The lights go down, allowing the screen to cast an eerie-gray glow over the audience. The ruffling of popcorn bags, the slurping of straws and the sounds of people shuffling in their chairs being to fill the space that was once over run with people’s chatter. Then, all at once, there is silence and the film begins to roll.
The University of Tampa recently put on its annual Campus Movie Fest competition. The festival allows for any student with an idea the time to pick up a camera and tell their story, regardless of experience or major.
Equipment is provided to all students who sign up for the event through Campus Movie Fest, however, students are not obligated to use only the provided equipment.
Anyone who has a better camera or sound and light equipment is more than welcome to use them.
Students being able to use better tools and having more experience than the majority has become an issue for some at this year’s competition. Others do not see the problem.
“People are giving us a lot of crap because we have high definition equipment,” says student filmmaker Daniel Mastronardo.
“It’s a competition for film makers to show their talents.”
Mastronardo, whose film “Black Friday” won at this year’s movie fest finale feels that it is completely fair for students majoring in film to be able to use the better equipment that they have trained with.
This was not the first win for Mastronardo. His group has won the Best Picture award at UT for the past three years.
“We are filmmakers,” he said, “It is our job to do high quality work.”
Former Student Government Treasurer Kimberly Marrero said “I definitely believe there needs to be an even playing field. I don’t think that you should be able to use outside equipment.”
“I do not think it is fair,” said Student Government Director of Special Events Mark Kieslor. “I believe that students with better performance equipment have the edge in the competition.
The Campus Movie Fest is supposed to be for average students to tell their story.”
The fundamental problem is not the use of outside equipment itself to make the films but rather how the films are judged.
“[The films] should not be judged the same way,” said Kieslor, “[Film majors] have experience making movies; therefore, their movie is probably going to be better then a group with no experience.
In the past three years, the same group has won Best Picture at UT. The group uses high quality equipment and has great experience in making films I do not feel this is fair for [other] students.”
One would think with prizes and national recognition on the line, the judges of the film festival would be well educated on how to rank the films.
“I know first hand that judges are not instructed on how to judge films by the students’ experience,” said Kieslor, “the judges are not given any information on the groups knowledge of filmmaking or use of equipment.
Mastronardo had something similar to say. “We never know who the judges are.
We know that they come from students in faculty, but we don’t know if there is anyone in there with any knowledge of film at all,” he said, “The people judging the films should be knowledgeable of film, lighting, and sound.”
Brandon Chong, the assistant director of the Vaughn Center, who is leaving UT for Campus Movie Fest next year, had very different things to say about equipment, judging and fairness.
“It is a competition, yes,” he said. “But it’s more a celebration of student art – whether [it’s the students] first time or it’s their major. People often win without [filmmaking] talent.
Last years winners for Best Drama had no experience, and most students don’t have the high-tech equipment.”
Chong went on and stressed heavily that the competition is not only about how pretty the short film turns out, but rather about the story, the ideas behind it and the teamwork it takes to get the finished product.
“It’s like having the greatest car you can imagine,” he said, “it doesn’t matter how pretty it is or how good it runs if you don’t know how to drive it.”
However, he does not seem to agree with Kieslor that the judges are not instructed on how to view the student productions.
“We tell the judges to focus on the entire work,” Chong said, “The judges are told to focus on the content, the sound, the set up, yes, but to also look at the story to see if it connects with the audience, to judge the quality of the entire product.”
“Maybe workshops could be a part of the process,” said Chong, “Teach them how to tell the story and teach valuable skills for everyone such as lighting, editing and sound and how to use the camera.”
Teaching workshops seems to be a popular idea.
Even the proud winning film maker, Mastronardo, has no problem with Campus Movie Fest offering classes to students who want to participate.
“It’s a good idea,” he says, “I think that would be a good plan”.
Other students who help set up the project or have been involved think providing more help to all students would be one way to settle the fairness debate.
“I think it would be a great idea for Campus Movie Fest to put on workshops before filming starts. I think it would somewhat even the playing field,” says Kieslor.
Marrero agrees. “Everyone is offered help by the CMF people. People who are more qualified should not be penalized,” she said, “[Workshops] are definitetly a good idea. Why not get our money’s worth.”