After four days of filming, editing and acting, the Student Film Organization’s Four Day Film Festival came to a close.
After more than 10 groups originally signed up to compete, only seven videos were completed on time to be judged.
Some groups sat comfortably enjoying their popcorn as movies were shown as others finished just in time. The guidelines set by the SFO were must use prop and logline given, stick to a genre and had to be completed in four days.
Davey Rockwell president of the SFO said he judged the films on how well they stuck to their genre, how well they used their prop, originality of script, and if it was entertaining.
The movie genres ranged from film noir to romantic comedies to films that may have had a message. Two filmmakers got creative and took a non-traditional approach to film making. Jason Oshman’s film “Scavenger Hunt” did not use actors at all but instead he hired sock puppets. Ken Campbell took a similar approach without using actors, but instead of socks, he used clay.
Everyone laughed and enjoyed watching their fellow students’ work, but there could only be one winner. The piece that won was a film noir set during the prohibition called “Nickels and Dimes” by four film and video students. Watch the video here.
“We picked the winner because it filled all four categories of criteria,” said Rockwell, “It was by far the best film.” See other videos at the SFO’s Facebook Page.
The four students who made the film said one of the hardest parts about filming was sticking to the logline because they wanted to have a storyline that was a little more serious and it did not come to them overnight.
“It was more of an evolution, the idea didn’t strike us all at once,” said John Guetermas, a Penn State junior. “The original idea came to me while I was sitting in class and imagining if coffee was illegal and how horrible it would be. Then all four of us got together and came up with the prohibition idea.”
The winning group won four tickets to any movie playing at the state theatre. Rockwell said “Nickels and Dimes” was the best film, “but there were a lot of great and different films that were made and it was interesting to see what everyone came up with.”
