Far from the coifed glamour of the Oscars, hundreds of exhausted students gathered in the Baker Center Theatre last night to celebrate a different side of filmmaking.
The screening last night of more than 20 short films was the crowning glory of the fifth annual Shoot Out, hosted by the Ohio University School of Telecommunications. Teams of students are given a genre, prop and line of dialogue and are asked to make a 3- to 5-minute film.
The catch is that teams have only 48 hours to finish the project ' complete with filming, editing and original music.
I haven't slept in about 30 hours
said junior video production student Kyra Boff, while working with competition winners, Sheepleaser Productions, on Saturday. You never get any sleep when you're working Shoot Out.
Teams try to have the script written out by Friday night, so filming could begin as early as possible on Saturday.
Teams have to do all the making of a real film said Frederick Lewis, the faculty adviser for the competition and one of the judges. It's just in a really compressed time frame.
The first-place crew, Sheepleaser Productions, garnered a few stares as they staged a civil-rights demonstration on the steps of Jefferson Hall Saturday afternoon for its film Vicious Cycle. Confusion was replaced by amusement though, when passers-by realized the chant colors and whites we're all right was about laundry instead of racism.
The prop we were given was bleach
so our premise is the color versus whites laundry segregation issue
said director Wrion Bowling, a junior video production student.
More than 30 extras were gathered on short notice to participate in the film, which included a musical number in addition to the protest. My friend just asked me to come down wearing bright colors
said sophomore Corey DiNardo, a business major. I'm really excited to see what the film's actually about when it all comes together.
On Friday night, a record 35 teams received their prompts. Only 23 films were turned in by the deadline last night, and many teams came right down to the wire.
Our film was almost a disaster
said director Jason Elewski, a junior video production student. We had to do some major revision last night
and only finished about half an hour before the deadline.
Teams had to pull together actors, locations and costumes at the last minute and were only able to start filming after the script was fully written.
My friend called me on Friday night asking me if I could be a mime for his film
said Anthony Chambers, a senior English and journalism major. We filmed all day; it was something like 13 hours long.
The second place winner was 2nd Try Productions with the film Lou's Clues, a semi-animated parody of a children's show. The all-freshman team Cherry Tree Productions won third place with Snatch'd, a musical. The special underclassmen award for freshman and sophomore teams went to the romance film Waiting to Make a Move.
Bowling said he thought Shoot Out was worth it despite the lack of sleep all weekend long. He said he'd like to do it more often ' once a month, maybe.
I didn't really come into this with a lot of expectations
Bowling said. There were a lot of really good projects tonight.All Shoot Out films will be screened at 8:45 tonight in the Baker Center Theatre.
