Troy University students were awarded by the Yellowhammer Film Festival for its 48-hour film race that took place over spring break.
A film race is a competition where groups have two days to make a short film using the prompts and stipulations given to them. For example, a student-run multimedia design studio named Studio 207 who received the genre “mockumentary” had to use a stapler as a prop, had to include the line “try this on for size” and they also had to name a character Greg (or Greta) Anderson.
“It's really something special to see such young, eager minds transition into the industry and begin their career as a group of it,” said Chris Stagl, the co-founder of the Yellowhammer Film Festival and a professor with Troy University’s Department of Art and Design. “Whether they run it out and they spend the next 40 years working together as a team, or whether they all go in different directions, I think that wherever they go, and whatever they do they'll be a part of something special as they redefine this industry.”
These requirements exist so participants can’t work on a film before the competition and then pass it off as if they did it in the given window of time.
The video Studio 207 cooked up, “Happy Birthday Greg!” won multiple awards.
With such little time to work on a project, things have to move quickly for the film to have any chance in the competition. That means there isn’t time for perfectionism.
“A lot of it starts with the prompt and the things we have to use, and from there we’ll throw ideas around,” said Nathan Hobbs, a senior graphic design major from Black, Alabama.
Students working on projects like this each bring their own personal touch to the work being done. In this case, Hobbs pulled from media he enjoys.
“For instance, we got mockumentary and immediately what came up was the Almost Friday YouTube channel, and the office also came up because that’s the go to,” Hobbs said.
After the group got the reference material in their minds for the style and structure of the film in place, they got to work brainstorming ideas.
When tossing out ideas to each other, the group still had to keep in mind all the stipulations and make room for each.
Jared Hester, a senior graphic design major from Trussville Alabama, explained the initial struggle of fitting the required stapler prop in the film.
“For a mockumentary, we weren’t exactly sure how to include a stapler without it being shoehorned in,” Hester said.
He went on to explain how Reanna Thompson, a fellow group member, tossed out the idea of a guy freaking out because of how awkward it feels to be sung to at a birthday party, and that got the ball rolling immediately. They ended up deciding to have the stapler be a gift at the party.
“Happy Birthday Greg!” centers around Greg Anderson’s birthday party. Anderson pleads with his friends before going into his party that they don’t sing the happy birthday song to him, and they begrudgingly agree to avoid the song.
During the party, the two friends tasked with telling people not to sing to Anderson realize that neither of them actually told anyone. When the singing begins, Anderson has a mental break, and mayhem follows.
The found footage style video is broken up by interviews with the partygoers who are all wonderfully written to be so strange.
With the genre locked in place, a character named Anderson, and the stapler seamlessly woven in, they were left with the most challenging stipulation: the required line of dialogue, “Try this on for size.”
“A lot of times in these contests, you can kind of pick out what the line of dialogue is because it’s literally forced in,” said Zack Pappanastos, a senior interdisciplinary studies major from Montgomery, Alabama. “It can be difficult to make that feel comfortable.”
For their film, Studio 207 was awarded Best in Show for Student Work, Best in Alabama, Best Acting, Best Use of the Line “Try that on for size” and Best Direction.
Anyone interested in watching “Happy Birthday Greg!” or any of Studio 207’s work can check out Nathan Hobb’s YouTube channel, “Nathan Hobbs” or on the studio’s channel “Studio 207.”
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