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It was lights, camera, action for two days straight last weekend when five teams of filmmakers wrote, directed, acted and edited short films for the 48 Hour Film Competition hosted by the Student Activities Board.
Sophomore Laura Woods, 48 Hour Film Competition event chair, said the competition takes place every other year and ends with a closing ceremony that allows each team to premiere its video in front of the other filmmakers, audience members, as well as three judges.
Woods said the event began Thursday evening when teams — ranging from three to six people — had 48 hours to create a short film. Woods said the SAB guidelines for the event stated the films could not include discrimination, targeting of groups of people, alcohol, drugs, nudity or profanity.
Woods said other parameters for the students’ films were each production had to include a buzz word — either Nancy Drew, onomonopeia, centripetal acceleration, octopus or Alexander Hamilton — and the videos had to be seven minutes or less. Woods said other than those guidelines, each team had free reign to decide what its video was about.
During the closing ceremonies Saturday, team members and their friends gathered to watch the final products. Woods said there were three judges — Mark Smith, communication professor and KTRM adviser, John Gardner, director of Residence Life, and his wife, Tarasa Gardner.
“[The judges] were given a rubric that was out of 25 points,” Woods said. “They looked for incorporation of buzz word, the creativity of the film, the creativity of dialogue and the aesthetics of the filming.”
Woods said the winners were given $240 in Amazon gift cards to split between the team members.
The winning film was titled “Hollywood Love versus Reality.” Junior Lincoln McCoy, who wrote, co-directed and starred in the film, said the film is a parody of classic Hollywood romance.
McCoy said after the opening ceremonies, his five-person team got together to brainstorm film ideas. He said he had the idea for what the group came up with, so he was the initial writer. From there, the group assigned jobs along the way, McCoy said.
The film contrasted the perceptions of Hollywood love and reality, McCoy said. He said he played the Hollywood character and the reality character.
“With the Hollywood guy, nothing could go wrong,” McCoy said. “With reality guy, he was this ugly, weird guy. I hardly even recognized myself.”
To learn more about the competition, pick up the latest issue of The Index or check out the story on Issuu.