Daniel J. Stasiewski & Erika Jarvis
a&e editors
behrcolls@ aol.com
rofessionals, students to screen short films
by Daniel J. Stasiewski
managing editor
The third annual Short Film Festival
will offer more than just student films,
this year, as the public relations class
project teams up the Great Lakes Film
Association.
The event, scheduled for Tuesday at
7 p.m. in Reed 117, will feature both
student films and short films by pro
fessional filmmakers for the first time.
"We're having a fantastic evening of
shorts, comprised of somewhat more
edgy material and somewhat more
moderate material," said Chris
Hvizdak, COMBA 08, one of the
student's involved in event coordina-
The "more edgy material" comes
from both the student and profession
als. Hvizdak, himself, has films on the
schedule, including the darkly comical
"Man? Which?"
"It's a five minute proto-trailer,
which parodies the recent direct-to
video trend of narrative serial killer
biopics," said Hvidzak.
In addition to Hvidzak's work, the
The boys are back and better
Hanson is one of the many boy bands from the '9os making a return to t
by David Hiltbrand
KRT Campus
There are those who say the golden era of boy bands
is over, swept away by a flood of lawsuits, solo ambi
tions and changing teen tastes.
"You'll never see trading cards and cute boys in
matchy-matchy outfits doing fancy choreography
again," says Zena Burns, music editor for Teen People.
"It's morphed into boys who play their own instru
ments in bands like Good Charlotte and Simple Plan."
But if the boy band is extinct, somebody forgot to
tell the boys.
"Penny & Me," from a forthcoming CD by '9os
sibling sensations Hanson, just debuted in the No. 2
position on the Billboard Hot 100 singles-sales chart.
Former New Kids on the Block singer Jordan Knight
has a new set of NKOTB material, including remixes
of 'Bos hits such as "Step by Step" and "Cover Girl."
And another New Kids alum, heartthrob Joey
Mclntyre, is set to release his album "8:09" on April
27.
The management of Menudo, the group that
launched Ricky Martin, recently announced that it
would audition 10- to 14-year-olds in New York this
summer for a revival of the Latino boy band with the
revolving-door policy. When a member got too tall,
or his voice changed, or he turned 16, whichever came
first, he was summarily replaced.
After a four-year layoff and endless litigation, the
Backstreet Boys are back in the studio. And despite
the solo careers of JC Chasez and Justin Timberlake,
and occasional film roles by Joey Fatone and space
boy Lance Bass' work on "Hollywood Squares", the
'N Sync guys say they'll begin writing songs for a
new CD this summer.
event will feature the student work
"Romeo and Juliet," a parody of
Shakespeare's masterpiece.
The "edgiest" of the professional en
tries may just be "Timmy's Wish," a
Erie-area cult hit in which Jesus helps
a little boy kill his parents and then dis
pose of the bodies.
But the material shouldn't turn any
body off. The nature of the festival is
not to shock, but, as livizdak puts it,
"It's just a fun evening to disseminate
the wonderful artform of short film to
the Behrend and Erie communities."
In addition to being able to see the
films, audiences will get the chance to
win "mystery" door prizes.
As for the filmmakers, there is no
pressure for one film to perform better
than any other. The festival is designed
solely as a showcase, with no competi
tion involved.
The film festival is developed as part
of Dr. Ursula Davis' public relations
class. The Communication Department
will also hold its own Media Arts festi
val on April 26. The arts festival will
showcase student works, with the dif
ference being its competitive structure.
The hurdle all these groups face is that it's exceed
ingly difficult for pop performers who had teen ap
peal to reconnect with their audiences.
"The typical Backstreet Boys fan was 12 years old
in 2000. Now they're 16," notes Tom Vickers, a mu
sic consultant and former Capitol and Mercury
Records executive. "Are they going to have the same
reaction? 'Oh, Brian (Littrell) is so cute!' No. Now
they're into the Strokes or the White Stripes."
The hope, of course, is that maturing fans will see
that their old faves have matured, too.
The Hansons will release their new disc, "Under
neath," April 20 on their own 3CG Records. "We
played an acoustic show a few days ago, getting ready
for the full tour this summer," says lead singer and
middle brother, Taylor, now 21, married, and the fa
ther of a 16-month-old son.
"It's been four years since our last album and seven
since our first one, and the fans are different than they
were ...They're in college and getting on with their
lives. But they're still singing along and waving their
hands."
The Henry Ford of boy bands is Lou Pearlman, a
former air charter owner and cousin of Art Garfunkel.
A remarkable fleet of groups, Backstreet Boys, 'N
Sync, LFO, Take 5, C Note, 0-Town, Natural and
others, have rolled off his Orlando. Fla., assembly line.
The formula is rudimentary, Pearlman says: "You
need someone with dark hair, someone with light hair,
someone with medium hair. You need at least three
strong lead singers. And they have to be young and
clean-cut, parent-friendly."
On top of that, Burns adds, "you have the really
cute one, the one who's not so cute, the shy one, and
the goofy one."
If the makeup of these bands is predictable, so is
410111;
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Friday, April 16, 2004
Schedule of Films
"Man? Which?"
Upbeat serial killing takes hold in west
ern Pennsylvania in this parody of the
recent "direct-to-video" craze.
"Timmy's Wish"
After he's sent to his room for refus
ing to eat his vegetables, angry little
Timmy prays to heaven to be delivered
from his cruel parents. Much to his
surprise, his prayers are answered—
big time. Now it , up to Timmy to
clean up the mess.
"The Dangers of Smoking"
Witness graphic illustration of the im
pact smoking has on the human body.
"Duct Ape"
A vivid, knee-jerk reaction to the tape
and plastic wrap-hoarding phenom
enon following recommendations of
the Homeland Security Department.
"Romeo & Juliet"
The Shakespearean masterpiece as re
alized through somewhat less-than-so-
e music scene
their shelf life. "It's a five-year run, on average,"
Pearlman says. "The bands get to the point where they
have a lot of money and they become more indepen
dent. Or else there's a falling out and someone wants
to go solo."
Merrily Goodell, the wife of a Minnesota veteri
narian, had two sons, Ryan and Clay. in Take 5, a
Pearlman group. Though big in Asia and Europe, the
band fizzled in the States and broke up in 2001 after
four years. Goodell came away from the experience
disgusted.
Before her boys joined, she says, "the picture that
was painted was they would have these wonderful
tutors. It would be like getting a top private-school
education, and it was clean-cut people they would be
around. That wasn't the case."
Both children emerged "severely depressed;'
Goodell says. Clay "had an eighth-grade education
and he was 17. We put more than S2OO,(XX) into this,
and the boys didn't make any money," she says,
though Pearlman claims he was the loser in the deal.
Eventually with boy bands, it seems money is a
bone of contention. Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync sued
Pearlman, and members of 0-Town, the band
Pearlman created on the ABC reality series "Making
the Band," now say the contracts they signed were
not in their best interest.
But even if they got ripped off, most former band
members look back on their time with a degree of
gratitude
"The guy who created Menudo, Edgardo Diaz,
promised us a lot of things that didn't happen," says
Roy Rosello, who was in the Ricky Martin edition of
Menudo in the group's mid-' 80s heyday. "All the
money we were supposed to make we didn't get, but
the experience was worth it."
Even the detective sings in "Petunia,'
Short Film Festival.
phisticated means
"Jihad-O-Matic"
A brutal conflict between mythic ad
vertising adversaries reaches its boil-
ing point
"Petunia"
A reinvention of the traditional musi
cal, this comic satire details an old man
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a short film showing Tuesday at the
who believes his dead wife has come
back from the grave.
"Tostadora"
What if a person who spoke only En
glish were charged with producing
Spanish language television commer
cials?
(Synopses from Festival News Release)
than ever
"The business side was cutthroat, but I got to travel
the world, - Ryan Goodell says. "I loved going on stage
and having girls holding up pictures of you."
It took effort for the boys to keep their heads on
straight: "A few minutes ago nobody cared, and now
millions are screaming for you," Taylor Hanson says.
"To keep your sanity, you have to believe it's not re
ally you they're screaming for."
It was equally hard for some to re-enter civilian
life. Ryan Goodell, 23, is an undergrad at UCLA and
hopes one day to practice entertainment law.
"You get used to people catering to you," he says.
"Then suddenly I was just another application num
ber to get into UCLA."
A few singers have discovered that the best escape
from the boy-band ghetto is to marry well. Nick
Lachey, formerly of 98 Degrees, has gotten far more
attention as Mr. Jessica Simpson on MTV's "Newly
weds" than he did for his recent CD "SoulO." And
Bryan McFadden just left Westlife, the United
Kingdom's most popular boy band, to pursue TV
projects with his wife, Kerry, the former Atomic Kit
ten singer who sprang to fame as winner of the Brit
ish version of - I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here!"
Yes, things may be ugly in the shallow end. of.the
pop music pool, the work is grueling, the chance of
success slim, the management usually rapacious. But
there's never a lack of talented kids clamoring to dive
That's why it may be premature to trumpet the end
of the boy-band era.
"I'll tell you exactly when it'll be over," Pearlman
says. "When God stops making little girls. Until then,
we'll keep going."
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