EVERYONE’S A CRITIC AT OSCAR TIME

While most of Hollywood was busy Monday night patting itself on the back with Oscar statues, in Anaheim a group of aspiring local film makers watching the Academy Awards telecast found many of the choices too distressing to handle. They were forced to shoot.

Armed with toy dart guns, they let fly a barrage of suction cup-tipped projectiles the instant that the lushly romantic “Out of Africa” was announced as best picture. The rubber darts hit the TV screen en masse , virtually obscuring director Sydney Pollack’s face as he gave his acceptance speech and prompting a round of hearty laughter.

“This is really depressing,” said John Jockinsen, a set designer in Rancho Santiago College’s theater department who has also created sets for productions at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa.

“What a disappointment. It seems like Christmas morning when you didn’t get your VCR and you know you have to wait another whole year,” added cinematographer and composer Steve Vasquez, who was host for the group’s annual Oscar-watching party in his Anaheim home.

After the choruses of boos, catcalls and Bronx cheers died down, Jockinsen explained: “You’ve got to have some way to react, and this is a fairly safe way of doing it.”

For this band of about a dozen young directors, writers, cinematographers and designers who collaborate periodically on film projects for one another, the dart guns have become as much of a tradition on Oscar night as the ceremony’s long speeches and corny musical production numbers.

The group’s members are at different stages of career development, but all share the dream of making movies their life work. Director-cinematographer Kate Butler and set dresser Jane Whitehead studied at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles and are now working regularly in the industry for independent studios, while others, such as Vasquez, hold non-film jobs and work on films only part time.

For the past five years, taking aim at the television screen on Oscar night has not only provided comic relief for members of the group but has also helped vent some of their frustrations about the business side of the art form they love.

“That’s why this whole thing was started,” said Rik Carter, a director of several short films who is studying film at Orange Coast College. “You can’t just sit there and watch it. It’s too boring.”

Added Jockinsen: “Seeing ‘Out of Africa’ win all those awards is depressing. It’s like ‘Kramer vs. Kramer’ a few years ago--it’s a big budget, big production with two big stars, but it’s all been done before. The film I wanted to win wasn’t even nominated. That was ‘Brazil.’ ”

Singer Lionel Richie became the favorite target of the night, collecting nearly two dozen darts as he performed his winning original song “Say You, Say Me,” from “White Nights.” As the song ended and darts were removed from the screen, Vasquez said: “Keep them around, he may come back.”

The evening, however, wasn’t all criticism. They enthusiastically applauded Geraldine Page when she picked up the best actress award and were pleasantly stunned by William Hurt’s being chosen best actor.

To these would-be movie moguls, who are in their 20s and 30s, the real heroes of the movie industry aren’t the Sydney Pollacks who win the Academy Awards, nor even the big money makers, such as George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.

Instead, they admire renegade independents such as exploitation film kingpin Roger Corman (“Little Shop of Horrors”), John Sayles (“Return of the Secaucus Seven” and “The Brother From Another Planet”), John Carpenter (“Halloween”) and David Lynch (“Eraserhead”).

“With Corman, the core of the idea is that you don’t have to spend a zillion dollars to make a film,” Carter said.

“It’s amazing to see how much money is wasted,” said Whitehead, who has worked on several rock videos and low-budget features. “Even in low-budget films, you’d think people would try to save some money if they could, but they don’t.”

These film makers say they prefer to continue working as independents, even though they have gained little financial return from their projects.

“I’m not at all interested in Hollywood,” said Ruth Mulligan, who has worked on films with Carter for five years in various roles and aspires to be a movie producer. “There’s no appeal in working for somebody else. It wouldn’t be my work.”

The creativity aspect is equally important in music, said composer Bill Parsley, a graduate of Cal State Fullerton’s music department who works full time scoring independent and student films. “I’ve scored a lot of student films at USC, and they’re boring. That’s why I like working with these people.”

At the conclusion of the Oscar ceremony, as guests began to leave, Vasquez said: “There were more disappointments this year, but it was a better party. Next year, let’s make it black tie.”