Nina Rose, a 20-year-old Morgan State University junior, reflected on watching movie animations at the age of eight or nine with her family.
“Watching people make objects move without using their hands or wires and making the dolls I love come alive made me say to myself, ‘Wow! I wanna do that!’”
She grew up in northwest Baltimore and steadily invested in pieces of her creative passion.
“This is the third time I’ve entered a film festival,” Rose explained.
Last year Rose was selected to receive Judges Honorable Mention at Underground Studio’s Film Festival. This time, Rose took home the Best Editing Award and the Judges Choice Award from Underground Studios on Wednesday, May 1, 2024 for her recent film, “Tennis Court.” Underground Studios is Morgan State University’s student lead film organization. Their Submerged Film Festival which featured creatives was held at Morgan State University.
Underground Studios was created for all creatives of all mediums to connect and create together, according to Morgan State University’s website. Underground Studios showcases a film festival, premiering student and local Baltimorean filmmakers’ short films every year, towards the end of the spring semester.
Rose’s short film features a 19-year-old girl named Angel. She blends her love of dolls and movie animation. The student has been a fan of dolls since she was a little girl. It took Rose a little over a month to create the stop motion short film.
Photo credit: Odessa Rose
“It is about a girl who wants to be better at tennis, but something is holding her back from it that day,” said Rose.
The film major uses a Canon camera and a tripod to shoot her films. She further explained that “Tennis Court” was inspired by a conversation Rose had with her friends who are encouragers. Rose likes to create mini masterpieces with the help of stop motion.
“Stop motion is a type of animation where you get a puppet or whatever you are moving frame by frame, picture by picture,” Rose said, explaining how the process gives off the effect of motion.
Rose, who aspires to write, produce, film, and direct stop motion films added that she mostly learned the technique from observing a lot of other people who were utilizing it. American Girl dolls’ AGTube, otherwise known as the American Girl YouTube Channel. She further explained that the community of people who also own dolls do stop motions with them.
“It made me look at the way it was filmed and made me think that I could do that,” Rose said.
Rose’s mother, Odessa Rose, explained how film professors at Morgan State University provide support to enable Nina to learn more about the film industry.
“Nina’s professors give her a lot of encouragement,” Odessa said. “Professor David Roberts [who teaches her film editing] gives her great feedback on what she’s doing well and what aspects she needs to improve on. Professor Roberts also gives Nina the freedom to do stop motion instead of live action.”
Odessa and several of her daughter’s friends have given her daughter hands-on support with “Tennis Court.” Nina’s mother and Nina’s friend, Zorie Owens did the foley for the film. Foley is the art of adding everyday sounds to movies.
“We recorded the sounds of us playing tennis so Nina could use those sound effects in the film,” Odessa said.
Additionally, Warren Shakes helped with the set and props. Jada Carter and Tochukwu Opaigbeogu both did voiceovers.
Nina’s journey to take home awards at the film festival was not smooth sailing. Inclement weather was the biggest obstacle that she encountered while filming.
“There were days I couldn’t even film the things I wanted to because it was so cloudy, and it wouldn’t match up with what I wanted,” Nina recalled.
She also learned that stop motion was a time-consuming medium requiring patience and determination to bring a good product on a screen.
Rose’s parents, Odessa and Michael Rose remarked that they feel especially proud because they know how hard their daughter worked to complete “Tennis Court.”
They added, “We listened to her talk about the story and writing the script; watched her create the tennis courts from cardboard boxes; spend her own money on equipment for the set; go out and film: and stay up late to edit the film, all the while she studied for exams and wrote papers for her classes at Morgan.”
Every step is an important one in a new adventure. A door opened because of Nina’s win. Underground Studios stated that they will produce her next stop motion film. Visit https://youtu.be/SYui2_OF2hA?si=CflG2Qd6P4vBXRrb to watch “Tennis Court.”