A spring arts festival Monday and Tuesday [APRIL 12-13] at East Central University will showcase all the fine arts programs with the annual Student Art Show and 24-hour Drama and Film Festivals. All activities will be in the Hallie Brown Ford Fine Arts Center and are open to the public.
"This is a celebration of our students and what we do in the arts. It will be a showcase of their creativity, all the fine arts doing something together," said Dr. Delma Hall, assistant vice president for academic affairs and acting director for the School of Fine Arts.
The Student Art Show will be on exhibit in the Pogue Art Gallery. A reception for all festival participants will be held at 5 p.m. Monday outside the gallery. The ECU Flute and Clarinet Ensembles will perform.
Students will have 24 hours write, shoot and edit their films, beginning at 5 p.m. Monday [APRIL 12] and to write and produce their plays, beginning at 7 p.m. Monday. They will present the plays beginning at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Chalmers Herman Theatre in the fine arts center. The films will be screened at 8 p.m. Tuesday in the William C. Thrash Television Studio, Room 130.
"They can write plays from 15 to 45 minutes in length," said Dr. Richard Groetzinger, assistant professor of communications. "Some students will be actors and a couple of students will write songs for the plays. Others have signed up for technical work or to build sets. They will all get to work together to do something from scratch."
The Mass Communication Program is organizing the university's first 24-Hour Film Festival. Chris Shofner, assistant professor of communication, proposed the film festival after seeing successful festivals at other colleges.
"My students always enjoyed participating. I wish I would have gotten to do it," he said. "It seems like a good thing to do here. Why not?"
The films will be between one and five minutes in length. Writing may begin before Monday, but shooting can't start until 5 p.m. As many people can be in a film group as participants choose. All groups must register with Shofner in person, by phone or by email by noon Monday. Complete rules and information are available from Shofner at 580-599-5598 or via email at cshofner@ecok.edu.
A fun challenge will be injected when the contest begins. Groups will be given different specifics they must incorporate into the film, such as a specific genre, character, line or prop. Students may need to modify a script to fit in a prop like a plunger.
Shofner noted that this activity is for fun and winners receive no prize beyond bragging rights.
All films need to be submitted on DVD. The contest videos will be posted on Youtube.com after the competition ends. Films should not contain copyrighted material. Films using copyrighted material will be shown at the screening but will not be posted to YouTube. Information can be found on YouTube by searching for ECTVHD.
"We're not asking for professional movie-makers. We're asking for people to participate," Shofner noted.
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