By Emily Neelon
One day. 24 hours. 1440 minutes. 86,440 seconds. This is all of the time students and faculty were given to create a film from start to finish last Thursday night.
Maria Erb, instructional designer for Academic Technology Services spearheaded the project with Jose Velazco, The Library’s digital initiatives coordinator. The pair developed the idea for a 24-hour film project while planning for the Second Annual Kate Regan Film Festival.
The project gave students interested in making films an opportunity to learn more about the process. Participating students were guided through the process of creating a film, from brainstorming ideas to filming scenes, to editing footage.
“We were really hoping to bring in people who are on the edges of the film world and give them a chance to see the process from beginning to end and generate some excitement about making videos and bringing stories to life,” Erb said.
The film, titled ABCDZ, was based around a piece written by physics professor Sean Yeager. Featuring a group of friends playing a game of charades, the film’s shadowy figures juxtaposed against a white wall draws inspiration from Plato’s “Analogy of the Cave.”
After writing the script in a week’s time, Yeager was anxious about turning a piece of his writing into a film.
“This was very much a learning experience for me in the best way possible,” Yeager said. “I was pretty nervous about a lot of things…and didn’t realize I’d be playing such a central role...(I was) nervous about whether the script was any good, whether we’d be able to pull it off, and how the final project would turn out.”
Freshman mechanical engineering major Noah Webster acted in the film and assisted with editing footage. The experience opened his eyes to the complexities of creating movies.
“It’s crazy to think how much time it take to make a two and a half minute film,” Webster said.
In the future, Erb hopes to turn the 24-hour film project into a semi-annual event in the fall and spring semesters in which student teams can compete against each other for a prize. Erb also hopes that the project can be implemented into academic course work for applicable classes.
ABCDZ will be featured at the 2nd Annual Kate Reagan Film Festival March 26 from 5-7 p.m. in the Executive Board Room of the Commons.
