Local teen filmmaker a finalist in film festival

BY GINNY PRIVITAR
WEST MILFORD — Matthew Romano, a West Milford resident, aspiring filmmaker and a senior at Passaic County Technical Institute, is one of 10 high school finalists in Project FX 2016, the Count Basie Theatre’s statewide student film festival contest. If his film, a hybrid live action/stop-motion piece called “Mac vs. The Mud,” wins, he will earn a paid internship at Sony Classics Pictures.

The top 20 films from state high schools and colleges - 10 from each - will be screened at 2 p.m. on April 17 at the Count Basie Theater in Red Bank. And the public can be part of the process by voting online (see box).

Matt said he was originally interested in photography, but chose video production as his major in sophomore year.

“For me (getting into film was) more of a gradual process, rather than something that came out of nowhere,” said Matt.

In “Mac vs. The Mud,” the story begins with live action. A mother, played by Matt’s mom, Hayley, is speaking with her daughter, played by family friend, Maggie. Maggie is nervous about taking part in a new activity the next day, and to ease her fears her mom reads her a story. This is where the stop-motion animation begins, as Mac the pig, who is afraid of mud, learns that if you try something, you might like it. It’s a sweet, funny, well-done story that also manages to impart an important lesson. Matt wrote and filmed the entire story.

To make and edit the entire four-minute film, start to finish, took about a week. Matt said,

“I got the idea sitting in my room one day working on an English project,” said Matt.

He needed a picture of a pig for the project and saw a cartoon picture of a pig in mud and the idea for his short film was born.

Matt spent time watching Wallace and Gromit films, by Aardman Animations Ltd., to better understand stop-motion, or Claymation, as it is also called.

The most difficult part of “Mac vs. The Mud” was the animation, Matt said.

“A lot of scenes had to be reshot; they were too fast or too slow — not at the right pace of the film,” he said.

In the Claymation part of the film, Matt said the catapult scene was the most difficult part to film. As the pig is launched from the catapult over the set, a wire holds him up. Matt said he took a picture of the set without anything there and used it as a base photo for stop-motion with all the parts. He then took a picture of the pig in one position, held by the wire, and used the base background picture and erased the wire. The pig is repositioned and the process repeated for each frame. He said it took him about an hour to do that three second clip. He used “Aftereffects” and “Final Cut Pro” software programs to edit the film.

His “Mac vs. The Mud” project enlisted the talents of students in other majors at PCTI. Matt credits Emma Tang in the architecture shop for building the farm set and Bethany Diaz, from the advertising, art and design shop, for visualizing how the pig characters would look and move and creating them. He said he is also grateful to Maureen Wacha, his broadcast journalism teacher, for her guidance.

Wacha had some high praise for Matt.

“He is one of the most talented students I’ve ever worked with," she said. "Matthew is a talented and driven artist. He captures on film what the average person lets pass by. He is an astute observer of life and the world is his production. I have no doubt he will be famous one day."

Right now, along with broadcast journalism, he’s also taking a co-op program through school that allows him to get real-life experience in video production. This included the plum assignment of working with Giants quarterback Eli Manning. He also works in the public relations department of his school and takes pictures and videos of different assemblies.

Matt has done other films, too, mostly documentaries. To earn his Eagle Scout award last year, he made four documentaries on historic sites in West Milford: the Long Pond Ironworks, Wallisch Homestead, Apple Acres and the West Milford Township Museum building itself. Visitors to the museum, which sponsored his project, can view the documentaries there.

Matt likes director Wes Anderson’s films, especially “Moonrise Kingdom.”

“I like how he just creates his own style and makes movies personal to him and I think that’s really interesting," Matt said. "In an interview, Anderson talked about how he liked to read as a kid and makes books a big part of his movies. His style reflects who he is: a quirky and fun type of person.”

A cinematographer he admires is Emmanuel Lubezki, who did “Birdman.”

“It’s amazing,” Matt said, “he made the whole movie look like it’s a single shot, which was pretty impressive.”

Regardless of the outcome of the competition, Matt wants to make documentaries and short films in the future. He's got the support of his parents, Haley, a fourth grade teacher, and Ron, a telephone systems installer.

“They support me 100 percent.”

"Our family is extremely proud of Matt and his success with "Mac vs. The Mud," said Hayley Romano. "He had a creative vision and he saw it through, and we look forward to seeing what he does next. Winning the Sony Pictures internship through the Project FX Film Festival would be an incredible opportunity for Matt to continue learning about the field of professional filmmaking."

Matt also has two brothers, Andrew, 16, and Jack, 20, who, he said, have a good chance of appearing in future films.

The competing films will be viewed and voted on by a panel of adjudicators, but the public is also part of the process by “liking” and “sharing” the film on Facebook. The number of likes and shares will figure into each film's final score.

The Project FX Film Festival will also feature a panel discussion, and question and answer session. Tickets to the April 17 event are free; advance tickets must be obtained through the box office at 732-842-9000. It starts at 2 p.m.

After liking on Facebook, go to westmilfordmessenger.com and tell us what you think of Matt’s film.