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CAUGHT ON FILM

Student filmmaker spotlight: Matthew Krieg
by Margot C. Lester
Seventeen-year-old Matthew Krieg wants to be a director and a screenwriter. Not content to daydream of being honored at the Golden Globes or winning an Oscar, he’s actually developing his craft while still attending Durham’s Riverside High.

“One of my first attempts at making a narrative short film was Epidemic, a drama/suspense film,” he explains. “It was more of a learning experience than anything else. My most recent film is a drama called A Soldier’s Letter, which was shot in three and a half hours, and is, coincidentally, three and a half minutes long. It was the first short film that I shot on a sound stage and that I didn’t edit myself.”

Krieg decided on filmmaking after attending the Movie Makers Summer Camp in Durham. He also became an avid viewer of the web series Backyard Fx, which showed how to make props from popular movies and cheap-and-easy ways to produce campy special effects. Now he’s got his sights set on film school.

“I’d like to write and direct my own indie films, but I try to get experience in all fields of film, like editing, cinematography – I’ve even taken an acting class,” he says. “That way, if I do one day get to be a director, I’ll understand what goes into all the other jobs, which will help me give better direction to the rest of my crew. Being a filmmaker has been my dream since childhood.”

A film noire fan (he likes the cinematography and metaphor-heavy dialogue), one of Krieg’s favorite films is Requiem for a Dream.

“It was shot and edited in a very unique and stylistic way,” he explains. “It was able to tell a powerful and moving story in only 100 minutes. And it cost very little to make.”

His favorite directors are Francis Ford Coppola and Christopher Nolan.

“Both directors make films that are very story driven and deal with the psychology of human beings,” Krieg says.

Krieg’s learning another important aspect of the film industry by volunteering with the Carrboro Film Festival. He was on the judging panel and is helping produce the show reel and highly anticipated opening short.

“I didn’t know much about film festivals and thought that volunteering would not only be fun but informative,” he notes. “It was rewarding to learn what it’s like to be a committee member. One of the most important things I learned is that submitting a ‘good’ film doesn’t guarantee acceptance into a festival, and that if your film is rejected it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s ‘bad.’”

Krieg encourages other teens to attend the event.

“It has great diversity – just about every type of genre. They will be impressed to see the amazing films that are being produced right in North Carolina, just as I was while I was reviewing them,” he says.

The Sixth Annual Carrboro Film Festival will run from 1 to 7 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 20 at the Carrboro Century Center. Admission is $5. For more information, visit carrborofilmfestival.com

Student films accepted to the Sixth Annual Carrboro Film Festival

A New Life by Adrienne Ostberg, UNC-Greensboro
Found by Nick Baker, UNC-Chapel Hill
Friday Night Fright by Ashley Maria, University of Southern California
I Was Meant to Do This: The Chris Jobe Story by Baden Piland, Elon University
Nite Lite by Mariah Dunn, UNC-Greensboro
Opening by Devin Forbes, UNC School of the Arts
Plain Pine Box by Matthew Marenyi, UNC-Chapel Hill
Raising Islam by Jon Kasbe, UNC-Chapel Hill
Wyciananki by Irena Rindos, Clemson University

Architecture Movie Series

The next film in the 2011-12 Nowell’s Architecture Movie Series will be screened on Nov. 17 at the Galaxy Cinema in Cary. The feature is a documentary about the National Stadium (also known as the Birds Nest) for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, which shows how Chinese culture, politics, expectations and deadlines shaped the creation process. trianglemodernisthouses.com/movies.htm