On the night of Wednesday, Oct. 26, Longwood University students walked through the doors of Jarman Auditorium on a red carpet, past paparazzi to sit down and watch the Longwood University finale of Campus MovieFest (CMF), an international filmmaking competition that travels to colleges all over the United States and England. CMF is currently affiliated with at least 50 other colleges in America and at least six in England. This is CMF's first year at Longwood University.
During the week of Oct. 18, all students were offered the chance to sign up for the contest and create their short films, no longer than five minutes in length. Each team was given top-of-the-line equipment to produce their films, including a Panasonic HD camera, an Apple laptop with Final Cut editing software, microphones, and tripods and only one week for filming.
The finale event was hosted by CMF Team Member, Ashley Greenwood and CMF Rep Intern, Chris Cooper, featured the top 16 movies of the 35 that were entered in the competition. At the end of the finale, awards were given out to the best films of each category and included: Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Drama, Best Comedy and Best Picture. Each of the 16 films showcased in the finale were nominees for each of these categories, and all were selected by a panel of faculty and staff on the merits of technicality, content, and quality.
The top 16 films were:
"As Far As I Know, I Won't Forget You" led by Kaitlynn Slaughter
"Big T's Animal Hour" led by Thomas Natale
"The Chase" led by Michelle Moodhe
"Devocean" led by Hayden Mater
"First Sight" led by Tim Mellon
"High Bridge Trail" led by George Werbacher
"High Rise Horrors" led by Jeffrey Reason
"Ignorance is Bliss" led by Patrick McDonald
"The Making of Nothing" led by Matthew James Paxton
"Darksoul" led by Michael Green
"Procrastination" led by Brandon Gardiner
"She Likes Me For My Brains" led by Katie Bennett
"Ruthless Justice" led by Alice Ferguson
"pillowtalk" led by Erikk Leeroy Shupp
"Salon D and the Girl that Knew Not" led by Michael Green
"Delusional" led by Michael Green.
At the end of the night, the Campus MovieFest Silver Tripod Awards were given to their respective winners. The Silver Tripods for Best Actor and Best Actress were won by Patrick McDonald for "Ignorance is Bliss" and Annaliese Troxell for "pillowtalk," respectively. Those nominated for Best Drama included "Ignorance is Bliss," "Devocean," and "First Sight," with "Devocean" taking home the award.
"I've always wanted to do a small documentary on one of my favorite passions, which is skateboarding. Putting this movie together was seriously a challenge," said Mater, director of "Devocean," a documentary on the evolution and lifestyle of skateboarding. "[But] the final product was satisfying. I feel as if every director goes through the post-production stage of critiquing everything … This was the first time I had ever interviewed anyone, but for making this thing in two days flat, I'm decently pleased."
Best Comedy nominees included "Procrastination," "She Likes Me For My Brains," and "Salon D and the Girl that Knew Not," with a win from "Procrastination." "Procrastination," which told the story of four roommates whose procrastination on a paper ends in humorous, but disastrous results, included the team of Brandon Gardiner, Jeff Delbridge, Ben Davis, Jake Smith, Gwendolyn Prince, Ben Maitland and Associate Professor of Communications Studies, Jeff Halliday.
All of the 16 films were eligible to win Best Picture, but "She Likes Me For My Brains" took the final win. "She Likes Me for My Brains,"a lighthearted film led by Katie Bennett and included a crew of Holly Hackworth, Zach Sneed, Maggie Williams, and Emily Stern, detailed a love story about a man and his zombie girlfriend. "I didn't think I'd actually have the time [to enter the contest]," stated Bennett. "It wasn't until the representatives were actually on campus giving out the equipment that I thought, ‘This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, Just go for it.' So I called up Holly Hackworth and said, ‘I don't really have an idea yet, but do you want to just do this with me? We've got nothing to lose.' She said, ‘Yes,' and here we are!"
"[The experience with Longwood] has been super awesome with lots of enthusiasm," said Greenwood about her CMF experience at Longwood. "First year schools are either a hit or miss, and you guys were definitely a hit. The audience [for the finale] was great. A lot of people showed up, and it was great to see students come together and support each other in this creative outlet that you don't get very often." When asked if CMF was going to return to Longwood for next year's competition, Greenwood replied, "I hope so. If we can, we'll be here. It's a joint decision between Longwood and us."
The winners for Best Drama, Best Comedy, and Best Picture will all have a chance to go to the Campus MovieFest in Hollywood in June of 2012 where the winners will have their films screened and pitted against all the winners of participating schools in the competition.
"I've never been to been to California," Bennett said. "I've never been farther west than Indiana, actually, and California's a place that I've always wanted to see. I can't wait to walk the red carpet when they show our movie and see the other movies from around the country. Meeting some famous people would be nice too!"
CMF also offers a Wild Card Award where the Longwood University video with the most views on the CMF website by Nov. 25 will also have an opportunity to go to Hollywood. Students can watch all the finalists' videos at campusmoviefest.com by searching for Longwood University.
