Festival to showcase student films
By: Lee Rice
Issue date: 4/24/08 Section: Lifestyle
At the third annual Student Film Festival, Webster University students will have the opportunity to share the fruits of their labor with the entire campus.
At the May 3 event, students will have their films shown on a full-sized screen in the Winifred Moore Auditorium. The films will be judged by a panel that has in the past included such names as Joe Williams of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and Thomas Crone, a WU film professor.
Justin Loase, a senior film production student and one of the organizers of the event, said he has seen a great deal of improvement in the films that have been submitted in the last two years.
"The films are getting better and better year by year," Loase said. "The major reason is that film students hear about this and say, 'Hey, I get to see my stuff on the big screen.' Who knows, maybe by the time we get to the 15th film festival, maybe we'll have the next Martin Scorsese."
Loase said the film festival has been successful because it focuses on the talent that wins awards rather than the awards themselves. By showing the movies in their entirety, they show the audience why the judges selected the winners.
"People want to show others what they made and say that they did it," Loase said. "Sure we have awards for Best Director, Best Screenplay and all that, but it isn't so competitive as to be annoying for the people who are making the movies.
"This is important because students in the future will see this as the real way to have their work shown. I really want people to see what other students can do and work harder."
Although he has every confidence that this year's film festival will be as big as the last two years', there have only been a very few submissions at this point.
"Usually, we get most of our submissions in the last week," Loase said. "As of now, we have two or three entries, but we expect a lot more."
Sherif Musaji, a senior film production major, said one of the things that prevents students from submitting early is conflicting class schedules.
At the May 3 event, students will have their films shown on a full-sized screen in the Winifred Moore Auditorium. The films will be judged by a panel that has in the past included such names as Joe Williams of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and Thomas Crone, a WU film professor.
Justin Loase, a senior film production student and one of the organizers of the event, said he has seen a great deal of improvement in the films that have been submitted in the last two years.
"The films are getting better and better year by year," Loase said. "The major reason is that film students hear about this and say, 'Hey, I get to see my stuff on the big screen.' Who knows, maybe by the time we get to the 15th film festival, maybe we'll have the next Martin Scorsese."
Loase said the film festival has been successful because it focuses on the talent that wins awards rather than the awards themselves. By showing the movies in their entirety, they show the audience why the judges selected the winners.
"People want to show others what they made and say that they did it," Loase said. "Sure we have awards for Best Director, Best Screenplay and all that, but it isn't so competitive as to be annoying for the people who are making the movies.
"This is important because students in the future will see this as the real way to have their work shown. I really want people to see what other students can do and work harder."
Although he has every confidence that this year's film festival will be as big as the last two years', there have only been a very few submissions at this point.
"Usually, we get most of our submissions in the last week," Loase said. "As of now, we have two or three entries, but we expect a lot more."
Sherif Musaji, a senior film production major, said one of the things that prevents students from submitting early is conflicting class schedules.
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