the horse movie

1996, Fullerton, California

“The Anguish of von Burgess” was my student film for Film class 311, at Cal State University, Fullerton.

This project had many different titles throughout the process, beginning with “Turkey Trot”, given by myself, and then “Horse Movie with Bad Actors”, given lovingly by my professor, Bob Davis.

Shooting in black and white, 16mm film was an exciting and daunting process which proved, to me, to be a very rewarding experience, as well as costly. It was expected that I would spend between $300 and $600 dollars for that semester on film and film processing. The dollar amount worried me at that time, but also helped me focus on getting at least one of my two short films right.

I am extremely proud of this accomplishment for many reasons, but mostly for producing something moody and stylish in light of an original pitch that didn’t go over too well.

We were required to pitch our ideas to the entire film class, and to the professor, Bob Davis, who is still among the only elders I actually remember vividly due to his intriguing approach to teaching and oddball sense of humor which I identified with. Cornel Bonca, my creative writing professor, is another inspirational favorite. I liked his style quite a bit and sought to impress him with my stories, while staying true to my own style.

My impression is that they didn’t care much for me, as both I and my work were probably not of the highest quality and thus, not very memorable. Safe to say, this opinion may also be a reflection of my own self-loathing.

My pitch for my student film was simply: “A man has a fixation with horses and he thinks they are trying to kill him”, which garnered nervous laughter and some minor interest. A general idea of how it would be filmed was presented and included a focus on angles, image replacement, blocking and camera movement – all things I was very interested in at that time. Music from “Braveheart” would be used.

55 individual cuts were planned and as I look through my notes, I don’t see hand-drawn storyboards, but rather, typed descriptions of shots my mind’s-eye presented to me.

I did have to go to a horse stable in San Juan Capistrano with a friend of mine and she let me film her horse, as well as roam around filming anything that caught my attention. There, I had a moment of clarity when I discovered the “horse-walker carousel” turning on it’s own as a horse had just finished it’s exercise routine and was unleashed from it. I quickly set up the tripod and filmed it knowing then it could be matched with the spinning chandelier in the house.

My mother played the nurse and my brother the tormented man. I think they both did an incredible job and took direction well, for first-timers as well as for individuals not used to taking orders from anyone. I look back on that experience with them in a very positive light because together, we produced something quite unique, as we were all new to film.

I was never a great student, in general, and maybe I didn’t excel in either film or writing classes as I could have, with proper focus. But I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to have been at Fullerton and to have gained those experiences and memories with both Bob Davis and Cornel Bonca.