By Stephen Cook
Students will be getting more than a taste of popcorn at this year’s film festival hosted by the college; they will be getting a taste of real-world moviemaking, with instruction coming from professional filmmakers.
Previously known as the Cavalier Film Festival, this year’s event on April 4 sports a new format as well as a new name, the Take 5 Film Festival.
After last year’s low turnout, Molly Baumgardner, adviser to JCAV-TV and ECAV Radio, professor and film festival organizer, decided to turn the festival upside down. She has been the coordinator for the previous two years and because 2013 was the 10th anniversary of the festival, she saw 2014 as a good time to review the program and make some changes.
“We all know that the board of trustees and our president and our administration have really pretty much drawn that line in the sand that we need to be looking at what can we be doing to draw in prospective students,” Baumgardner said. “The best thing you can do to draw in that future JCCC student is get them here on our campus and have them have a really positive experience.”
Joe Petrie, JCAV-TV adviser, professor and film festival organizer, came up with the “Take 5” name, a common term in production, as a way to give the event identity and make it more interesting. Also, moving it to a daytime instead of the evening could potentially allow for more students to attend and experience the festival.
“[The Cavalier Film Festival] was missing that fun element, it was almost as dry as like the Academy Awards,” Petrie said. “There’s so many area film festivals, every high school has one, there’s just a glut of them, so we wanted to do something different that would make us stand out as more fun and less Oscar-like, so we came up with this.”
Although last year did include guest speakers, this year’s festival will feature special workshops, covering topics such as lighting, makeup artistry (with an example of a zombie), editing for hollywood action style and more.
Including the workshops, there will be a total of five sessions. Additionally, there are five categories for film entries, five different items served at lunch and five panelists. There will also be a “cinema room” where film entries will be on a loop for students to view throughout the day.
The event is open for all students to attend, whether they take classes at JCCC or at an area high school.
Petrie had his video production classes create videos for the film festival in hopes of getting more students involved in the film festival. In addition to entries from students at the college, there have been a lot of entries from outside as well. This is a positive indicator, showing that those individuals have been reached.
JCAV producer and video production student Sam Tady will be attending the festival, and has also submitted a film to be judged. Having entered two pieces at and attended last year’s festival, he’s looking forward to seeing his newest flick on the “big screen.”
“It’ll also be fun to see all the other entries,” Tady said. “I love watching kids getting to see their first projects on screen; it’s cool to know that we are surrounded by so much creativity at JCCC and in the Metro area.”
Although submitting films to be judged is an element of the festival, Baumgardner said attendees seem to be most interested in learning more about the business of filmmaking and gaining advice from professionals.
“[In] talking with video production faculty members out in the high schools, there’s a lot of focus on video production in journalism, there really isn’t so much focus for that creative side,” Baumgardner said. “So [this year] it’s less emphasis on the films being submitted, more emphasis on attend, get some training and maybe then next year we’ll have stronger entries, more entries.”
The majority of speakers will be local as well.
“The neat thing is students are going to realize that we have lots of filmmaking professionals and there’s lots of filmmaking that goes on in the Metro area,” she said.
One of the things Petrie is excited to see is energetic high school students on campus, along with their ideas and creativity.
“What I’m looking forward to is to seeing how they react, and, do they really have fun with this thing?” Petrie said. “If they don’t, well, then we have to go back to the drawing board.”
Contact Stephen Cook, editor-in-chief, at scook35@jccc.edu.