The next Quentin Tarantino or Steven Spielberg could come from UCF, with the top regional award for the Campus MovieFest Grand Finale going to a UCF team last Thursday night at the Plaza Theatre in Orlando.
Students from UCF, Jacksonville University, Rollins College and the University of Tampa formed teams of seven and let their creativity flow.
Each team received an Apple laptop, digital camcorder and a week to make a five-minute-or-less movie.
All participating universities had previously held a Campus MovieFest where submissions were judged by a panel of students and staff.
On Thursday, students from the four Florida universities gathered with members of the community to showcase the top 16 films and watch them on the silver screen.
Love stories, thrillers, comedies and dramas were screened as the festival encompassed all genres.
Overall, the movies were well received by the audience, and the talents of the participants were displayed in the storylines and production.
"I was surprised to see a variety of movies. I thought they would be all comedy," said 22-year-old liberal studies major Melissa Nickhah. "It's amazing to see people my own age making really good movies."
UCF had a strong showing at the event. 3 Dead Mimes, The Importance of Playing Yardball, The Deli, Sidewalk Revolution and Insane Delict were all produced by UCF teams.
Films were nominated in such categories as Best Picture and Best Special Effects. Winners were presented with coveted Golden Tripods.
The Deli, by Last Case of Emotions Productions, centered on a restaurant that cooks up menu items such as bi polar burritos and homicidal hash browns. The Deli received the Golden Banana for winning the TBS Very Funny Film Award.
"I was at Quiznos, and my roommate was looking at his sandwich in a strange way, like it was making him mad," marketing major Dan Gray, 21, said. "We thought it would be funny to put that in the movie."
The film was also recognized for funniest moment - a man going crazy and beating up a guy on a tennis court.
The teams had a week to make their movies, and the time crunch often proved to be stressful.
"It was a crazy few days of brainstorming, and at least 20 hours went into filming," The Deli team member Josh Santora said. "I didn't sleep much that week, let's just put it like that."
The Golden Tripod for Best Costumes was awarded to UCF team The once and future kings/queens for their work on 3 Dead Mimes, a detective drama.
"For the costumes, we went to Wal-Mart and got anything we could find," lead costume-designer for 3 Dead Mimes and film major Carolyn Luke said. "I borrowed some clothes from my sister for the mimes."
The Importance of Playing Yardball, produced by Stuntdog Sproductions, earned the Golden Tripod for Best Concept.
The TCM Classic Short Film Award encouraged teams to re-imagine a classic work.
Waiting for Huffman took home the Distinguished Honor award.
The film portrayed delusional showbiz personalities that want Desperate Housewives actress Felicity Huffman to star in a low-budget production. A disgruntled assistant eventually scares off Huffman when she drives by and sees him urinating in public on a dead dog. He then informs his co-workers that "pissing in a dog's mouth doesn't bring it back to life."
While the night did have an abundance of funny scenes, environmental and social statements were voiced throughout some of the night's films.
The Snake and the Rat was a documentary that chronicled the destruction tornadoes wreaked on a trailer-park community in Florida, and "Be the change you want to see" was the message of the visually stunning Slow Motion Sickness.
Slow Motion Sickness, produced by the JU team, north, took home Golden Tripods for Best Picture and Best Special Effects. The film, along with The Deli and Waiting for Huffman, move on to the CMF National Grand Finale where they will have the opportunity to experience global exposure and a chance to win $10,000.
All of the entered films can be viewed at http://www.campusmoviefest.com.
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