Mia Orantia
Staff Writer
The red carpet was rolled out for the world’s largest student film festival last Thursday, Oct. 2. With 1,235 students, 95 teams, and 38 entries, this year’s Campus MovieFest at USF narrowed the list down to 16 top films. Teams only had one week to film using a MacBook Pro with Adobe editing software, a camera, and 24/7 tech support provided by CMF.
For Colin Russell and Alec Kaplan, it took 2 days to shoot their film “Dancing in the Shadows of Moantown.” “It’s pretty nuts. In 48 hours, we had about 4 to 6 hours of sleep,” said Russell and Rodrigues.
After several hours spent producing a 5 minute film, only a few went home with awards, and four teams got the golden ticket to CMF in Hollywood next June.
If you weren’t able to attend, all student films can be viewed at www.campusmoviefest.com/festivals/468-university-of-san-francisco.
CMF AWARDS
Winchester Mystery Award
Winner received two tickets to the infamous Winchester Mystery House in Santa Clara
“Cold Again”
Directed by Gabriel Vogel, Wai Yan, and Hai Vu
This film, mostly shot in point of view, follows a man searching through his apartment in the middle of night for an intruder. This chilling film’s cinematography intensifies the already suspenseful storyline with its dark shadows and changing hues of blue, red, and yellow.
Best Actor
Shivan Singh, “After the Tone”
Directed by Woo Nguyen
Singh plays a man going through emotional distress by listening to past voicemails of a person he lost.
Best Actress
Colette Sobczak, “A Date”
Directed by Zibber Arnold
We’ve all seen and heard the story of boy meets girl, boy likes girl, and vice versa. “A Date” is a silent film rendition of this story, and Sobczak does a wonderful job portraying the quirky, love struck girl without even speaking.
Jury Awards
Winners will move on to CMF Hollywood, where national winners in this category will compete for overall awards.
“#Instagator”
Directed by Nic Jurand
A crime scene investigation gets ugly online in this detective story focusing on our growing use and dependency of social media. Two officers attempt to capture a serial killer by following the killer’s activity on Instagram and Snapchat. The identity of the killer ends in a tragic twist.
“Dancing in the Shadows of Moantown”
Directed by Colin Russell and Alec Kaplan
Moantown Studios pushed the boundaries with a comedic film about an adult movie voice actor. Student actor Alec Kaplan said they were banned from Cowell’s sound studio after filming “Moantown” there. If you want to know why, you will have to see the movie.
“Glen Danzig”
Directed by Cristina Pachano-Lauderdale, Jennifer de Leon, and Alexis Hazelwood
A charming story about man’s best friend, except in this particular film, man’s best friend is a stuffed toy dog named Danzig. The main character sees him and treats him as a real dog. His attachment to Danzig is comical, and even emotional at times because he really loves that dog.
“After the Tone”
Directed by Woo Nguyen
Morbid and dark films were a recurring theme at CMF, and “After the Tone” was one of them. Chronicling a relationship gone turbulent for a young couple, the film throws in some lessons to be learned.
