2013. Year 8. Science.

THEME: Science.
CRITERIA: Teams were each given a scientific theory or law.
OPTIONAL CHALLENGE: Make a Science Fiction film.

TEAMS AND THEIR CRITERIA

Nominations/Awards

Audience Choice:
Crowded Elevator: Parental Advisory

Best of the Fest:
Moon Slaves: Screw 

Nominations:  Lounge Rat Productions, Henlivision, ideekay?, Stepdad Productions

Best Pro
Moon Slaves: Screw

Nominations: Henlivision, Missing Link

Best Amateur:
Stepdad Productions: Chairs

Nominations: Cracked Pipe Productions, ideekay?

Head of the Class (Best Student):
Lounge Rat Productions: The Death(s) of Gabe

Nominations: Nas t

Best Cinematography:
Missing Link Cinema

Nominations: Pecos Bill, Lambda Kappa Tau, Moon Slaves

Best Editing:
Moon Slaves

Nominations: Missing Link, Henlivision, Pecos Bill

Best Writing:
Moon Slaves

Nominations: ideekay, Missing Link, Crowded Elevator

Best Music/Sound:
ideekay? Switching Poles

Moon Slaves, Henlivision, Missing Link

Flying Dog Shock and Awe:
Stepdad Productions: Chairs

Producer’s Notes:

Science.  For Year 8, we’d thought it would be fun to give a scientific law or principle, and see how narrative filmmakers would interpret them.  We go back and forth on giving very specific criteria (scripts) to something a bit more abstract (polaroid), and Scientific Laws/Theories/Principles seemed like a good middle ground.  The films again swung within a wide gamut but quite a few of them turned out pretty damn good, and even if a film wasn’t to your liking, trying to figure out the puzzle of how the law was interpreted made for a fun evening.

For 2013, Sponsor Flying Dog designed the poster. And the clues perplexed.

We struggled with how to present the criteria, and almost built a game show set that would represent the Periodic Table.  When we sat down to pick the laws, we realized that coming up with 50 different ones was gonna be a little tough. Luckily we got a few nerds behind the scenes, and after a fun brainstorm session that included lots of Google and Wikipedia, Mike Hoolehan whipped up an amazing interactive Periodic Table for the criteria. Always stepping up our game. It was the last year we launched at Artomatic Frederick.

The Opening this time was done by Mike Yamrus, who started out as a team way back in the day, but came on the board a few years later.  He played with a Dr Frankenstein motif.  Joey McAdams directed some of the interstitials shot during a trip to a Science Museum. Erik Secula created a Ratings Guide with some puppets.

With cohost Doug Powell taking a year off, and the 72 Film Fest demands once again kicking our butts, we had roughly three hours to get whatever comedy sketches AND promos we were going to do. To make it worse, we had an actress not show on the day of shooting which meant we were scrambling to find someone/anyone for Mikael Johnson to play against.  A call out to a member from a past team (10/Ten) and Evan came over to Area 31 and jumped in to play with a simple scenario. “According to my calculations” spoofed the various ways Scientists are used/minimized in Hollywood films.  We had only a blackboard and a white lab coat left over from Mike Yamrus’s open.  And we made the best of it.  Also shot that day was a deleted extended sketch that was going to unfold throughout the evening: a casting call for “Gravity” which included a few actors trying out for George Clooney’s part in the film.  The movie had just been released that week into theaters, and no one had seen it, but that didn’t stop the team from trying to spoof it. After ten hours of editing, Clark reluctantly killed the whole thing. It was one of the only times a sketch didn’t make it in some form to the night of