Raven Films to compete in Hollywood Film Festival

On-campus film group Raven Films will be heading to Los Angeles to compete in an international film competition after taking top honors in the 48-Hour Film Competition in Houston. 

The international competition in Los Angeles, Filmapalooza, will be held in March. If Raven Films is chosen as one of the top 10 groups, they will be invited to attend and have their short film screened at the Cannes Film festival in France. 

The group will be raising the money for the trip to Los Angeles, Calif. through several fundraisers.

 Raven Films was the only college group to compete in the 48 Hour Film competition, taking home a total of 11 awards including “Best Film”. The premise of the competition is to weed out true film-makers by giving them a random topic and 48 hours to make a short film, no longer than seven minutes. 

The competition provides random props and lines to use in the film so that there is no way the participants can use any previous work.

“You literally have 48 hours to write, shoot, edit, and submit a film,” said Robin Carter, vice president of Raven Films and first time participant in the competition.

 
According to Carter they finished so early that the competition wasn’t ready to take submissions yet.

“I really feel like the reason that we were so successful is because every single person that was there [with us] knew their job and knew what they were doing,” Carter said. “It ran like a well-oiled machine.”

The group did a period piece that fell just under the seven minute mark.

Film professor Tom Garrett has high hopes for the group after seeing their work and sees the competition as a great learning opportunity for the students. 

“What [participants] accomplish in 48 hours I’ve found I can’t get out of students sometimes in four months,” said film professor Tom Garrett. Any opportunity for people to see your work is wonderful. [Things like this] help them build the paper trail of their success. It’s an opportunity to springboard and meet other filmmakers and producers.”

Jean Bodon, Director of the Mass Communications department, shared his affinity for Raven Films and their work. 

“They are wonderful filmmakers,” said Bodon “I think they have a chance to win [the competition in Los Angeles], they have the technical abilities and gifts to succeed.”

Bodon believes they will gain a lot from competing in Los Angeles.

“Win or lose, they will have made a Hollywood movie and they will gain great in sight and experience,” Bodon said.

Raven Films was founded in 2008 and aims to educate its members on fundamentals of the filmmaking process including lighting, audio, editing, cinematography and directing. 

Raven Films meets every Tuesday at 5 p.m. in Dan Rather Communications Building room 125. Their first meeting will be on Sept. 11.