The University of Kentucky Media Depot Club was selected for the second time to present one of its short films during the 2017 University of Pikeville (UPIKE) Film and Media Arts Festival.
The festival promotes the art of filmmaking on the UPIKE campus in Pikeville, Ky., the surrounding region, the United States and internationally.
Professionals as well as college, high school and middle school students submitted short films and features. Submissions categories included documentary, animation, music video and traditional narrative. More than 100 entries were received and only 35 films were selected to be shown during the two-day festival.
Eric Sanders, producer of the Media Depot Club’s film said, “This opportunity provided hands-on experience and allowed everyone in the Media Depot Club to improve their skills. Last year the film was 10 pages in length and took three days to film on location, an old farm. This year we created a 20-page film, but it still only took three days to film. Our technique for screenwriting, filming longer takes, rehearsals, and nailing our marks and lines improved vastly. We became more efficient filmmakers. With the second film, even more students worked on the film; there were auditions and rehearsals for key roles. It was a much more in-depth pre-production than the first, which was vital to being more efficient on set.”
UK Information Technology Services’ (ITS) Media Depot provides equipment and assistance to UK students working on multimedia class projects. The Media Depot Club goes one step beyond to allow students to further their multimedia skills and develop projects at a higher level. The club was created because students from an array of majors, including theatre, film, anthropology, business and others, wanted to make short films with the equipment provided by ITS’ Media Depot.
Several students use these film projects as part of their work portfolios (also known as a “reel”). Several members of the cast who worked on this year’s and last year’s films were hired at ITS’ Media Depot to help with videos and obtaining grants after gaining skills from the projects. Others used these experiences to move into local film production positions in the Lexington area, and one has moved to Los Angeles to further his acting career.
More information about ITS’ Media Depot can be found here. Check out some of their films.
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