BYU-Idaho students are constantly searching for new ways to share the work they do with other students and the community. This was the case for a few video production students wanting to get their films on the big screen.
Chance Herman, a video production student and BYU-Idaho Radio employee, says he was making a short film for his senior project when he realized there weren’t many options to showcase his film on campus.
“So, after doing some research and seeing that other video students were having the same problem,” Herman said, “we just thought why not premiere our films in our own festival and include all those other classes as well and kind of give everyone an opportunity to showcase what they’ve been working on?”
Herman and his team are some of the several students wanting to showcase their films at the Cineburg Film Festival.
While there are several local film festivals the school hosts as well as other community festivals, requirements, such as time limit or genre, limit what students can showcase. The Cineburg Film Festival is changing that.
“I know with a lot of us other film students within the college end up doing a lot of personal projects on the side,” said student Emily Ross. “Like me, I had a couple of personal projects that I did. And so being able to have this film festival where we could showcase that while also being able to receive that recognition is really good and it also furthermore adds to our portfolios.”
Ross has been working on her own films as well as working on a few films in COMM 465 with her partner, Reilly Denyer. The class is split into two teams who make two films each - a fictional piece and a factual piece. These films will be shown at the film festival.
“Our factual film will be about the East Idaho Aquarium,” Denyer said. “And there’s been some controversy about it recently. There was an old worker who brought to light some issues of how they were treating some of the animals there. So, we’re going to do an interview with both the aquarium to see their side of the story and also with the person who brought that information to light to get the whole picture of what’s going on.”
Robert Harris, another video production student and BYU-Idaho Radio employee, has been working with Herman on a fictional film. They’re still working on a name.
“One title that we’re considering is ‘Gamble,’ and the other is ‘The Hand of a Lifetime,’” Herman said. “It’s only two characters. One is a person that is called to kill the other character, but the person sent to kill basically gives this guy an option to win his life back in a hand of poker, and it kind of dissects chance and opportunity and luck and how that plays into our lives both in a positive and negative way.”
The Cineburg Film Festival is open to anyone. To enter a film, fill out the Google form found here. To learn more about the festival and keep updated with details, check out their Instagram page.
The festival will take place at the Paramount 5 theater in Rexburg on July 17 at 7 p.m.