On Nov. 30, Harding will host its annual 5 Minute Film Festival. The categories consist of best club film, worst film, best film, best music video and best screen play.
The festival is a fundraiser for the National Broadcasting Society. The money goes toward the equipment the communication department uses to film sports games and other various events around campus. Larry’s Pizza sponsors a pizza party for the winner of the best club film. Other prizes from last year included guitar lessons and gift cards to different restaurants. The only rule for entering is that the film must be five minutes or less.
The 5 Minute Film Festival was created in 2009 by Grant Dillion, an adjunct professor in the communications department. Dillion said he wanted a film festival where the movies were short and sweet, whereas in the past, at the Exit 45 Film Festival, the films were as long as the producers wanted them to be. Dillion said he figured people can sit through five minutes of a film and not get restless, even if it is a horrible film.
A Harding graduate, Dillion now teaches Multimedia Storytelling and Script Production for Television and Film. Dillion mentioned that in his script production classes, students create scripts for TV shows, commercials and short films. During the spring semester, students in his class get scripts from students in the previous semester and make them into films. If these films happen to be good enough, some are picked to be in the festival.
“(For) last year’s (festival) someone put in a wedding video,” Dillion said. “Everyone loved it, because it was funny.”
Dillion said the things he looks forward to the most are the random and unexpected moments. Dillion said he also enjoys the question and answer session after the show, when the audience gets to see and speak to the people who made the videos.
This year, Dillion said he hopes to see 500 people at the film festival, which is close to the number of people in attendance before someone pulled a fire alarm during last year’s event, causing everyone to evacuate the building for a period of time.
Senior advertising major Jenna Sampson is working with two other communication majors on a comedy film for this year’s festival. She said it is an exaggeration on real life events and a silent film.
Sampson was an actor in the festival her freshman year and said she feels this year will be fun and a good experience.
“I’ve never produced; this is my first time,” Sampson said. “It’s always nice to get experience. I took a class in video production but I’ve never done anything like this on my own.”
Sampson said she would love to win but she also just enjoys watching the films and seeing everyone’s reactions.
The 5 Minute Film Festival will be held in the Benson Auditorium. The event starts at 8 p.m. and the cost is $5.
