"Indie" Academics

For many, Winter Term can become a graveyard for grand schemes that never come to fruition. Among many people I know, “we’ll do it in J-Term,” (or just “J-Term.”) is the half-joking default response to good ideas that seem like too big of an undertaking during the busy semester. But every year, a few students take the opportunity provided by this funny little month to bring some of those schemes to life, receiving credit to create interesting art and media projects for which there just isn’t time on top of a normal class schedule in the spring and fall semesters. Here’s a selection of some of the creative production going on this month, which doubles as an argument that an extra one-month semester is the perfect complement to an open-minded liberal arts education.

"Just Like in the Movies" by Sean Dennison '11

Dennison received the Meyer Grant from the English Department to spend the month in Los Angeles, Calif. observing the influence of Hollywood on American culture and our day-to-day lives. Or, in Dennison’s words, “I’ve always loved movies, [so] I decided to focus on their place in American culture and watched an excessive amount of movies set in L.A. to see how they would affect my actual experience of the city.” He is visiting Los Angeles landmarks, Hollywood studios and Disneyland, and the project will culminate in three-part text (mirroring the three-act structure of a screenplay) studying the cultural significance of these sites and the cultural objects they produce.

"The Cabin in the Clearing (working title)" by Brad Becker-Parton ’11.5 (Director), Matt Cherchio ’11 (Sound Design and Music), Ian Durkin’10.5 (Director of Photography), Andrew Powers ’11.5 (Writer/Actor) and Ele Woods ’11 (Writer/Actor)

In this short film being shot at Robert Frost’s summer home at Breadloaf, the elements of a relationship drama meet the style of a suspense film. As a series of pranks and misunderstandings escalate, a couple’s relationship slowly begins to derail, even though they originally traveled to the woods with the hopes of escaping their differences. Despite shooting in the cold and being subject to “the very fickle weather patterns of Vermont,” said Becker-Parton, the project has been satisfying because of the aesthetic beauty of the location and the size of the crew, which creates an environment in which “anyone can speak of and contribute to any part of the creative process if something doesn’t feel right.”

"Public Safety" by Adam Benay ’13.5, Chris De la Cruz ’13, Greg Dorris ’13, Ken Grinde ’11 and Ben Orbison ’12.5 (all of Otter Nonsense)

These five students are all receiving credit from the Film and Media Culture department for their collaboration on a web series in the style of The Office and Reno 911. They and several other actors play the bumbling Public Safety officers and other characters at the fictional Corwin College. (They would also like to make it clear that they have no qualms with Middlebury’s Public Safety Department — they just liked the idea of putting their absurd characters in positions of power.) The one-ten-minute-episode-per-week production schedule has been taxing, but in the words of Grinde, “I spend 14+ hours a day with people that I really love and respect trying to create something that makes us laugh, and every week we turn out something that we’re proud of.” Their first two episodes are up right now; just visit go/citationnation.

"Untitled Project (Art and Nature)" by Brittany Lehnhart ’11

Brittany Leinhart, an environmental studies major with a focus in the creative arts has spent this month doing the preliminary work for an independent project that will culminate in the spring. She is attempting to illustrate (literally) the way that art can strengthen our bond with the places around us, and in turn, improve our relationship with nature as a whole. She has been lucky enough to spend the month hiking around in the woods, observing and sketching patterns that she finds in nature, from series of snowflakes to the difference in the textures of tree bark between one species and another. “Is there really anything better than spending a month hiking around and sketching?” she wondered, adding, “It’s been a good month.”

"Filmmaking with Limits", taught by Associate Professor of Film and Media Culture Chris Keathley

It is a counterintuitive but undeniable fact of the creative process that creativity can flourish when it has limitation imposed upon it; with too many possibilities, we are paralyzed by choices. In this FMMC class, 10 students are making short films under strict, highly arbitrary formal guidelines. “Can you make a one-minute video about a childhood memory with the lens zoomed all the way in and the camera in constant motion?” asks the course description. While not an independent project, this class showcases the exact kind of quirky creative work for which Winter Term allows.

"Cello/Piano Recital" by Shelsey Weinstein ’10.5 (featuring Ricky Chen ’13 on piano)

On Sunday at 8 p.m. in the Mahaney CFA Concert Hall, Weinstein will perform a series of pieces  on the cello that will act as the culmination of her musical career at Middlebury, with Chen, the winner of last Spring’s concerto competition, accompanying her on piano. “Each piece,” she said (including works by Rachmaninoff, Faure and Casals), “is beautiful in composition and significant in the succession of my musical education.” As she will graduate at the end of the month, this performance will act as her senior recital.