Art Event 7 – 8th Annual CSUSM Media Festival

For the first time I attended the Annual CSUSM Media Festival on May 10.  The festival is a series of student film screenings with an awards ceremony at the end.  It was a great opportunity to see some of the videos my fellow students have made, witness their amazing talents, and enjoy some wonderful stories.

One of the aspects of the event that surprised me was how much a video can say about its subject and makers in ten minutes or less.  Although all the films were quite short, they were crafted to show believable characters and stories.  In Film Fatale, the acting and dialogue was performed just right to set the stage for a suspenseful murder story.  Though it was a short work, the film was so well executed that I found myself becoming worried about what would happen to the characters.

Many of the films I enjoyed most were documentaries because they addressed real people and stories.  I have not heard very much about the auto-immune disease lupus, but the documentary Crystal gave a glimpse of how serious it is and how significant its impact can be on a person’s life.  Films like this, Can Megan Dunk?, and Invisible People peaked my interest in possibly making documentaries myself.

A characteristic I liked in some of the films was the use of projections.  In a couple music videos shown at the festival, moving images were projected onto different surfaces and recorded again to become part of another video.  I liked the visual and psychological layers these projections brought to the films.

Overall, I enjoyed watching the student films, but some of the video could have used some improvement with pacing and acting.  Some of the lines were delivered too dryly, and the story would seem to dwindle at times. Nonetheless, I greatly respected the filmmakers’ efforts and their boldness in presenting their work.  They were all very excited about their films and thankful for all the help they received from peers and professors.  With the wide range of videos screened, I was very impressed with the skills and creativity demonstrated by filmmaking students at the CSUSM Media Festival.