For the longest time (and by longest time I mean 5 years), 24 Speed has been William and Mary’s sole video competition. But all that has changed in one semester. Spring semester 2009 saw a dramatic increase in filmmaking competitions by 400% (I think that is correct math?). Yes, 4 video competitions will have occurred in total this semester.
CONTEST #1: THE BILL LAWRENCE FILMMAKING COMPETITION
In addition to the now classic 24 speed competition, the school introduced the first ever Bill Lawrence Filmmaking competition. The school’s admission office teamed with the student activity group called AMP (formerly UCAB) to bring to the campus a new competition that required the following elements: a shot of the Admissions office or pamphlet, inclusion of a day dream, and use of the line “I’m overdue for a dream come true”. And of course, the coolest thing about the competition being that Bill Lawrence (the creator of Scrubs and Spin City and Clone High) got to view the top 5 films. The top 5 films were:
- Group: Just Blueberries and Chad and their film Short Straw (or Little H)
- Group: One Way Productions and their film Sunny Side Up
- Group: Part-Time Productions and their film Sean Hits His Stride
- Group: Team 1693 and their film Magic Dream House
- Group: Vagabond Anarchists and their film Hark Upon a Tale
And honorable mentions include:
- Group: 7th Grade Sketch Comedy and their film Five Dollars
- Group: Ellipsis and their film Love Me…Please
- Group: Team Mermidon and their film The Red Pill
All of the filmmakers were invited to a special screening of the top 5 films with Bill Lawrence (W&M alumni ’90). The extremely successful t.v. show creator discussed and appreciated all of the films one at a time. It was quite a unique experience for the students to not only have such an esteemed judge, but to also get to meet him and casually discuss their films with him. This truly was a great opportunity and one that was unique to the college. The winning film, picked by Bill Lawrence himself, was Magic Dream House by Team 1693.
The film was awarded prize money, as well as screened at Bill Lawrence’s talk to the campus at the Sadler center (ex-University center) main auditorium. Note: The place was beyond packed. It was a great competition, a great visit by a wonderful alumni, and an all around success for everyone involved.
Bill Lawrence poses with some students after his Conversation with the Campus in the sadler Center
Other Bill Lawrence competition films online and available for viewing:
The Dream Factory by Rifthead Productions
Ventisize me! by Team Cougar
Dream Date Dream by Kite Flying Society
CONTEST #2: 24 Speed
24 Speed was the competition that dominated February, and since there is already a post dedicated to that, I’ll move on to the competition currently going on in March. Go here for the post.
CONTEST #3: THE MORE THAN BRICKS CHALLENGE
For the first time ever, the College (and by the College I mean the Admissions Office) is running a competition to create a commercial for W & M, called the More Than Bricks Challenge. The best commercials made will be shown during the admitted students events for the Class of 2013, which could give a potential filmmaker a very strong freshman fan base. The commercial will also be featured as the easter egg on the main W&M website in April (meaning if you click the College emblem on the home page, the video will appear) Winning commercials will also “receive feedback from a blue-ribbon panel of judges” (not quite sure what blue ribbon means…ice cream?). The commercials are to be only 30 seconds long and are due March 30th. I think this is a really cool contest that helps both filmmakers and the college, a nice give and take relationship. It also marks the school’s recognition of the usefulness of filmmaking as a resource, and it gets students involved and thinking creatively about their college experience. Now all we need is for teachers to trade papers for films.
CONTEST #4: THE RECYCLED VIDEO CONTEST
The 4th and final competition of the year is ongoing but will be ending in April and used to celebrate Earth day. It is the Recycled Video Contest sponsored by the Swem Library, the W&M Film Studies Program, and the Mercury sGIG. It is a video editing contest that challenges students to take a 50 minute tape of old footage from the Prelinger Archives (online and downloadable public domain footage) and edit it into something new. Students are not allowed to film any new content to include in their films. “This contest will showcase the creativity of the W&M community and promote an awareness of the rich resources available for content creation and distribution.” The deadline for submissions is April 10th with the screenings occurring on Earth Day. Here is a link detailing the various clips that were put on the tape: Films Used. A couple examples of the work that can result can be viewed here:
Ted Hogeman ’09 Recycled Video set to NIN music: 16 ghosts II
Zach Keifer ’07 Recycled Video Did it just for fun, not eligible for contest.
As these other competitions come to a close, I will definitely keep everyone posted. And since we are in the spirit of film competition, I will again share a link to a cool website that stays up to date with all the current filmmaking competitions around the country.
So, if you think you want to make a living just entering film competitions, there certainly are plenty out there.
Also, do not forget about William and Mary’s own student film festival WM Cans. Check out their website here. The festival will screen films on Friday, April 24th at 7:00pm in room 120 of Tucker Hall. Go forth and shoot film!
-The Film tribe
