A group of Ball State University students await judging results for a short film they produced in 24 hours for a film festival.
Senior Paul Symons said Apple's Insomnia Film Festival was a film-making competition for students around the county. Judges will announce the winners on Nov. 9, Symons said.
Participants had 24 hours to write, produce, edit, compose music and submit an original film, he said.
Apple requires participants to use at least three of 10 elements, such as a tuxedo costume and a bird cage prop.
The contest began Oct. 13th when Apple announced the elements, Symons said.
"That way every group is put onto a leveled playing field for the competition," Symons said. "No one knows what the elements will be ahead of time."
Symons said his team's film was titled "The Understudy."
"It's told in a way that the viewer thinks that they are watching a legitimate spy movie," Symons said. "Then it's revealed that they are actually following a theater flunky who's upset because he didn't get the leading role in a 'Super Spy' musical."
Symons said there were more than 1,700 submissions this year, and the judges will consider the 25 films with the most votes.
"I seriously believe that my team's film has a strong chance of winning if we can just get to the judging round," Symons said. "We displayed an excellent degree of technical proficiency, and our story is entertaining and fun."
Symons said he first learned of the Insomnia competition online, and it was later advertised on campus.
"The idea of producing a film start-to-finish in 24 hours seemed like a big challenge, so I started to scout around for a good crew," Symons said. "I asked friends of mine whom I know were talented if they were interested and put together an all-star group."
The team was called Team Excelsior, and contained many students with different talents who all had separate parts in putting the film together, Symons said.
Symons said the film was written, cut and then pieced together within about an hour and a half.
Freshman Justin Wilk said he composed the film's music.
"My passion is making music for films," Wilk said. "Making music for films is overlooked at the student level, but it is what impacts the emotion of the film."
Wilk said he created the musical score by reading the script for the film.
"It's a high strung comedy, so I wanted something that made the audience on the edge of their seat but giggle because it is too intense at times," Wilk said.
Symons said the movie cost about $100 to make, $50 of which was for the tuxedo. Ball State provided all of the equipment for the project, he said.
Symons said the film was one of the most challenging things he has ever done.
"It was an amazingly crazy experience, Symons said. "We started at 8 a.m. Saturday morning, and I know I didn't get back to my place till around 9 a.m. the next day."
This is the second year for the competition, and the winning team receives new Apple laptops, Symons said.
"If my team wins this competition, it will also draw a lot of attention to Ball State, which was integral in providing us the facilities in order to complete this project," he said.
VotingPeople can go to vote for and view films at:edcommunity.apple.com/insomnia_fall07/item.php?itemID=607
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