Award-Winning Student Film at La Salle University is a Family Affair for Steven McDowell

One part social commentary, one part day-in-the-life, and one part family home movie, La Salle student Steven McDowell's film Smoke and Mirrors won La Salle’s Charlie Award as the year's best student film.

McDowell’s 16-minute work, which he wrote and directed,follows two brothers, Dylan and Kevin, who have to pick up their grandfather and take him to a doctor’s appointment.  McDowell plays the lead, Dylan, and his younger brother Brian plays Kevin.  Their father, Stephen, Sr., plays the role of the grandfather, and their mother, Kathy, is a voice heard off screen.

McDowell says he got the idea for the film when he would hang out with his younger brother and their friends.

“They never say hi to each other, it’s just ‘Do you have a cigarette?’” said McDowell. “So I wanted to do something on nicotine addiction and it segued into this parody of sorts.” So he based the part of the younger brother on his real-life younger brother, much to that sibling’s annoyance.

The film begins, as one imagines many days at the McDowell household do, with both brothers in the TV room asleep, their mother yelling at them to wake up.  The mother needs Dylan to pick up his grandfather and take him to a doctor’s appointment.  Dylan, in turn, recruits his younger brother, Kevin, to come with him. 

Before the two boys can go, Kevin needs to find a cigarette.  Unfortunately, every hidden pack he finds in the house is empty. 

As the two brothers are on their way to pick up their grandfather, Kevin can’t control his nicotine craving any longer, and he leaves his brother in search for a smoke, but has some trouble finding a cigarette: it seems everyone he knows is smoking their last one.

“The younger brother veering off from the trip the two were on can also represent his veering from the right path in life,” said McDowell. Kevin, as we learn later in the film, is struggling through recovery from a narcotics addition.  Meanwhile, Dylan learns that his grandfather’s appointment is not just a routine checkup, but a follow up to a cancer screening.

McDowell says his father took direction well, and was helpful, especially during a long scene set in a car.  “When I was driving and talking, he would get behind the camera and shoot,” said McDowell.
His father has been acting on stage for several years, including a production of the Nutcracker that appeared on local television, so it didn’t surprise McDowell that his father took directions well.  His brother, Brian, however, was another story. 

“My little brother was a real pain in the neck,” said McDowell. “He just wanted to be done with it.”

Though a short film, it took 20 hours to edit it down to the final version.  “I had some trouble with the audio so I literally had to match up the audio from one take to the video from another,” said McDowell. “It had to be done, but it is what I like to do.” 

Another reason the film required so much editing was its soundtrack.  “One of the things the judges commented on that they really like was my use of music to carry the story along,” said McDowell. He refers to this technique as ‘Greek story telling’ (much like a Greek chorus) and is passionate about the use of contemporary music in his film. “Certain songs just reverberate and create another level of dialogue in a movie When you use contemporary music, the audience brings their own emotions into and it develops a deeper meaning on the whole.” 

Like other graduating seniors, McDowell is currently looking for a job.  “I want to write and direct, but my only experience, really, is making this film,” he said. “So I hope to get a job in production to learn more about the whole process.”