Web surfers, movie goers and classical literature fanatics can all find something to pique their interests with the Department of Telecommunication's student film scheduled to premiere Thursday night.
More than 100 Ball State University telecommunications students are using recently developed online marketing to advertise a film they produced, Rich Swingley, digital audio professor and project adviser, said.
The students are using Facebook, MySpace, iTunes and YouTube to advertise their film "Ellie & Marianne," Tim Pollard, telecommunications professor and project adviser, said.
"We had zero dollars and needed to reach a younger audience," Pollard said. "Facebook and MySpace are becoming places where people can meet. [The students'] generation uses this, and that is who the advertising is aimed at."
The students are using YouTube and iTunes to provide video clips that can be downloaded onto computers and video iPods, Swingley said.
"They're starting to use Facebook and MySpace in Hollywood," telecommunications student Ryan Bilinski said. "We needed a way to reach the student body that was reasonable and fresh. This is what the bigger movies are doing."
The Web sites are a different method to distribute the advertisement and reach a larger audience, Swingley said.
"The trick was to find some sort of venue that would work well," he said. "In past times there was no good way to get [advertisements] off campus."
The downloading format has helped to make things more efficient and direct, Swingley said. The participants no longer have to send DVDs and CDs to target audience members the way film producers did in the past, he said.
The project participants contacted their friends through Facebook and MySpace to spread the word. Other students can find it by searching the Web sites, Pollard said. More than 100 people have joined the Facebook group, he said.
The movie will be uploaded to iTunes in sections for people to download, Bilinski said.
"We've been very pleased with the success of the advertisements," Swingley said. "It's getting down to crunch time and the event is almost sold out."
The film will premiere at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Muncie Civic Theatre. The doors will open at 6:30 p.m. and the event is free.
"There are only 400 seats available and the Muncie Civic Theatre has been bending over backwards to help us out," Pollard said.
The film is a modern adaptation of Jane Austen's "Sense and Sensibility," Bilinski said.
"It's about two girls looking for that special someone that's a blend of drama and comedy," he said. "It's got its serious moments, but you can still sit back, relax and enjoy some humor."
The production for the film began during the summer and is in the final stages of editing before its premiere, Bilinski said.
The Telecommunications Summer Immersion Program began the film, then Intermediate Audio and Seminar in Production classes finished the post-production during the semester, Swingley said. Several students from the Department of Theatre and Dance acted, did make-up, and designed costumes, he said.
"Almost the entire TCOM Department participated in this," Bilinski said. "It was written, filmed and edited entirely by the students."
The film will also feature an original soundtrack by the band Stellar Road, he said.
Swingley started the film program in 2004 and it used to be completed during the summer, he said. The program began with 10 students and now it has grown to more than 100 participants, he said.
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