Students create, showcase short films for awards

The second annual Winona State University 48-Hour Video Dash festival premiered four student films last Tuesday, Oct. 24 in Stark Hall.

Students had 48 hours to create a short film for this competition, according to Video Dash Director and mass communication instructor Talan Memmott.

Memmott said each team was given four details to include in their film: the genre, a character, an item and a phrase.

“From there, they had 48 hours to write, shoot, edit, polish and deliver videos,” Memmott said.

Audience members were given a program, a voting sheet for “Audience Favorite” and a slip to vote on the name of the awards.

Four judges evaluated the films in four different categories—best picture, best editing, best director and best performance.

The first film was “Dream,” directed by senior creative digital media major Caleb Hammel and junior geoscience major Andrew Williams, starring Padric Brennan, Ali DeRome and Caleb Hammel. The film, a romance-with-a-twist, featured a detective, a tin foil hat and the phrase “Show me the money!”

The second film, directed by Leng Tian Teo, was called “The Wizard,” starring Leng Tian Teo, Chung Man Kit and Chun Hui New. The science fiction film included a wizard and a stuffed animal, and featured the phrase “You talkin’ to me?”

“Time Cop,” directed by fifth-year film studies and journalism major Nathaniel Nelson, was an action film featuring a cowboy, a jar of pickles and the phrase “Houston, we have a problem.” This film starred Joe Van Ryn, Ella Dierberger and Lance Urbick.

The last film was “Star Hike,” directed by first-year creative digital media major Brynn Artley. The science fiction film starred Artley’s sisters Kiara and Piper and featured a pizza delivery person, cheese and the phrase “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”

After the screening, film creators and audience members were encouraged to mingle and enjoy refreshments while votes were counted.

Memmott said the awards, which are shaped like chickens, do not have a formal name, but have been called the Golden Chicken Awards.

The audience chooses the name for the awards each year, so during intermission, the judges tallied the votes for audience favorite and randomly picked a slip to name the awards.

Memmott then randomly chose the name “The Reginald” for the awards, and announced this year’s winners for each category, chosen by a panel of judges made up of two faculty members and two students.

The award for best picture went to “Dream” and best editing went to “Time Cop.” The other three awards went to “Star Hike,” with Artley receiving the best director award, Artley’s sister Piper receiving the best performance award and the film receiving the audience favorite award.

Artley accepted the awards and FaceTimed her sister to take a photo for the best performance award.

“We had a blast putting the video together and it was a lot of fun seeing it at the film festival,” Artley said. “The golden chicken awards were such a fun and creative idea!”

Memmott said he hopes to continue the festival.

“This festival, pending approval, will happen again next fall, and all you need to be a part of it is be on a team with one person that attends [Winona State],” Memmott said to the audience. “We want this to be as accessible as possible.”