Paint the Living Room Blue

On a rainy, Saturday evening, the halls by Reeve’s Theater were quiet and still, but inside played out a different kind of atmosphere when National Campus Movie Festival winner, Sarah Wilson screened her 2009 film, Rhapsody.

Aspiring filmmakers, producers, and writers from The University of Tampa came together side by side to experience a first ever affair hosted by UT’s Film Society in collaboration with the school’s Media Arts department, The First Annual Black Box Film Festival.

This dynamic happening took place from September 24-26 bringing student’s prestigious names such the Association of Film Commissioners International, Read Martin, Author of “The Reel Truth”, and the EXTREME Stunt and Driving Team. However, as film student Keith Taveras put it “the most influential event that happened during the festival was Sarah Wilson’s screening, because she is our peer. It show’s anything is possible at any age.”

Wilson’s short film Rhapsody was a story based on color-coded emotions represented by the clothes people wore. Those who wore blue like the main character Charles were always sad, those who wore yellow, like character Sadie were always happy, and so on. However, whichever color you belonged to was the only color you could interact with, creating a symbolic story of cultural relationships.

In this heartwarming film, with a children’s story tone, Wilson enlightens the audience by portraying a common theme of finding relationships based on what’s inside a person’s heart and not by what they look like. In a diverse and unique approach Wilson uses animation and a narrator to her advantage that deemed her winner of the National Campus Movie Festival.

After the screening, she gracefully thanked everyone for coming and shared her knowledge of the business, the process of production, and her inspirations.

“When the song Rhapsody Blue by George Gershwin came up on my iPod, I could start to see the whole film play out in my head” Wilson Said. Wilson also goes onto explain that Gershwin himself speaks about this song representing a melting pot and that’s exactly what the story is about. Along with Gershwin being a major inspiration to this film, children’s stories, television series such as, Pushing Daisy’s, and director Tim Burton all played a role in Wilson’s list of muse.

When the production began in November of 2008 it was nothing but the kind of chaos every filmmaker lives for, “making films, wielding creativity, working with amazing people, is what makes me so incredibly happy” Wilson said.

From having no budget, having to find extra’s last minute, renting out $1000.00 worth of prom dresses, and pitching in there own money to cover the music copyrights Wilson explains that in the end it was all worth it, even when she had to paint her entire living room blue for one scene in the film.