Drama, horror and comedy were just a few of the genres of short-films screened at the Campus MovieFest Finale Friday night. As part of Sonoma State University’s seventh annual Campus MovieFest, a total of 87 student teams created a short-film. The finale screened the top 16 films chosen by the judges and awarded special recognition to some short-films.
The short-films were screened in the Green Music Center. The pathway of the center was lined with a red carpet and photo booth to provide the audience a feeling of walking down the red carpet in Hollywood. There was also someone passing out raffle tickets to call out during the show.
Manager of Campus MovieFest, Avery Grant, and Ciera Leidheisl, senior and employee of Associated Students Productions, hosted the finale. Grant and Leidheisl gave their Twitter usernames in their introduction and encouraged the audience to participate by tweeting to #CMFatSONOMA.
In addition to encouraging social media participation, Grant and Leidheisl lead multiple door prize giveaways which included a computer hard drive and a flash drive.
The four judge-nominated films that won the Jury Award, which will move on to the Hollywood Festival, included “Call,” “Na$areth,” “Rampage” and “Snake Eyes: Part 1.”
“Call,” one of four films to win a Silver Tripod Award, special categories to compete Hollywood, won for Best Actor. It’s about a freshman that answers a random ringing phone on campus to realize that the devil is on the other end. “Na$areth” won a Silver Tripod Award for Best Soundtrack, and is a music video film that discusses the city of San Francisco.
“Rampage” won a special competition for Best Horror film. It follows a group of five SSU students as they go missing on a camping trip. “Snake Eyes: Part 1,” which was submitted as three separate films, won a Silver Tripod Award for Best Actress. It is a Western drama about a widow seeking justice and revenge for her husband’s murderer.
“Stay Calm,” another film featured, is about four students who became locked in a classroom together. The lights went out and the screen flashed to the whiteboard which read: 20 minutes remaining. A student told the others not to worry because they “go to Sonoma State. Nothing ever happens here.”
The screen then flashed to a piece of paper on the floor which read: “I see you.” Three of the students disappeared, which left one student remaining and repeating the line: “Nothing happens at Sonoma State.”
“Lucky,” which received the Silver Tripod Award for Best Cinematography, is an Andrew Kass production about a college freshmen who learned that “if you pick up and keep going, you realize that everything happens for a reason.” This film’s cinematography made use of a GoPro camera to catch aerial shots.
Another film, “High Stakes,” is about college students preparing for a huge test. The student with the highest score received an automatic internship to Stanford. Tensions rose as a student found the answers to the test.
All 16 films had the chance to make it to the Campus MovieFest’s Hollywood Festival, and are available to view on their website. The film with the most views will move onto Hollywood with other popular films.