The Sandspur

Issue date: 2/21/08 Section: Arts & Entertainment

Campus MovieFest, a week long filmmaking festival developed by four Emory students seven years ago, has hit Rollins for its third year running.

Based in the Darden Lounge of the Cornell Campus Center until Feb. 26, CMF supplies students with the opportunity and equipment to make a fi ve minute or shorter film about any topic they desire.

"CMF is an incredibly unique opportunity for students to come together to create a message," said sophomore Emily Killian, the CMF student contact. "Everyone has a voice and CMF forces us to decide what it is that we want to say."

CMF started in 2001 when a few friends decided to lend camcorders and equipment to fellow students, allowing them to create short fi lms that could be shared with the rest of the campus.

Over the years, CMF has helped make over 3,000 fi lms on 35 campuses with over 100,000 students.

Currently, 55 teams from Rollins are signed up with an expectation that five or six more teams ill join, for a total of 61 competing quads.

Considering the size of the dchool, which is about 1700, having 55 teams is a huge percentage of kids," said the Florida and New York tour manager Mikey Seminer.

English and film professor Dr. William Boles, a two-year judge of the festival, believes the event is a great opportunity for the school.

"I think it's a good program," he said. "It generates a lot of excitement among the students."

Funding for the festival comes from numerous sources including the colleges and universities it occupies, corporations like AT&T and Apple, and non profit organizations
such as The Elfenworks Foundation, sponsor of the first ever Social Justice category.

"CMF is morally supported by the administration…," Killian said.

"The event is a student initiative led by the LEAD Team and gets much of its financial support from the Office of Student Involvement and Leadership."

Among the 55 teams that have signed up, junior Dave Pandich is making a film about the Buddhist's perspective of love starring juniors Chaz Moore and Marie Reddling.

"I don't want to divulge much but I will tell you that I did some prep work ahead of time," Pandich said.

Other teams like the one consisting of freshmen Jon Harper, Walker Holloway, and Travis Denham do not know what they will be making but are excited to be participating in the lively festival.

"We weren't really into filmmaking until we were in Dr. Boles' Making Movies RCC, which is what influenced us to do this," Harper said.

Films are critiqued by a panel of judges comprised of faculty from the Film Studies program along with top fi lm industry leaders of Orlando.

Scoring is determined by a template that makes the judges examine plot, cinematography, music used, technical aspects, and the film as a whole.

For Dr. Boles to enjoy a film, though, he looks for more than just that.

"I look to see whether it encompasses what it was meant to do," Boles said. "Was it meant to make you laugh or be dramatic…I look at it in terms of just whether it's a good short film."

"There are so many ways to get involved," Killian said. "If you're interested in writing, directing, acting, creating costumes, sound designing or editing, you've got a spot on a team!"

A premiere of the top 16 films will debut Feb. 28 in the Alfond Sports Center and will feature a pre-show by student band The Thought Doctors and a VIP after-party open to the Winter Park community at the Cornell Fine Arts Museum, both firsts for the festival.

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