Student Moviepalooza

Campus Movie Fest gives students access to equipment and a venue to showcase and vote on top movies.

By Mike Sullivan

Entering Campus Movie Fest.  [Click to enlarge]

Although it was going to be a night of student films (which can sometimes fall under cruel and unusual punishment), I was buoyed by the name of the event -- Campus Movie Fest.  When I was a student at Emerson College back in the early 90s, people used the term “film” far too much.  I still cringe a bit when I hear it.  To me, film is the physical material that passes through the camera; I like movies.  And it seems that both the creators of and the participants in last Saturday’s screening do, too.   

The Campus Movie Fest (CMF) is an annual event that showcases student films from over 40 colleges in major cities across the country.  Started by four students from Emory University in Atlanta, CMF is now in its seventh year.  More than 150,000 students from cities like Boston, New York, San Francisco, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and other locations have submitted movies to the festival since it began.  CMF has even crossed the pond.  Students from the University at St. Andrews in Scotland have participated and this year CMF will be showing some of the winning movies at Cannes. 

According to one of the founders, David Roemer, the original idea was “to see what would happen if we supplied students with a laptop and a camera to make short films.”  So the founders created a partnership with Apple and AT&T that supplies young filmmakers with a camcorder, a laptop with iMovie or Final Cut Pro, and some training -- all for free -- and gives the students seven days to write, shoot, and edit their five-minute-or-less movies. 

The crowd's favorite, My Best Friend, My Butler.  [Click to enlarge]

The Boston Grand Finale was held at the Colonial Theater on April 26^th.  Students from Bridgewater State, Boston College, Boston University, Emerson, MIT, Northeastern, and Tufts made their way through the grand, ornate lobby of Boston’s oldest operating theater.  The evening’s program consisted of winners from competitions at each respective school.  The auditorium was a sea of wrinkled T-shirts, long hair, scraggly beards, cool hats and backward baseball caps. 

The student filmmakers were welcomed by a few words from a Hollywood director, Mark Waters.  His reel includes Freaky Friday, Mean Girls, The Spiderwick Chronicles and he is in town shooting The Ghosts of Girlfriends Past.  As Waters referenced his first student projects and how he had to splice together 8mm film, I wondered how many in the audience knew that there was a time when movies actually had to be physically cut and taped together or if they knew what “8mm” meant.  But, then the movies started. 

The screening included movies from 16 finalists broken into four groups of four.  From the start, it was obvious that some students were more aware of the craft than others.  Skill level varied in the use of lighting, mixing, and match-cuts.  But it was equally obvious that everyone who took the time and energy to put something together had a love of movies and a passion for visual storytelling.   

Every subject and genre was present and accounted for: comedy, musical, drama, documentary, animation, origami, poetry, puppets, and penises.  Variety of style and technique was the most interesting part of the festival as a whole.  One moment you’re watching a French language love story involving sock-puppets in a human world and the next you’re asked interpret a visual/aural poem about one man’s existence in relationship to the mall.   

I admit, I didn’t really get that one, but the judges did -- Patron Addicted -- produced by students from Tufts, won Best Picture and FCP Studio for all the members of the team. 

As a documentary editor, I was drawn to the form I found in In With The Cabbiee.  Filmmaker Jeff Boedeker, a masters student at BU, crafted a complete five-minute story about a Boston cab driver from an hour-and-a-half interview and b-roll.  The movie had a grungy, grainy, street-wise feel that matched well with the subject matter.  Boedeker could expand his short into a longer piece with little trouble.  He is one that understands that software like FCP and technologies such as Mini-DV have made filmmaking more accessible.  “The cool part is everyone can participate.  Film is a language and people are starting to learn this language,” he said. 

Nic Michaels (the friend) and Patrick Rule (the butler).   [Click to enlarge]

My Best Friend, My Butler was a very funny comedy produced by a group of graduate students from Emerson.  It’s a simple tale about a young guy who wins the Lotto and hires his best friend as his butler.  If it sounds like a sitcom premise it should -- the filmmakers wrote, shot, and cut it like a sitcom, laugh-track and all.  This was also the second year for team leaders Nic Michaels and Patrick Rule.  Last year’s entry was a self-described disaster and they decided they would need to focus their energies more this year.  Michaels and Rule spent most of their time actually writing the story and the gags, taking the time to make sure their ideas were sound before shooting a frame.  If only Hollywood did that more often.  

The Audience Choice was awarded just after all the movies were screened.  The crowd texted codes from their cell for the movies they liked (just like American Idol) and the results were seen real time on the screen with a recap of each movie. In With The Cabbie was ahead for most of the time, but My Best Friend, My Butler swooped in and won, last minute.  The other awards were announced at the event; they had been judged earlier.  Winners of the Best Picture, Best Comedy, and Best Drama got to say their thank-yous on stage. 

Rule and Michaels echoed the thoughts of Boedeker, CMF staff, and others when asked about the opportunities Campus Movie Fest presents.  They were excited to have avenues where people can see their work and let the movies speak for themselves.  Although winning free stuff is never a bad thing, every one of the filmmakers featured should be proud that they actually produced a piece of work and that it was seen by someone other than their mom. 

All of the Boston-area Campus Movie Fest films are online.  See My Best Friend, My Butler here or In With the Cabbie here.

Mike Sullivan graduated from Emerson College in 1994. He is currently a senior editor/DS artist for Boston Productions, Inc.

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