2007 CMF showcases Tech's best filmmakers

The film industry's awards season is a time of anticipation, glitz and excitement as the best movies and television shows of the year receive prestigious awards.

The awards are often based on entertainment value, artistic merit and many other factors.

Coveted awards like the Oscars or the Golden Globes are goals that many directors and moviemakers work toward, putting huge amounts of time and effort into producing top-notch cinema.

Tech added its own awards show to the list with the Campus MovieFest (CMF) Finale Thursday, Feb. 8, 2007.

Lights beamed through the sky, emanating from the Ferst Center, where hundreds of students lined up early in order to get good seats for the ceremony. Complete with a red carpet and velvet rope, the event felt just a few steps shy of the Oscars.

Founded in 2000 by a small group of Emory students, CMF has always attracted the odd film connoisseur and a few participating teams, but it experienced an explosion of interest this year.

"This is so exciting. I didn't think this many people would show up...but the turnout is great," said Sydney Shaffer, a first-year Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering major.

CMF is the largest student-produced film festival in the world. A total of 75,000 students have participated in the competition since its inception.

Since then, CMF has expanded to college campuses all over the country, and has since expanded over the pond to Scotland and the United Kingdom.

In the Atlanta region, UGA, Emory, Georgia State, Tech, Spelman, Clark Atlanta and Morehouse participate in the event.

Students are given a mere week to script, direct and produce a short film lasting about five minutes.

CMF provides all the equipment: an Apple laptop computer, a camera, movie editing software and more. Teams are allowed to use the equipment free of charge thanks to sponsorships from companies like TBS and Turner Classic Movies (TCM). Finally, judges evaluate the submitted films and 16 are chosen from different categories to be showcased to the campus public.

A variety of students ranging from amateur to very advanced filmmakers entered the competition this year.

"I've never made a film before. But if the equipment and tools are free, then why not? It was definitely a fun experience," said Chris Dale, a first-year Undecided Engineering major.

Teams that entered the competition competed in five categories: Best Picture, Best Documentary, TBS Very Funny Film Award, TCM Classic Short Film Award and the Freshman Film Award.

The Problem with Words by Pursuit of Friday took home the Freshman Film Award. The film denoted the importance of words and how even one word can affect the outcome of an entire life.

Miracle on Fifth Street Bridge by Bloody Bean Brigade won the Best Documentary Award along with a 500 dollar prize. The tongue-in-cheek documentary discussed the newly built Fifth Street Bridge and its purpose on Tech's campus.

Although the topics for filming were open-ended this year, the TCM Classic Short Film Award required a consideration of theme. Teams were challenged to pick a scene from a classic movie and recreate it with a modern twist.

The winning film was a Japanese-themed reinvention of the 1968 epic spaghetti western Once Upon a Time in the West, appropriately titled Once Upon a Time in the East.

Lecture Crashers II (LC II) was a Tech-specific movie that was very well received, winning the TBS Very Funny Film Award.

Themed as Wedding Crashers meets Borat, LC II tells the story of two students who crash lectures at Tech and perform riotous acts on each occasion, all the while filming their hijinks.

One scene, in which a character walks into a chemistry lecture in a bathrobe and brushes his teeth using the sink near the front of the hall, had both audiences-the original audience in the lecture hall and the audience for CMF-rolling on the floor.

Evan Wimpey, a third-year Management major and one of the principal characters in LC II, said that he was inspired by the Hollywood hit Wedding Crashers and decided to spoof the concept of gate-crashing in a context that was relevant to the Tech experience.

"We were always bored in class. So we thought to ourselves, let's mix it up by yelling at people, getting naked, playing guitars, fighting, singing, dancing-things that you wouldn't normally find in lecture," Wimpey said.

"We thought it would be funny if they actually found [the unexpected] there," Wimpey said.

The team will move on to the Atlanta Grand Finale, where they will get the chance to compete to be featured on TBS programming.

Finally, the Best Picture award went to the favorite, Fanya Kaplan by 1.618 Films.

The film was done entirely in Russian with subtitles and told the story of a disgruntled Bolshevik heroine who attempted to assassinate Lenin.

Michael Gluzman, a third-year Industrial Design major, and Brad Hermann, a third-year Mechanical Engineering major, were part of the brain trust behind the movie.

Gluzman cited Wikipedia as his inspiration for making a movie about the otherwise little known Russian revolutionary figure.

"The writer...and I were...looking for ideas to make a movie. We hopped online, typed in 'Russian assassinations' and the first thing that popped up on Wikipedia was Fanya Kaplan," he said.

"At that point, we thought [to ourselves], 'Wow, this is interesting!' and we did a lot of research, wrote the script and translated it," Gluzman said.

Many who came to watch CMF identified Fanya Kaplan as being very impressive in production.

With extraordinary sets, great costumes and awesome acting, Fanya Kaplan truly stood out above the rest.

Herrmann said that it took a great number of contributors to achieve the professionalism that was evident in Fanya Kaplan.

"It took us about 20 people to make this one big scene, a crowd scene, where we had a lot of extras. The main crew is about 10 to 15 people. They really put in a ton of work and stayed up all night. It was just a lot of hard work from a dedicated group of people," Herrmann said.

The team members were awarded 30 GB Apple iPods, as well as the chance to win more prizes at the next round of competition.

The massive team, consisting of over 30 people, will move on to the Atlanta Grand Finale for the chance to be shown at the International Grand Finale.

The Atlanta finale will be held Feb. 28 at the Atlanta Symphony Hall, where Tech will compete with other area schools for student filmmaking awards.