Campus MovieFest highlights student filmmakers

Less than a week before the Academy Awards, students rushed to turn in the short films they had produced in less than a week to the world’s largest student film festival, Campus Movie Fest (CMF). 

The festival travels to 70 college campuses across the world. Over the past 12 years, more than 500,000 students have participated in making their own short films. 

This is the sixth year USF, one of the largest participating schools in the country,  has been a part of the CMF tradition, with several USF teams placing nationally in the competition. 

Nishant Gona, promotions manager for CMF and a USF alumnus, said this year 180 teams from USF are participating. 

The rules were simple. 

Each team, composed of one to 20 students, created a five-minute film that was shot and edited between Feb. 12 and Feb. 18. On a first come, first serve basis, teams received a Mac Book Pro with editing software, a Panasonic HD camera and 1,300 licensed free songs. Other than actors, all team members had to be USF affiliates, and profanity, nudity, drug use and graphic violence was prohibited. 

Other than, participants had free reign to create their films on topics as serious or mundane as they chose. 

“Most students produce short fictional films but there are also a few other types such as documentaries,” Chad Elswick, a junior majoring in business and Movies Director for the Campus Activities Board, said. Last year was his first year participating in CMF, and this year he decided to get more involved with the campus activities board. 

Justin Diehl, a sophomore majoring in engineering, said he got involved after seeing a CMF display in the Marshall Student Center. 

“I’ve always wanted to be an editor,” he said. 

Diehl’s film is a collection of random five-second clips for which he and his team hope to enter the category of “Best Comedy.” 

Sophomore Nick Conde and his team, which won the “Campus Best Drama” category last year for its film “Bad Beat” about a man who finds himself through a game of poker, made a fantasy film this year in hopes of winning again. 

“(The idea) just came to me,” Conde said.  

The event is free, and there are no participation or equipment rental fees. 

The winners of this year’s campus movie fest will be announced at the Red Carpet Event Finale on Feb. 26 at 8 p.m. in the Oval Theatre, when awards will be given out to the Best Picture, Best Comedy, Best Drama  as well  as  Best Actor and Actress. 

All winners receive a CMF winner t-shirt, and winners of Best Picture, Best Comedy and Best Drama move on to the international event, CMF Hollywood in June 2013. These teams also win a one-year subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud, which includes all of Adobe’s products, a $600 value.