Earlier this semester four sophomores from Mass Art made a last minute decision to participate in the COF Campus Movie Fest Challenge (CMF). The all-female team comprised of Kayla Marriott, Nadia Healey, Sara Boldt, Kamaryn Pendleton and Kate Costello spent three days creating a film with original animation and composition. The film, “Equus” went on to be one of four winning films at the 4th Annual COF Campus Movie finale on April 3. Their film will now advance to the national competition and be screened in front of hundreds of viewers in Atlanta this June.
Marriott, Healey, Boldt, Pendleton, all film/video majors at Mass Art, and Costello, an animation major, had been looking for an opportunity to collaborate on a project. When the five friends saw advertisements for the Campus Movie Fest around Mass Art, they decided it would be the “perfect opportunity to put together something cool!” Each participating team is supplied with state-of-the-art film and audio equipment, laptops, editing software, and tech support and required to create the film within one week’s time. They saw it as an unique opportunity to be challenged and were excited to take on the task of creating a film in such a short period of time.
The all-female team, an already close group of friends, developed a concept for the film relatively easily as they often spend their free time bouncing ideas off of one another. They knew they wanted to work in animation while keeping the plot simple so the focus could be mostly on visuals. Each of them brought their own unique skill to the table, so they were able to work successfully as a team. Pendleton and Boldt executed the shot list, Costello created all the animations, Marriott directed and Healey did all the sound design.
The team found the project really liberating. As students, they are used to doing work for assignments but Campus Movie Fest “gave them to opportunity to create something on their own with virtually no guidelines.” The time restraints also forced the group to learn how to work quickly and efficiently as a team to achieve their goal.
The group found the CMF experience to be exciting and motivating. Although they were nervous about having their work screened in front of a large audience, the positive environment of other ambitious and creative students eased their nerves. The opportunity also gave them the chance to meet other young film makers within the COF and see a variety of different work and viewpoints. The team encourages other students who are interested in film making to give campus movie fest a shot!
To see their winning film, click here.