By Jessie Rosenfeld
News Editor
The connection that brothers Bridger and Carson Hart share goes further than blood lines into a deeper bond through their passion for art.
Both Bridger and Carson Hart had an interest in art from a young age, which they continue to practice today. Sophomore Bridger Hart’s main focus is filmmaking. Senior Carson Hart is involved in many platforms of art, including drawing, painting, building, filming and photography.
“Bridger knows a lot about certain aspects of photography that are more technical, especially in terms of editing, so he helps to teach me,” Carson Hart said. “It is convenient and inspiring to have Bridger as my brother.”
Bridger Hart first started filming when he was 10 years old and began by shooting videos of his friends skateboarding. Once he learned about stop-motion films, he moved away from only filming his friends and began creating short films with story lines and central plots.
“I taught myself, and a lot of what I pick up is just absorbed from movies,” Bridger Hart said. “I find things I like in movies, and I just do it and that is what makes my style of filmmaking.”
To create his films, Bridger uses different tools, such as a drone, which can take a complete aerial shot. For the most part, Bridger uses homemade equipment to film. Bridger has created a camera crane, which can raise the camera and allow it to have different motions.
“Film is a good way of expressing sides of myself that I am unable show in other ways,” Bridger Hart said. “I think of filming as an art form, not as work. It is a way to show my emotions.”
During his freshman year of high school, Bridger Hart enrolled in the Orange County School of Arts to further his study of filmmaking. Last semester at OCSA, he began working on a dark comedy called “Wolf,” as a class project with his classmate Patrick Verdeja, which is a story about a boy going on a journey to find his lost wolf. He transferred to Costa the start of second semester because of the commute to OCSA was too long.
“It started as a school project, but we took it way beyond that,” Bridger Hart said. “We did not care about the grade; we wanted to make it as good as we could.”
To create the film, Bridger Hart and Verdeja worked with playwright Moss Perricone from New York University who crafted the script; Costa senior Derek Zeoli who composed the music; and several different actors. Once Bridger Hart and Verdeja completed “Wolf,” they submitted it to the Newport Film Festival and are currently waiting for results.
“I was having trouble finding the story at first, but once Perricone wrote it for me, it was easier to interpret someone else’s script,” Bridger Hart said.
Carson Hart has been the subject of many of Bridger’s short films and played a minor role in a scene from “Wolf.” According to Carson Hart, the brothers are constantly bouncing ideas off of each other and definitely keep the other’s advice in mind when creating a piece.
“Carson and Bridger both help push each other to do greater things and in a way compete against each other,” sophomore Graham Amato said. “They help each other with ideas and work well together.”
According to Carson Hart, the brothers’ family influenced their passion for art. Their father is a candy inventor, their mother is a former fashion designer and their grandfather works with ceramics and painting.
“My family has been a huge influence in my art since I grew up with creative people,” Carson Hart said. “A lot of people in our family are very talented, so it has been extremely influential in mine and Bridger’s lives.”
Carson Hart has been drawing his entire life and began taking photos in sixth grade. Carson has submitted his work to numerous Neptunian Women’s art contests and participated in last year’s Advanced Placement Art show “Voices” at Costa. According to Carson Hart, photography is his main passion and primary focus other than school.
“I was really interested in capturing an image and making it look more appealing to the eye,” Carson Hart said. “There are so many different aspects of photography, so it is just an interesting challenge for me.”
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