Film students compete in film competition starting today

Students with a passion for film making will get a chance to make a film of their own thanks to the 48/5 film competition, put on by the CMU chapter of the National Broadcasting Society.

The competition starts today at 1 p.m. and concludes Sunday at 1 p.m.

Groups will make a five-minute film in 48 hours, from first idea to final edit, according to competition host Lauren Culver.

The teams will have to incorporate a verbal line, a prop, a certain theme, camera element (such as a certain shot type) and a location into their film, the Clarkston junior said.

“I’m surprised by the group’s results,” she said. “I like to see people take ideas and run with it and make up things I never would have thought of to do.”

In the past competitions, groups have done silent films, horror and even mockumentaries.

“One year there was a Shakespeare theme,” she said.

After the competition, films are sent by Culver to people in the broadcasting and film industries for judging and critiquing.

All of the films have to be at most a PG-13 rating. Some of the winning films are also shown on MHTV.

Declining to name the judges, she did say groups getting feedback on their films is important.

“It intrigues them more because they’re getting professional input rather than students judging it,” she said.

Jeff Smith, faculty adviser for the NBS, said students are exerting a lot of creativity in a short amount of time during the two days completing their films.

“It’s a whirlwind of creativity,” he said.

He said people involved in making the films during the competition learn a lot of skills, such as problem solving.

“There’s always problems and overcoming those problems is part of the process,” he said. “It gives you experience dealing with real-time production issues.”

Grosse Pointe senior Angela Simon has gone through the competition twice before and this competition will be her third time.

Competing previously, she and her group made a mockumentary poking fun at the behind-the-scenes stereotypes of a major film set.

Her group won many awards including People’s Choice, which is voted on by attendees of the screenings, along with Best Film and Best Editing.

She said the real-world experience and learning about camera work, basic editing skills is better than just learning about film in a classroom or from a book.

“In our classes, you learn many technical things, but in these competitions, you use these skills in real time,” she said. “In these competitions, you apply these things but with people.”

She said groups know the pressure of the deadline and how it will affect their films.

“That deadline is coming whether you like it or not,” she said.