ACU’s 10th annual Film Fest is in full swing as student teams are working to put together their short films by the March 17 deadline.
Ten teams are signed up to compete in the annual competition, which is the most in the event’s history. Teams put together films no longer than 10 minutes that pertain to the year’s theme. Film Fest’s theme this year is “Shift.”
Film Fest co-chair Lucius Patehaude, senior multimedia major from Phrae, Thailand said, “The themes are supposed to be extremely general to get people thinking while also giving some sort of cohesion to everything that is produced. For me, it was pushing for a change. When I wrote my script, I thought ‘how can my characters change?’ and that’s how I went with shift.”
Groups of about five students comprise a team, and each team submits a video for judgement. The films will all be seen at an annual awards Gala scheduled for March 21.
Each film is required to have at least three control elements to challenge the students to think creatively when constructing their script. Control elements this year include a gold watch, a bar of soap, a bent spoon, a half-eaten bagel and a spinning top.
Past winners for categories such as “best director” and “best picture” have enjoyed not only bragging rights, but a cash prize as well.
“The cash prize this year has not been determined yet,” Patenaude said. “In the past, the awards have gone up to $500 and a cool plastic trophy.”
However, many students choose to participate because of the experience and sense of accomplishment that Film Fest offers to its participants.
“Getting more quality material for my demo reel is a great thing to add to the experience because people love to see that you have been involved in creative projects like this,” said Rachel Smith, senior English major from Wiggins, Colo. “Also, I am doing it for fun because I have always wanted to do Film Fest since I was a freshman and this is the first year I have been able to do it.”
Creating a video for Film Fest is time-consuming, meaning those who participate need to be committed to spending hours working on their videos.
“The timeline varies from year to year because new people organize it every year,” Patenaude said. “Usually the production is about a month. This year I am shooting to make a nine-minute video. I have already shot about two hours of video and I have about 30 seconds of edited footage. It may take about 20 hours of shooting.”
Although many teams have already begun shooting video, students who are interested in submitting a video are still eligible to do so before the scripts deadline of March 7.
