Madison Esteves, a senior at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts, received the Kye-Yak International Scholarship in the Thea Foundation Film Scholarship Competition.
Esteves of Hot Springs Village created a short film titled “spineless.” The story focuses on a puppet who breaks society’s rules and learns how to be a human. The majority of the silent film is in black and white, a choice Esteves thought put more emphasis on the story.
“Back when black-and-white films were being made, they had to rely more on the acting and the music to tell the story,” Esteves said. “Rather than relying on CGI and color that made the picture pretty, it was more acting-based rather than aesthetic-based. I wanted to try that.”
She said she felt the black-and-white film also better met the competition’s theme — "Brilliant, radiant, overcoming the senses." To view the film, visit https://asmsa.me/spineless.
Esteves said she was about to take a nap one day when the idea for the film popped into her head. She wrote the idea down first. When she woke from her nap, she decided she wanted to try to make the film. She had made some Claymation-like films when she was younger but this was the first true film she made.
Instead of writing out a script, she planned it using storyboards, drawing the plot of the film. She then worked with the actor for the film, junior Cade Albertson of Harrisburg, to bring the character to life. Other friends helped with the music and the set, including operating the puppet’s strings.
She said it took about two weeks to film the action but about a month and a half to two months to edit it into the finished product. Albertson is the only actor in the film, but he plays multiple puppets. She had to learn how to edit multiples of the actor into various scenes.
“It’s different when you’re looking at a bunch of little drawings. There end up being a lot of transitions you have to edit in that you don’t have in the drawings. It ends up being a bit different. It ended up looking pretty good,” she said.
Esteves said she was grateful when she received a call from the Thea Foundation on Monday morning letting her know she had won a $2,500 scholarship. “I was pretty happy because it covered the last of my college costs,” she said.
She plans to attend the University of Central Arkansas in Conway in the fall where she plans to study marketing or management for a business degree. A member of the Drama Club at ASMSA, she also plans to participate in the theater department in college.