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Ego Death - SAIC 2020 Thesis Film

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Three eyes on the back of your head. Three broken clocks in my nightmares.
A young psychiatric patient can’t sleep right and is disturbed by distressing and increasingly strange dreams. They struggle with their psychiatrist and the suggestions he gives them.

This is Z Fondanarosa's final year Undergrad Thesis Film At the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
This film was recorded on hand processed 16mm film, Super 8 film, and Digital Video. The goal was to experiment with disjointed narrative and experimental film processing techniques to mimic deteriorating lucidity due to nightmare and sleep deprivation.

See the costumes here!

©Z Fondanarosa 2019-2020

Premiered in the SAIC 2020 Film, Video, New Media, Animation and Sound Festival at the Gene Siskel Film Center, Chicago, IL

Second screening in 2022 at the show "Let Them Eat Fake" at Liminal Space Gallery, San Francisco, CA

Co-headline film feature at the first annual Mulligan Film Fest at the RiverFront Playhouse, Arora, IL 2024

Βλέποντας τον Θεό (God Watching)

Based on a reoccurring nightmare...  

This is my final film I did for my fall 2018 semester at SAIC. This film is a semi narrative look into continuous night terrors I was suffering from in the beginning of August through November of 2018 that featured me vividly facing my own mortality.  This film is partly digital and partly 16mm, it features costumes I designed and made by hand, and a unique soundtrack by my brother Milo Sebastian  

Writer / Director / Editor / Muse: Z Fondanarosa 
Producers: Z Fondananrosa + Ray Tang 
Director of Photography: Ray Tang
Assistant Camera: Robert Schuler
Music: Milo Fondanarosa (Spotify)
Special Thanks to: Chase Pottinger + Slug Yoshida 

See the costumes here!
 
 ©Z Fondanarosa 2018-19 

Kelvin [Stop-motion Animation]

Almost a whole 3 months in the making my stop motion final Kelvin is finally complete! Here is what I produced for my animation final Fall 2018

Story/ puppets/ set/ animation/ editing were all done by me   

​Tools used:  
Dragonframe at 12 fps  
Canon 7D  
Nikon 25mm manual lens  
Canon 20mm manual lens  
Nikon 150mm manual lens  
After Effects and Primer for editing   
Music used: Nocturne No. 1 In B Flat Minor by Frédéric Chopin recorded from a 40 year old cassette  

House Out of Time

An experiment in frame rate, film, performance, and time.

Writing/ Concept: Nat Wood, Z Fondanarosa, Karenna Northland
Directed by: Z Fondanarosa
Director of Photography: Nat Wood

Medium: 16mm Color Film shot with a Bolex 16mm film camera

Choreography:  Karenna Northland
Music: Milo Sebastian (Spotify)
Editing: Z Fondanarosa
Performance: Karenna Northland + Chas Druin

Running Out of Time

100 feet of Digitized 16mm Black and White film. All edits in this film were done in camera by me. This footage has not been edited at all from its original form. 

Starring: Leah Silver
Writing/Director: Z Fondanarosa
Camera: Sofia Higgins
AC: Chanina Katz