By Baron Reichenbach and Emily Wunderlich
Campus Movie Fest: The time for students to express themselves… by making beavers shoot lightning out of their paws.
CMF, which touts itself as the largest student film festival in the world, provides students with all the equipment they need to produce their own 5-minute films in one week. Anonymous judges select 16 films to show at the premiere — four of which will receive the Jury Award and go on to compete at the national TERMINUS convention in Atlanta.
As the fourth annual CMF comes to a close, one student reflects on his first time participating in the event.
Interview with a creator
Nate Landry, 19, a freshman history major, described the “not-at-all remarkable” premise of his short film, “Wood Chucked.”
“You’ve probably seen this plot in every movie,” he said. “Basically, Chuck Wood, an Ohioan lumber conservation agent, has been fighting wood-based crime since the 1980s, and he’s been sent to Florida to stop a patio chair-smuggling operation. Very basic.”
Armed with a camera, tripod, microphone and MacBook with Adobe Creative Cloud 2018, Landry had one week to complete his project. However, during the editing process, he found that the Adobe program was “sluggish.”
“So what I did was I went on my actual Windows PC and found a trial version of Adobe Premiere CS6 2012, which allowed me to get my film done by 3 a.m. (Feb. 25),” he said.
Although he finished the script before he started filming, Landry had to make last-minute adjustments to account for the limited cast and the actors’ availability. This resulted in some roles being cut from the final product.
“It was tough, because some people just couldn’t make it, but the guys who were able to help out were really great,” Landry said.
Even though Landry used to produce short films in high school, he said directing this one was a challenge.
“I can write a good script, and I think I can act, but when it comes to staging and directing people, it was really chaotic. Though I’d say I’m at least better than amateur,” he said. “There was also the stress of balancing the film with my schoolwork… that (was) my biggest challenge next to casting and finding good locations.”
With a $10 budget, Landry said this was his most expensive movie to date. He used the $10 to buy a stuffed beaver.
“I ended up having to spend three hours working on the lightning effects alone, making sure they were coming out of the beaver’s hand, and no one is going to appreciate that,” he said. “No one’s going to realize I spent that much time editing that in with Adobe Premiere.”
See Landry’s film and others at the CMF Premiere today, March 4, in the University Student Center ballrooms. The filmmaker’s reception begins at 6:30 p.m., doors open at 7 and the show begins at 7:30.
