On November 8th, The Underground Theatre department hosted their annual Film Festival to showcase student-made films. Students have the opportunity to practice their talents in the form of acting and cinematography, making Film Fest a celebration of their creativity.
Underground Theatre is an environment separate from theater education, purely led by students in the theater department interested in personal projects. Film Fest was born from the idea of wanting to display performance in another way besides their ten-minute plays. Students formulate their own groups and video these films on their own time, after their long rehearsal hours for their major.
Film Fest is a ‘Red Carpet’ themed event, similar to a movie premiere. The stars dress formally, ready for the audience to see the films they created and possibly win an award.
Kaci Jung is the Artistic Director of Underground Theatre.
“Film Fest is the perfect outlet for students who are interested in film making and a place to practice that skill,” Jung said.
Jung highlighted that the art of film is often overlooked in contrast to stage performance. This festival is a reminder that someone can be good at both, they just need a space to illustrate that.
“The festival feels like a big celebration of art, and we all share in that love,” Jung said.
Cade Harkness serves as treasurer for Underground Theatre and starred in a film this year. He discussed the lengthy process of late night filming.
“It is an incredibly collaborative process, with several ideas flowing and filming late in the night after rehearsal ends at nine,” Harkness said.
Harkness pointed out that the process was not linear, with many pivots in the storyline. He said that finding a shared goal for the film is challenging with multiple personalities involved.
“Sometimes during filming someone would pitch an idea and we would all be like wait… we like that much better, and we would redo it,” Harkness said.
Film Fest is a showcase of film design and is a fun way to practice an art other than stage acting. If you want to star in a film, go Underground!
Staff Reporter
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