By Mario MONTALVO/multimedia editor
The NE Art Association is encouraging students to create and submit their best three-minute zombie movies as part of its annual fundraising event.
In the past, the club has hosted a pumpkin-carving contest to raise money, but NE art faculty members Scott Parker and Andrew Stalder wanted to do something different this year, they said.
“It was actually Professor Parker’s idea,” Stalder said. “We had been kicking it around for a couple of years.”
Parker got the idea for the contest one day in class while talking to a student who was a movie aficionado, he said.
Participants can use any type of camera to make their movie. The only restriction is movies be three minutes or less.
“We decided to do short movies because if you try to run an hourlong movie, it’s going to take you a year,” Parker said. “So a three-minute movie is a nice piece where people can pay attention, you can get through your story and make it nice and clean.”
Several students have already shown interest in the contest, the pair said.
“We’ve had quite a few responses, and I know the president of the Film Club came over and told me that they were planning on doing at least one,” Stalder said. “And we have a few others, and I think we’re going to try to do one if we can get around to it.”
NE radio television video broadcasting student Brandon Pleiman, who has some experience making short films, plans to enter the competition. He’s already outlined a script, sketched concept art for props and scouted filming locations, he said.
“I’m going to try to shoot in the parking lot of NRH2O because it’s closed down now, so it’s got kind of an abandoned feel to it,” he said. “I’m going to find a couple of interior locations that look run down. Obviously, it’s got to be a post-apocalyptic-type setting.”
Parker and Stalder said they wanted to do something that would get students to be more active on campus.
“It’s really about getting students excited about being at school,” Stalder said. “It’s just another way to engage people to have a little fun on campus so they don’t just come here and go to class and then go home.”
The contest is open to anybody affiliated with the college.
Students, faculty and staff have already shown a lot of enthusiasm, Parker said.
“We don’t know what we’re going to get in the end, but we’re hopeful,” he said.
The entry fee is $10, and the winner will receive half of the total entry fees.
The movies will premiere at dusk Oct. 24 during a zombie party to be held outside NFAB on NE Campus (weather permitting). Zombie-themed food will be provided.
“Whoever wins gets half the entrance fees, so the more people that are in it, the better the prize,” Pleiman said.
