by jon bosworth jaxvillain@yahoo.com
Wanna make a movie? What if someone would give you a digital video camera and Apple laptop with iMovie and Final Cut Pro on it? Still wouldn’t? The world’s largest student film festival is returning to Florida for its third year to get students to create short films. No, the films don’t have to be Apple commercials, but they may end up running on TBS since Turner Classic Movies is a title sponsor.
“We’re partnered with Apple because they have such user-friendly equipment. We really encourage students that have never made a movie before to try it.”
Megan Solomon is the Public Relations Coordinator of the festival. When EU first received the press release about the event, we thought there must be a catch. As it turns out the only catch is that a JU student has to be the primary filmmaker, although the organization encourages as much community involvement as possible.
“The students have a week to make their own movies. We supply all of the equipment to make the movie, and have tech assistants on hand for the whole week. 1300 songs, which have been submitted by artists from across the country, are available for use in the films.”
There are no restrictions on genre or topic, only time. The final product will be five minutes long. This festival is an international event, with host universities in California, Massachusetts (including MIT), Florida, Georgia, and even Scotland. Students sign up, receive their equipment and some basic training, and are then left to their own devices. On the final day the short films are presented at the Jacksonville Finale. Finalists will be able to compete regionally with the other participating colleges. If your film goes all the way to the East Coast finals, you could win $10,000 and a chance to compete in the national finals.
The Florida events offer more than $50,000 in prize money as well as iPods, camcorders, and DVD players, not to mention nationwide exposure for your short film.
“Turner Broadcasting picks the Very Funny Film Award finalist and, at the Florida Grand Finale, the winning team premieres their short on Turner Broadcasting System.”
The event starts when the festival rolls into Jacksonville on February 27th and the Finale takes place on March 5. Whether you win or not, you have to return the equipment to the Festival to use in the next city, but you will be left with a film of your own creation. Another facet of the festival is the TCM Classic Film Award. Students can take their favorite classic movie and rework a scene or insert a whole new scene. You are free to re-imagine a classic film any way you want.
Started at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, the festival has existed for six years, but has only been to Florida for the last three. Getting Turner and Apple on board certainly helped. Turner hopes to utilize the festival to tap into some cutting edge comedic minds to support their new comedy lineup on TBS, which includes original programs such as My Boys and 10 Items or Less, to complement their syndicated comedy lineup.
If you are a JU student, you can turn one of those “that would be a great scene in a movie” moments into an actual movie. If you’re not a JU student, and you don’t think you will be by the end of this month, make a friend over there and feed them you’re craziest idea. You’re still allowed to help with the movie; you just have to let them do the technical stuff. “We try to leave it as open as possible so that students can work their imaginations into it.”
|
