RSS 2.0 FeedJune 17, 2011, Cover Stories, Bellmore Life
Calhoun graduate Brittany Georgalas debuts indie film
Calhoun senior dives into claymation project.
BRITTANY REVELS in her after-party cake.
Calhoun graduating senior Brittany Georgalas gathered over 50 of her closest friends, admirers and family as she debuted her 30-minute claymation film “Peanut on a Skateboard” at the Bellmore Movies last week.
The “nutty” movie, about a “cool” peanut named Pete who overcomes the neighborhood bully, Ted, to win first prize in a big skateboarding contest, is about – you guessed it – overcoming fears to believe in yourself.
A movie buff since the seventh grade, when she got involved with digital video, “Peanut on a Skateboard” took a year to create, due to the minutae of moving each of the clay figure’s parts – such as arms, legs and mouth – to create the perception of motion. Once each movement is made, to create full motion such as walking down the street, it must be still-photographed.
Since there are thousands of actions involved – especially of Pete riding his skateboard and pulling off his acrobatic tricks – thousands of still photographs must be taken, and then stitched together to create the perception of motion.
“I used Window Maker to edit the entire movie,” she told this newspaper. She also used a varied musical score, from frenetic rock shorts to purposeful jazz beats to piano ala George Winston, to help define her characters, she said.
“That was great!”
After the movie was shown, she blurted out, “That was great!”
Equally impressed with her debut was her Calhoun sculpture teacher Michael Goldberg, who has taught Brittany sculpture the last wo years, including 3D sculpture. “She’s way ahead of anyone in high school with what she’s doing,” he said, calling her actual technique “stop-motion animation.
“There is so much detail in the movie, I was just so impressed,” he continued.
Brittany’s mom Johanne said of her daughter’s movie: “Just awesome! It was very creative, took a lot of work and that work has paid off.”
One moviegoer, Rachel Lotardo, told this newspaper that the music was “so appropriate for the film, and certainly made it more animated.”
Halli Rosin added that the movie was “so cute.”
Brittany’s friend Alex Treuman, who was a character in the movie and helped with much of the movie’s logistics, said of Brittany: “I love her so much.”
Friend Mark Mertzel said Brittany has a “bubbly personality. No one else could do thing kind of animation work.”
Paul Judge, a friend of Alex’s, said Alex was the perfect person to help Brittany because of her interest in illustration. Alex helped in the movements of the clay figures, for example. Alex will attend the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan for illustration.
Brittany will attend State University of New York at Fredonia come the fall because of what she says are some good programs in animation available at the school. “I want to work for Disney,” she said at the end of her party after the debut.
Why did she debut her film at the Bellmore Movies, this newspaper asked. “Because this theater supports the arts, and because Bellmore is a cool town,” she said.
By the way, Brittany wants us to know that “No peanuts were harmed in the filming of this movie.”
