Written by Levi Jubelt Media by John Freeman
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Every year an event is held that challenges the brightest and most talented videographers of Greenville College to create a cinematic masterpiece in only 50 hours. That event is the 50 Hour Film Festival. This year four teams rose to the challenge and on November 12th their creations were released to the world. The videos were clever, thoughtful, and downright hilarious.
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Hosted by Greenville College Student Development and the Art and Digital Media departments, the 50 Hour Film Festival rules give contestants 50 hours to create a video that is based around a certain theme and incorporates three motifs. This year the theme was to rewrite the Alma Mater or to create a new one for Greenville International University (Greenville College). The first motif that had to be included was that there must be a sign from the “old” Greenville College. Athletics were the second motif and groups had to represent our athletes place in university life in some manner. The final motif was academics. The Alma Mater had to include imagery of a book that demonstrates Greenville’s international emphasis.
The second place winner, Alma Mayble.
The first group to showcase their video consisted of Madison Moran, Andrea Freeman, and Morgan Johnson. Their video titled Alma Mayble, went meta and was about a girl who was tasked with creating a new Alma Mater for GIU. The video follows Mayble as she creates a new Alma Mater and transforms herself. Much hilarity ensues throughout the video including cameos of some the other groups. The next contestant was a one man team consisting of Brain Gertlr. Brian’s video titled Gasting Insects Underground may not have followed the theme and motifs perfectly, but it was definitely hilarious. Brian performed a lovely cover of Somewhere Over the Rainbow that was accompanied by his own music video. The video and song were interesting to say the least. He gets bonus points in his video for dressing up as Dorothy.
The first place video of the 50 hour film festival, “GIU”
The third group consisted of Jake Cannon, Tyler Lamb, Paul Anderson, and Austin Stephens. Their video was a play on the sitcom format and was simply titled GIU. The Alma Mater this group made was a rehash of the theme song from Friends that worked surprisingly well. The video itself stayed true to the classic sitcom formula with conflicting character personalities and a generous amount of one liners. The final contestant Jonathan Barker was also a one man team. Jonathan’s video broke away from the comedic genre of the previous videos and took a much more serious tone. His video titled If I Graduate, took a hard look at the reality of stress in college and how it can affect your attitude and actions. Jonathan’s Alma Mater was by far the best due to the simple fact that it was an entire song. While the other groups had short and simple themes, Jonathan made an actual song that had verses, choruses, and original music. The song itself was light hearted, catchy, and touched on some great points about Greenville.
Jonathan Barker’s video submission to the 50 hour film festival, “If I Graduate”, which came in third.
The event was sponsored by Vat19 so they provided the prizes. Make no mistake; everything from Vat19 is fantastic so no matter where each group placed they were sure to get a fabulous prize. This year, fourth place went to Brian Gertlr who received multiple boxes of bacon flavored popcorn. Third place went to Jonathan Barker who won a couple of creepy and awesome animal masks of his choice. Second place went to the group of Madison Moran, Andrea Freeman, and Morgan Johnson who each received a Beardo hat. And the grand prize went to the group of Jake Cannon, Tyler Lamb, Paul Anderson, and Austin Stephens. They won an Ostrich Pillow and a 5 pound gummy bear. All the contestants did a fantastic job on their videos. The 50 Hour Film Festival was definitely a ton of fun and a huge success. For those who were unable to attend this year, be sure to mark it on your calendar for next year so that you can see the best student made videos Greenville College has to offer.
Here are short interviews of some of the contestants after the 50 Hour Film Festival.
