Students gathered in the Busch Student Center last night for the SLU72 Film Festival, a student-run film festival sponsored by SLU TV. The event, in its debut, was well attended, as nearly 150 students filled BSC Room 170 to enjoy lemonade, popcorn and student films.
The films ranged in creativity and focused on the intricacies of the Saint Louis University community. Students were required to keep their films to less than eight minutes in length and were allotted only 72 hours for production using only a $400 camera and iMovie, a program compatible only with Mac laptops.
Junior Andrew Clifton, President of SLU TV, emceed the event. Clifton noted the aim of the project was to give students a chance to express themselves. “The real idea behind this project was to promote and encourage artistic ability. We wanted to provide a chance for students to get involved in something they enjoy,” he said.
Students seemed to jump at the opportunity to pit their creative filmmaking skills against those of other students at the University. Junior Keith Mokris, who contributed to the well-received SGA: Student Government Assassination, seemed to agree with the basic student sentiment.
“The opportunity to make a movie using our own ideas seemed like something too fun to pass up. The chance to gather an element of the student body and share our different works will only further creative efforts on campus,” he said.
The festival, which will occur once per semester, offered prizes ranging from Salsarita’s gift certificates to iPod nanos to the winners. Taking home first place was a work by sophomore Cenzig Yar, With Villany, which portrayed the Burger King mascot going on a murdering spree in DeMattias Hall.
Clifton added that SLU TV is planning other events on campus. “In addition to next semester’s film festival, SLU TV will also be sponsoring Billiken Idol. Also, because we are moving into our own studio, we [SLUTV] will be offering a class through the communications department that will teach students how to use media programs and other elements of video production,” he said.