Wednesday, November 5, 2014

UCLA Campus MovieFest Finale

Last month, the Don't Tell My Mother production had another great show with a Coming Out theme in honor of National Coming Out Day.  There was a great turnout, hilarious performances, and once again I contributed some pre-show content to fit with our theme, which you can watch here: Don't Tell My Mother "Coming Out" Pre-show.  It was a pleasure to work with the DTMM crew, as always.  The next show will be in December, and I look forward to writing up another post for what is sure to be a holiday themed celebration.

In the meantime, I recently landed a gig with Campus MovieFest, an event I once participated in as a student and have mentioned in this post.  It's a great program that travels to campuses all over the United States, lending students the tools to make a short film in a week. The top sixteen are then screened on campus and awards (and the chance to go to CMF Hollywood) are given out to the very best. After I participated in this event, I became a member of the Distinguished Filmmakers Network, an extension of CMF filled with CMF almuni and opportunities for young filmmakers.  It was through this network that I was able to book the gig for the UCLA Campus MovieFest finale.

The event was a great experience, and my duties were fairly similar to those I generally take on with Don't Tell My Mother.  I helped unload and set up equipment and merchandise tables, I greeted audiences and directed guests, decorated the venue, managed the merchandise table, and assisted in recording video of the show.  The student films were impressive and fun to watch, and I enjoyed a return to the college atmosphere and enthusiasm for some bare-bones filmmaking.  Afterwards, the rest of the crew packed up the leftover merchandise and other equipment, and transported it offsite.

I enjoyed working with the CMF crew and the UCLA campus events team to pull off a worthy festival finale. I wish all the CMF participants luck and can't wait to see more from student filmmakers like those at UCLA.