The audience was suspended in stunned silence moments before bursting into applause at the culmination of the 23rd Annual Shorttakes Student Film Festival’s last film. The Audience Choice Award-winning film, “Ruby Locus,” directed by fourth-year political science student Alvaro Wong, tells the narrative of a young girl kidnapped while on a date with a man she met online who later takes part in sexually assaulting and murdering her. Read more...

Photo: (Habeba Mostafa/Daily Bruin)

Four UCLA students filmed the first episode for their web series at Powell Library on Sunday afternoon. It took Armando Berumen at least five tries to catch a crumpled piece of paper – the paper will be edited to include Berumen’s name on it for the opening credits of the series, “Predominantly White Institution.” Giggles erupted from the cast and crew amid Powell Library’s book stacks each time the first-year undeclared student missed the paper ball. Read more...

Photo: Students Feven Negussie, Armando Berumen, Giselle Horta and Andres Esparza (left to right) filmed the first episode for their web series “Predominantly White Institution” at Powell Library on Sunday. (Andrew Arifin/Daily Bruin)

Some of my favorite television series have been analogous to a shooting star – unexpected, attention-grabbing and one-of-a-kind. “13 Reasons Why,” a recent release on Netflix but a long-time favorite of mine since reading the book of the same name 10 years ago, is one such shooting star of a show. Read more...

Photo: The Netflix series “13 Reasons Why” features 13 episodes based on the novel of the same name. A week ago, Netflix announced a second season, which will presumably answer the cliffhangers of the first season and deviate from the source material. (Beth Dubber/Netflix)