Lights, camera, action!
This week, the College Houses and Academic Services is hosting its sixth annual College House Film Festival to showcase the filmmaking talent of Penn’s student community.
The Festival features 10-minute short films that students completed either for a class or specifically for the competition.
Screenings of student productions began on Monday in McClelland Hall and end today with a free “gala big-screen showing of the finalists,” open to all students, at the Bridge Cinema de Lux at 8 p.m.
According to Gregory College House Dean Christopher Donovan, the selection process “allows program residents to have the opportunity to develop criteria for evaluating film and to get a taste of what it might be like to serve on a festival jury.”
Donovan added, “For filmmakers, they have a chance to reach an audience of their peers and to win some amazing prizes. For the audience, [the Festival] is a reminder of the amazingly diversified creative prowess of the Penn student body.”
CHAS Director for Communications Sue Smith hopes that students in the audience develop an appreciation for the thriving community of their fellow peers, faculty and staff who enjoy filmmaking. She encourages students to make use of Penn’s abundant academic support for cinema development.
“Everyone involved enjoys seeing the student submissions; many are funny, many are Penn-specific, and all showcase the filmmaker’s sense of aesthetics, technical knowledge of editing, camera angles, working with a team, and use [of] soundtracks,” Smith wrote in an e-mail.
- The films of the nine finalists will be shown tonight. - The screening is at the Bridge Cinema De Lux at 8 p.m. - First prize is $500, second prize is $300 and third prize is $150. - There is also a prize for “Audience Favorite.”
College sophomore Andrew Gepty values the Film Festival because it provides students of all backgrounds an opportunity to “show their own slice of creativity.”
“You get a chance to see different styles of acting and directing. It’s nice to see the different genres,” added Gepty, whose film, Eavesdrop, was one of the many short films featured in Harrison College House’s sky lounge yesterday.
All Penn students are invited to tonight’s free screening of the film finalists at the Bridge and free reception at Metropolitan Bakery. Awards for this year’s festival include a first prize of $500, second prize of $300 and third prize of $150. The audience will also pick an “Audience Favorite” which will receive a prize valued at $50.
All entrants for the 2010 College House Film Festival are encouraged to submit their production to the Association of Higher Education Campus Television Administrators Student Production Award.
- The films of the nine finalists will be shown tonight. - The screening is at the Bridge Cinema De Lux at 8 p.m. - First prize is $500, second prize is $300 and third prize is $150. - There is also a prize for “Audience Favorite.”
