American Studies major Andrew Weiner competed in the international Campus Moviefest competition being judged tonight in the Hoff Theater.
For one week, the campus was transformed into a movie set as tales of young love, monster invasions and crime unfolded throughout.
Campus MovieFest, an international student film festival, arrived at this university earlier this month with a challenge for students: Sign up for free to make a five-minute film in seven days. The organization provided everything participants needed: cameras, tripods, microphones and MacBook Pro laptops with editing software and royalty-free music.
“I mean, they just hand that all to you,” senior philosophy major Jack Skinner said. “There was really no excuse not to do it at that point.”
Teams ranged in size from dozens to one-man bands and created a vast array of films that addressed issues both close to the university and global (or out-of-this-world) in scope.
Of the 61 teams that signed up, 21 entered completed films that met the five-minute requirement into the competition. Today, the top 16 films from this university will be screened, and three will be chosen as winners — one will be named best picture, another best drama and another best comedy. Those three films will then go on to compete in Hollywood at the international grand finale in June.
Although the organization has been around for 10 years, this is the first time this university has hosted the student film festival.
“A lot of people haven’t heard of us and to have so many participants, we would definitely call this a success,” MovieFest promotions manager Ann Daykin said.
For many students, the company provided an opportunity to make a short film for the first time.
Knowing this, the organization gives students three days of on-campus technical support for questions about equipment, filming techniques and problems with editing software.
“I think it’s great that they do try and level the playing field and make it so everybody has the opportunity to submit something versus where it’s like if you don’t know how to do it, you can’t,” senior American Studies major Andrew Weiner said.
Participants said they were thrilled to use state-of-the-art equipment.
“When they gave it to me, the look on my face was pure ecstasy,” sophomore English major Deanna Wright said. “I couldn’t believe it.”
Though ample equipment to make a film was provided, one student said his team wanted to take their film a step further — they went out and bought their own lighting equipment at Home Depot.
“It was really hard because we’re not, like, film majors; we don’t know the first thing about filming things. We didn’t know how to film a party to make it look dark but still get faces and stuff lit up,” senior English major Chris Jones said.
Participants said scheduling time between group members to work on the films given the seven-day window was one of the most difficult aspects of the project.
“A week is not a lot of time for a project like this, especially for full-time students with conflicting schedules,” sophomore English major Andrew Cohen wrote in an email. “I heard … that a lot of teams don’t end up finishing their films in time.”
But other students said they got so caught up in their projects, other obligations were put on the back burner.
“It was really easy to just be like, ‘Oh man, I have to work on the film’ and then forget about school,” Jones said.
Most students chose to film their productions on the campus, but found it difficult to obtain permission to shoot in some places.
“For the last scene, originally it was supposed to be shot at the coffee shop in Stamp, but they actually didn’t allow us to shoot there, so we had to change the whole ending,” Wright said.
University officials said they have begun to notice a student interest in film.
According to arts and humanities college Associate Dean Beth Loizeaux, a new degree program in film studies may be in the works.
Before the major could be offered to students, a proposal would have to go through extensive review by university officials, as well as representatives from the state’s Higher Education Commission. Loizeaux noted a draft of such a proposal is in the works, however.
“My bet is that fall 2013 is the earliest we’d see a new undergraduate film major,” she wrote in an email.
Students said they are excited to possibly see their films in the finale tonight.
“It’s cool to have something and point to it and say ‘that’s mine,'” Skinner said.
Participants who entered the competition said their week’s work paid off.
“There’s nothing better than having an idea in your head and then just once you see the final product and you see that it’s real and this is all just something that you had thought up,” Weiner said. “It’s a really cool experience and it’s a really rewarding feeling.”
Students’ films will premiere tonight at the Hoff Theater. Doors open at 7 p.m., and the show starts at 7:30.
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