Tyler Barhydt is a senior at Niskayuna High School and his film ‘Doodle’ has received an Honorable Mention in the 2017 Rod Serling Film Festival. Barhydt is involved in school and community theater and will be performing as the role of Chino in the upcoming performance of West Side Story at SLOC. He runs an instagram and a website where he is working to build his photography portfolio. He plans to pursue both photography and filmmaking in college.
What is your film about? Can you summarize in a few sentences? Doodle is an original piece about a high school student who is consistently put down for his passion for drawing. He puts up with this until he finally decides to take a stand which in turn shows who he really is an artist to the people who had been blind to his passion.
How did you come up with the idea of your film? I had watched a short film on YouTube which was shot from a high angle looking down on a constant position. I was intrigued by the idea so I decided to adopt it. My teacher, Stephen Honicki always told my class to write about what we know, so I decided to write about my experiences in my pursuit of becoming an artist.
Can you talk about your approach to the story and the technical elements you used? The story was a very long process of writing and re-writing. I think I ended up with about 5 drafts before I settled on a final copy. My goal was to be able to embody what I and many other aspiring artists felt at my age within one short film. Technically, this film had the biggest set of any that I had made beforehand. To achieve the overhead shot, I borrowed and two 9 foot metal rods that happened to be sitting in the back of my physics class and balanced them on top of two tall ladders that I also borrowed from the school. Then. I attached my tripod onto the beams and turned the head down. Along with the camera setup, I had external lighting and external sound which just added to the necessary clutter.
Thank you for sharing your film with WSKG! How did you hear about the Festival? I have been making films since I was around 9 years old so it’s been a name in the back of my head for years. However, I really became interested in the festival through the influence of my film teacher at my high school along with my many peers whom I looked up to.
Which part of this filmmaking experience did you enjoy most? The most fun part for me was editing. Before this film, I had never created anything that nearly matched the caliber of this film. So, as I sat down at my computer until 2 am night after night, I had to record my own sounds and edit down to the last detail. This pursuit of perfection was incredibly difficult but the most rewarding by far.
Anything else you’d like to share? I’d like to congratulate my friends Jad Jacob, Nadia Nugent and Evan Pritchard on also placing in this film festival.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQuE0MTZvHw&feature=youtu.beThe 2017 Rod Serling Film Festival will be held at the Art Mission and Theater on Sunday, October 8, 2017 at 3pm, in partnership with Binghamton Film Weekend.