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Students gain reel experience from film fest

The Campus MovieFest returns to UCLA on Oct. 14 in the Ackerman 2nd Floor Lounge as the first stop on its West Coast tour. The annual competition provides students with the chance and the equipment to make a five-minute film.

By Catherine Flanagan

Oct. 12, 2009 9:00 p.m.

Brian Tan, a fourth year political science student, did not eat or sleep for three days last summer. He was too busy shooting and editing the short film “Gig.”

“We literally shot this movie in about two days and spent the last day editing nonstop,” Tan said.

On a budget of around $200, Tan said he and his crew of 20 to 30 people, many of whom are members of the Film and Photography Society, created a short film that went on to compete at the International Grand Finale. All of this started with the annual Campus MovieFest, the world’s largest student film festival. The festival will kick off this year’s UCLA competition on Oct. 14 in the Ackerman 2nd Floor Lounge, giving students one week to stir their creative juices and create a five-minute short film.

Started eight years ago, the festival has the same goal today as it had in the beginning.

“We really wanted to share it with a bunch of other people, so we let freshmen and first-year residents in the halls make movies,” said Dan Costa, the president of CMF.

The students were given one week, equipment and creative freedom. “We had no idea what we were going to see but were blown away. That’s how we came up with the notion that everyone has a story to tell and we wanted to help them do that,” Costa said.

Eight years later, CMF has exploded to more than 60 campuses this year, including international college campuses.

“We have been lucky that, not only do most schools invite us back, but the new ones hear about the event and want us to bring it out there,” Costa said.

CMF is loaning all registered student teams a MacBook Pro complete with movie editing software, Panasonic HD cameras, tripods, microphones and a team of experts who will give the support competitors need to make a movie.

“We really want to keep that goal of sharing the event with everyone on campus,” Costa said.

More than 100 films are expected to be entered from UCLA alone, Costa said. Of those, 16 will be screened for the school to see, three of which will win Best Picture, Best Drama or Best Comedy.

Starting this year, CMF added another award in the Social Justice category, which is partnered with the non-profit Elfenworks Foundation.

“We are letting students create a short film that addresses domestic poverty within their local scenes,” Costa said. “It’s pretty exciting, a very good category to offer students and offers a $10,000 grant prize to the winners.”

Also new to this year’s competition is the partnership with AT&T. “They are providing a phone to every single team to use throughout the week to communicate to their team and to use in their film as well,” Costa said.

The team that uses the phone in the film in the most creative way as to show off its characteristics can be put up for nomination for the Golden Mobile Award. Winners receive various Apple, Samsung and AT&T products.

While competing in the festival was an extremely stressful experience for Tan, he admits that it was well worth it, especially due to the connections he made with people in the industry. “It was pretty nice for what it was, and I definitely recommend (it to) people who are interested in film or even just want to try it out. … It provides a medium and an opportunity for people to work in an avenue that otherwise they might never have,” Tan said.

Another member of FPS Productions who has benefited from her contributions to “Gig” is the script supervisor, Erika Drazen, a second-year undeclared student.

“Before FPS and before this production, I did not have any real film experience,” Drazen said. “I had my home video camera that I (used to shoot) some high school projects, but not production experience. … That’s the great thing about (CMF). It gives beginners, if anything, a way to express themselves.”

Through her participation in CMF, Drazen has started contributing to filming of a music video at Paramount and has become more heavily involved in FPS Productions and a new film that the club is hoping to start filming this quarter.

Both Tan and Drazen highly recommend the experience of CMF, even if one week to film, edit and produce a short film seems difficult.

“Ultimately no matter what you film on or what you shoot on or what your skill level is, if you have a cool story people will still want to hear it. I think at the end of the day, whether or not you do progress that far, (at the) very least people at UCLA will enjoy it when it is screened here,” Tan said.

And that is one of the main reasons Costa and the others in charge of CMF continue their work.

“It’s just amazing to see what people are able to come up with when you give them the opportunity,” Costa said. “It’s always different, it’s always fresh, it’s always new and it’s always fun.”

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Catherine Flanagan
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