LOS ANGELES -- The "Shadow" knows and so does Daniel Kutner.
Working around the clock for nearly six months, the senior at the University of California, Santa Barbara, got an education in the rigors of filmmaking. With the surf and the Isla Vista party scene raging around them, he and film-studies partner Brian Emerson rarely left the house as they made "Shadow of a Drought," their animated student production that marked a breakthrough for UCSB's academically oriented film school.Proving that talent knows no bounds, Kutner and Emerson will take home UCSB's first-ever Student Academy Award this month when they receive their medallion for "Shadow," which is in competition with animated entries from New York University and California Institute of the Arts near Los Angeles. Entries from UCSB -- which offers only two animation classes -- had been nominated before but never reached the winner's circle.
"This is a school where, if you're willing to kill yourself making a film, you can make one," says Kutner, who served as the co-writer and producer for "Shadow." Co-writer Emerson also handled the directing duties on their production, which employed three types of animation: computer-generated imagery, cel and bond, and clay.
"We had no social life for months. We left the houses only to get dinner," adds Kutner, who hails from La Jolla. Emerson is from West Los Angeles.