Students advance to national MovieFest competition

Campus MovieFest wrapped up its jury awards last Thursday with four teams advancing to the grand finale over the summer in Atlanta, G.A.

Those who advanced were picked from the top 16 films and judged by a panel including professors, students and local members of the film industry. The Jury Award-winning groups showed a diverse range of content, from a satirical buddy cop bit to political thrillers and a superpowered chase scene.

The winning films were "Ethnic Detectives," "Framed," "Of Princes" and "When I'm Gone." 

The winners received a 12-month membership to Adobe Creative Cloud as a prize and have the opportunity for more awards at the national level. Two of the short films presented there will be shown at Cannes Film Festival, while several will be showcased as free inflight options for Virgin America planes.

Sophomores Daniel Estrada and Luke Gaines created “Ethnic Detectives,” a tongue-in-cheek procedural short following two officers named White and Privilege.

“We came up with the idea last year, just as a funny idea, like a what-if kind of thing. We were making our first film, and we just sat down for lunch at Ram’s and were like ‘Oh, what if we made that film we talked about a while ago?" Gaines said. 

Gaines said they went into the process intending to have fun — not to win awards.

"We just improved all the scenes basically and had an OK story structure. We were just adding things as we went along," he said. “We went into this contest just trying to have fun, and we ended up winning something, and we didn’t even know if our film would be shown.”

Junior John Schutts worked on “When I’m Gone,” a thriller in which the main character, Alex, films his roommate, Matt, who happens to be the older brother of his ex-girlfriend. He found out about Campus MovieFest from his friend Prakash Kadiri, who started the Carolina Film Association.

“That was everyone in the club’s first project — to create something for that," Schutts said. "That’s how we got involved, and then they had a showcase last Thursday, where they showed the top 16 movies, and did the Jury Awards, which was the top four movies that moved on. We were the last ones that got called, so that was kind of cool.”

The crew of “Framed” found out about Campus MovieFest via email, and worked up to the deadline to execute their film, which centers around two people who can teleport into images.

Junior Greg Palasciano was the gaffer and sound editor for "Framed."

“I thought this was the most rewarding experience I’ve had in college, and it wasn’t even for a grade or anything," he said. "It was great to work with these guys for 20 hours straight like crazy mad scientists."

Michael Heubel, who served as the caption, director, editor and writer, said the time crunch forced them to work productively.

"Campus MovieFest especially forces you to just get your shit together and make something," he said.

Junior Riley Reid worked with Jan Bergengruen and Stuart Schrader on “Of Princes,” a political thriller that makes the student body presidential election look like an episode of "Scandal." The team is excited to go to nationals with the film, which netted Schrader the campus award for Best Director.

“I think what we’re both more excited about is we’re eligible to apply for the Cannes Festival in France in the spring, so we’re excited about the opportunity to apply to such a prestigious festival," Reid said.

Campus MovieFest Promotions Manager Alex McGill said although Campus MovieFest has come a long way from its beginnings at Emory University in 2001, it has remained faithful to the creators’ vision.

“We come from humble beginnings," he said. "We were started by four regular college guys — one was an RA, one was an Apple rep, and then it just evolved from there. What we care about is the students — giving them the opportunity to try this as something cool and different and amazing.”

@rachelisbeyonce

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