Campus MovieFest returned to campus for the fourth time on Feb. 1 and saw the biggest turnout ever from Alabama students.
More than one hundred teams picked up all the necessary equipment from the Ferguson Center to make a five-minute film last week.
Lindsay Malone, the graduate assistant for student affairs at the Ferguson Center, said she believes this year’s promotions campaign headed by the Ferguson Center contributed to the large turnout.
“We were working really hard on promoting it and getting it out to most of the campus,” she said. “Students are also starting to realize that it’s a really fun event and something for them to take pride in.”
Since Campus MovieFest started on Feb. 1, it has been a busy week for everyone involved. Henry Busby, a junior majoring in telecommunication and film, participated in Campus MovieFest both this year and last year, when his team’s film was nominated for best comedy.
Busby said the most difficult part of the week is scheduling times when the members of the cast and crew can all meet to work on the film. The time commitment mostly depends on the participants, ranging from an afternoon to weeks or even months of planning before MovieFest begins.
“As film students, we like to use it as a way to challenge ourselves within the time constraints,” he said. “With only a week, there’s not room for anything to go wrong.”
While the students have been busy making their films, the organizers at the Ferguson Center have been busy getting the panel of judges together and making sure everything is ready to go by the finale on Feb. 10.
Malone said it will be a mix between a film festival and an awards show because the top 16 films will be screened, followed by the announcements of the awards. Doors open at 7 p.m. and it starts at 7:30.
“It’s totally free for students, and a lot of people will dress really crazy, but it’s considered red-carpet attire,” she said. “This is something that if students didn’t make a film, they can still come and enjoy the night.”
Another way UA is attempting to get people more involved with Campus MovieFest is by creating a “fan favorite” award sponsored by Bama Dining. Students will be able to watch submissions online and vote for their favorite movie by tweeting or texting the movie’s title.
Besides adding the fan favorite award, Campus MovieFest also added a new category, The Elfenworks Social Justice Category. According to the Campus MovieFest website, this category is for films that relate to poverty or inequality in America. Malone thinks that this will be a popular category for submissions.
“I think a lot of people have done that in the past,” she said. “There are a lot of videos that are more compelling, that it’s really obvious they spend a lot of time on the script, so I think that’ll we’ll see a good response in the category.”
The panel of judges is set to meet Feb. 8. It is comprised of faculty, staff and students who were nominated by the Ferguson Center’s undergraduate event planning board. They tried to get a panel comprised of people with different areas of expertise.
One of the judges is James Herron, a junior majoring in telecommunications and film. He said the panel has set aside a three and a half hour viewing period to review all the films and pick the ones that will be featured at the finale.
“I’m a big fan of comedies so hopefully someone can get some in there that are pretty funny, but besides that I’m looking for anything that’s just well done,” he said.
