Film fest to showcase student works in Morse

With nine finalists this year, the third annual Boston University Running Start Film Festival will showcase some of the best short films made by undergraduates this year in Morse Auditorium on Sunday night, event planners said this week.

There were about 25 submissions to the festival this year and a panel of festival judges narrowed the selections to nine, planners said. The top three winners after Sunday night’s screening will receive gift certificates and a fourth prize will be given to a viewer’s choice winner, according to Erica Rangel, treasurer on the festival’s executive board and a senior in the College of Communications.

The student films cover a wide range of content and style.

One of the finalists, Andrew Pagano, said his film ‘Fully Loaded’ explores obsession though in an ‘over the top and not so human’ way.

‘It’s the most ambitious and cohesive film I’ve made,’ said Pagano, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences. ‘I was the director and four others collaborated with me on it.’

According to Pagano, it took about a month of shooting and another month of editing to arrive at the final product, which is about ten minutes long.

Another finalist, ‘Blood for Blood,’ is silent film made by Mike Gaines and Jonathan Goldstein, both of whom are juniors in COM.

‘The film is basically a revenge picture,’ Gaines said. ‘The idea just popped into our heads and John and I collaborated and complemented each other on everything.’

Gaines said production of the film took about three weeks and went off without a hitch. According to Gaines, his film professor urged him to submit the film to the festival because of its quality.

‘When we actually saw the final project we were very pleased and it was much better than we thought it would be,’ Gaines said.

One of the three female finalists this year is Christine Halbig, whose film ‘The Last Drop’ is a murder mystery with a caffeine theme, as suggested by the Maxwell House-esque title, she said.

‘The film is set in the 1960s,’ said Christine Halbig, a film major in COM. ‘A teacher drops dead in the classroom after drinking his coffee and all the students become suspects.’

Although Halbig’s film echoes elements from Agatha Christie, she said the script is actually relatively modern.

Sarah Newbold, another female finalist this year, said she did virtually all the work for her two and a half minute film, ‘Cut,’ including the tedious job of scouting locations.

‘My professor really liked to lay on the pressure and I also thought I had this blind idea about how to make films,’ said Newbold, a senior and a film major in COM.

‘The film is about a filmmaker who has anxiety about not making it, about her fear of getting ‘cut,’ hence the title,’ she continued. ‘It was basically trying to recreate me, a kind of self-reflective film.’

All the finalists were eager to have their films screened for the first time to a live audience and none cared much for the actual prizes.

‘I just thought it would be awesome to be in a festival,’ Newbold said. ‘I went last year and there was really good attendance.’

Gaines said the student film festival is one of a limited number of opportunities student filmmakers have to ‘showcase their work.’

Unlike the Redstone Film Festival, held last week, the Running Start festival is geared more toward undergraduates. In addition, the festival is open to submissions from all students enrolled in BU, not just film majors, according to Rangel.

Running Start was established by Matt Kaszanek, the president, and a few other seniors with the purpose of providing a venue to showcase students’ work outside of class and catering to more students, according to Rangel.

‘[The festival] getting bigger and more exposure each year,’ Rangel said. ‘We had about 250 in attendance last year and we’re expecting more this year.’

‘We expect to pack out the place,’ Rengel said later.