Communication professors Ryan Louis and Thad Rose are bringing a new kind of competition to Ottawa University.
The concept of the competition is that the students will have 48 hours to write, shoot, produce, edit and upload a short film. The idea came to Rose after one of his film maker friends entered a similar competition.
Contestants will be given a prompt to go off of that could include a character trait, place and/or plot point. They will also be given free reign of the computer labs, but must supply their own cameras and actors.
Louis is familiar with the competition having been exposed to it in college.
“Usually these types of competitions are 24 hours but we thought since it was the first year doing it we would make it 48 hours,” Louis said.
The competition will be taking place in November and will be on a Friday and ending on a Sunday. The winners of the competition will receive a prize that has not yet been announced.
“We will decide a winner based on the project with the most fidelity,” Louis said. “Did the group satisfy all the concepts they were given?”
Senior Trevor Lyons is planning on putting a group of people together to join the competition.
“I have become really passionate about filmmaking and storytelling,” Lyons said. “It is going to be a really awesome project to have on campus.”
Louis’s tips for anyone looking to join the competition are to make sure to choose a group of diverse people.
“You need someone with an eye who can operate the equipment, someone who has strong writing skills, and someone who can edit and of course you’ll need people who can act,” Louis said. “It would be almost impossible for one person to try to do it all.”
Rose is hopeful that the competition will be a hit.
“I hope it is a success and we will be able to bring it back year after year,” Rose said. “This is something I’ve always wanted to do a competition like this but life gets busy that’s why I am happy to bring it here.”
Louis and Rose plan to have a showing of all the short films entered but the venue of the showing has not been figured out yet. The competition is not just open to communication majors but the campus as a whole.
“You don’t have to be super good at film but you do have to have a desire and ideas that will drive the project forward,” Louis said.
For more information about the competition contact Thad Rose at thad.rose@ottawa.edu.