Written by Kenzie James // Photo by Edgar Cardiel
A group of Harding film students and faculty produced the first Harding University 48-Hour Film Festival last weekend.
Participating students had 48 hours to write, film and edit a short film, from April 5 at 6 p.m. to April 7 at 6 p.m. Five student teams participated in this year’s festival.
After the films were judged, they were shown at the festival April 11. The entire Harding community was invited to the screening of the films, where the winners were also announced. The winning team, which was announced after the time of publication, received a cash prize of $100. Other placing teams received prizes from businesses around Searcy, including gift cards.
Junior Alita O’Leary was a part of the production team and worked on outreach and contacting sponsors for the festival.
O’ Leary said part of the purpose of the festival was to create another opportunity not only for film students to gain experience but for all students to participate.
The festival was open to anyone to enter, including members of the Searcy community, with the requirement that at least one Harding student was on each team.
“Even in my own team I am working to include people that are not in the film department because you get so many different perspectives,” O’Leary said. “You witness so many different types of people that bring so much life to a film set.”
Freshman film major Kinsey Curo said she was involved with previous student films for classes and was on one of the teams competing in the film festival.
“I really like to just be a PA, which basically just does all of the fill-in work, like goes and grabs batteries, or makes sure the actors have water and everyone has gaffer tape, or whatever needs to be done,” Curo said.
The 48-Hour Film Festival provided an opportunity for all students to try new roles in the film process. Film students could try new creative or leadership roles, and all students could try acting, writing or even doing makeup for a film.
One of the faculty supervisors, instructor of communication Bryan Hudkins, said one of his students did the project mostly by himself, just to make a film for fun and make all the creative choices for the film himself.
“I think anyone can enjoy it,” Hudkins said “It’s [for] all experience levels. You have an iPhone and iMovie on your iPhone, right? You can go direct your own film and have a good time with it.”
