Nathan Hankla of Georgetown, assistant director who did most of the film’s final editing, and Sheridan Kelley of Cherryfield, still photographer for the production, “Float” was filmed within 20 miles of the UM campus at a local apartment on Sunkhaze Stream and the back roads leading to it from Old Town, in a pub in the Orono area and in a coffeehouse.

Most of the 25 people involved with the film are UM students, including director of photography Nate Stevens of Norridgewock, who helped with directing and actor Dustin Sleight of Orono. The other three actors were nonstudents.

The film may be viewed at www.3leggedog.com/gallery/ along with a photo gallery of still pictures documenting the production process.

Taylor, who wrote and performed the music for the film with an acoustic guitar, said he sought to create music that would both build tension and provide a consistent musical theme to draw viewers in.

A team of students – Hadziabdic, Stevens, Margaretha Haughwout of Orono, Andrew O’Donnell of Camden and Yeshe Parks of Winthrop – rewrote the script six times in a screenwriting class to get the best dialogue and still remain true to the original storyline, written by Parks.

Hadziabdic said the production was both taxing and rewarding.

“The most important part was there were 25 of us and the success of ‘Float’ was a result of the success of everyone working crazy hours with a lot of stress,” he said. “Without cohesiveness and being willing to sacrifice, I don’t think we would have been able to achieve what we were able to achieve.”

The film runs through July 18 at Railroad Square Cinema and the Waterville Opera House, both in Waterville, and at special screenings at River City Cinema in Bangor. Information about the Maine International Film Festival may be found at www.miff.org.