D3TV’s Film Fest last Tuesday featured eight student submissions across a variety of categories.
Four awards were given out at the event. “Baustin and Kevin the Intern,” submitted by senior Brian Austin and junior Alex Moss, won best comedy; “Blue Paint Killer,” by junior Bea Dageforde, won most original piece; senior Erin O’Brien’s “Much Ado About Nothing” won best film; and O’Brien’s “We’re Ready: DePauw Pump Up Video” won best minute or less. Each winning piece received a cash prize.
Other submissions included sophomores David Kobe and Oliver Mauk’s “Dorm Storm,” O’Brien’s “One Word to Describe The DePauw” and Moss and Austin’s “How Sweet it is.”
Director of the Pulliam Center and Media Fellows Program Jonathan Nichols-Pethick, Film Studies Program Director Christine White and senior Media Fellow Caleb Haydock judged the eight submissions and picked their favorites for each category. They did not see which submissions the other judges chose.
Nichols-Pethick said having a student help in the judging process provided a different perspective to the submissions.
“As someone who grades a lot of work, we [faculty] are very good at it, but we also end up with certain criteria that may be, say, more rigid,” he said. “Having a student voice on that judging panel is a great idea.”
The event, which was orchestrated by sophomore outgoing D3TV News Director Matt Curran, included pizza and soda, a screening of all eight submissions and the presentation of the awards by the D3TV board of directors. Each winner was presented with a certificate for his or her award.
“I made it more of a fun event. I didn’t want it to be just D3TV and contestants. I wanted there to be an audience,” Curran said. “Overall, I definitely think it was a success.”
Nichols-Pethick, however, wishes there had been more submissions.
“I wish we had more because, for a couple reasons," he said. "One, it just makes it a more interesting pool when you have more, and two, I wish there were more students on campus who were producing videos and short films—especially in such a visual culture, even people whose studies and whose majors and interests don’t necessarily bring them over here to the PCCM, I think they could have something interesting to submit.”
Outgoing D3TV General Manager, senior Ben Irons, thinks the lack of submissions was due to the fact that students are not interested in video production.
“We had eight submissions this year, which last year we had five I think, and they were eight pretty solid submissions, so I was pretty happy with that, but I think around campus there’s just a lack of want to make videos I guess.”
Dageforde created her winning short video for her Japanese Horror Film class. She said students should use their other classes as an opportunity to intertwine that subject with filmmaking.
“Use those classes as a way to get the word out about the opportunities in the PCCM. Use those professors,” she said. “It is just kind of hard on this campus to organize production because you need a little more help, and you need time.”
Curran is not sure if the film fest will become a tradition, but he hopes future D3TV directors will continue with the event and help it gain traction in future years.