Recent Brown graduate Chris Smith '04.5 was named the winner of the student trailer competition for the Film Society of Lincoln Center earlier this month. Smith will receive a check for $5,000 at the trailer's March 23 premiere, the opening night of the New Directors/New Films festival at the Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall.
Smith's trailer, promoting the society, will then be shown before every Film Society screening for the next two years.
Smith's trailer was one of over 30 entries showcasing the mission of the Film Society. Established in 1969, the Film Society is a top film presentation organization that celebrates American and international cinema, and sponsors annual events including the New York Film Festival. In looking over submissions, judges were asked to choose a trailer that was visually and musically innovative, something "branding, smart, fast paced" said Graham Leggat, the organization's director of communications and one of the judges for the competition.
Leggat said Smith's trailer was clearly the best because of its creative way of presenting information about the Film Society.
"It was sophisticated. It was snappy, beautifully put together and well-scored," Leggat said.
Smith's trailer presents information about the Film Society through distressed film strips that are mostly black and white, with occasional spots of color. The trailer is entirely animated and accompanied by a soundtrack Smith also produced. The trailer doesn't "look like a commercial, (but) reads like something exciting," Leggat said.
Smith said he chose animation as a way of communicating his ideas for the trailer because of its flexibility and expressiveness. "For me animation is a way to combine all of my instincts," he said.
Smith entered the competition during his last semester at Brown, after seeing promotional flyers posted around campus. A double concentrator in music and visual arts, Smith said the opportunity to do this trailer "was right up my alley."
Smith attributes his success thus far to the inter-departmental programs at Brown, which provided a synthesizing approach to learning that helped him to cultivate and combine his talents.
Smith was co-founder of Chaise Magazine and has been editor-in-chief since 2002. The genre-crossing publication publishes the works of emerging animators, filmmakers, computer programmers, composers and other artists on DVD. After the trailer's premiere, Smith said, he will be moving to New York permanently, where he hopes to pursue a career as a freelance animator.
