Students create book and film in Vermont

Hal Dockins
Staff Writer

Over the summer, students in professor Corin Hewitt’s Chromo Theater class strived to push the limits of art in Vermont by creating a book and a film to be screened on Saturday.

Senior sculpture and extended media major Riley Duncan was one of 10 VCUarts undergraduate students who signed up for the experience, which included discovering different colors on the visible spectrum of light and making a video of their exploration.

The focus of the Chromo Theater course was creating a film called “A Color Film or Something Like That.” Nancy Lupo, Zach Wollard, Erica Svec, Hannah Walsh, Ian Gamble and Richard Walters helped Hewitt facilitate the course, which took place in rural Vermont. The project is also being made into a limited–edition book under the same name.

Each student was given a different piece of the visible color spectrum to learn more about while making the short film. The individual segments of film made by the students, each about five minutes long, cover the entire spectrum of color.

Duncan was assigned the ultraviolet section of the spectrum. He studied the material history and the cultural history behind colors. He was interested in where different colors come from and how cultures view color.

Senior sculpture major Ha Tran also worked with the ultraviolet section of the spectrum. She researched how the sun has different layers of ultraviolet light.

“The sun has a core that is always reacting within itself and that is where all the energy comes from,” Tran said.

Duncan described the film as very abstract in nature, because it is not very narrative or linear, but it speaks on the topics of history of color and material identity.

A book called “A Color Film or Something Like That” was made out of stills from the film.

“There are a lot of things that bring all sections together,” Duncan said. “The book captures what happened in the class. It’s like a screenplay in retrospect. It’s a new kind of idea.”

The book is divided into 10 parts, each tackling a different segment of the visible color spectrum through the unique views of the students. It will include drawings by the students, film stills, photographs, any musical notations made and poetry.

The book will be professionally printed in a limited number, but can be pre-ordered through the VCUarts sculpture department.

Tran said that the class taught her things she never thought she would be able to do and that doing things that push you out of your comfort zone means that you are learning and growing.

“It became a lot like summer camp,” Tran said, “which is super fun and exciting. All the relationships I made were made stronger by this experience.”

The film will be screened at the Byrd Theater on Saturday, March 30. Duncan believes that viewers should expect the unexpected.

“A lot of hard work has gone into it,” he said. “It’s a really exciting form of art foundation at VCU. It asks questions that can’t be asked in a typical art classroom.”