Published: February 29, 2008 11:51 am      

The Wow Factor

EFFINGHAM — Every spring, local high school students amaze audiences with their talent during an annual film festival, and this year promises to keep up that tradition.

Tickets for the Fifth Annual AHA Film Festival go on sale today. The festival will be held at 7 p.m. March 31 at The Rosebud Theatre in Effingham.

Tickets are available for purchase at the Effingham and Teutopolis high school offices. To order tickets from the Rosebud, visit www.therosebudtheatre.com or call 217-540-2787. Standard tickets are $5 each, while a platinum ticket costs $35. Educators may purchase a platinum ticket at a discounted price of $25.

Those who purchase a platinum ticket will receive preferred parking and seating. The platinum event will be held at 6 p.m. in the Green Room and will be catered by Firefly Grill. It will be attended by guests of honor, teachers and others. Optional tours of the Rosebud will be available, as well as multimedia displays on Apple computers.

The festival is put on by the multimedia program students of Effingham and Teutopolis high schools.

“When I think about my films being up on the big screen, it’s made me a little nervous, especially having a comedy,” said Joe Buhnerkempe, a junior at Teutopolis High School, who has two films in the festival. “I have to make sure people laugh when they are supposed to, and it’s not dead silent. Public humiliation is not my favorite thing, but it should be OK.”

The first film festival was held in 2003 and attended by more than 150 people. The festival has continued to grow each year. Even with the festival moving to a theater with nearly 1,600 seats, the teachers are still concerned about running out of room.

“We certainly anticipate it being full at the Rosebud,” said Craig Lindvahl, who co-teaches the program with Joe Fatheree.

“We have guests coming in from all over the country. The film festival is usually sold out. By the end, we have people calling up and saying, ‘You gotta get me a ticket!’” he said. “It’s wonderful that the communities support us and fill up a theater to watch kids’ homework, basically.”

A total of 29 student films will be shown at the festival from 7 to 8:30 p.m. A short award ceremony will follow the festival. Lindvahl said a preshow will begin between 5:30 and 5:45 p.m. The preshow will feature some of the films from the 2007 festival and a presentation about the multimedia class.

Two awards are given at the film festival. All of the student films are judged by a group known as “the jury.” The jury consists of people with ties to the film industry who judge the films on the use of music, proper lighting techniques, appropriate transitions and more. The winning film is announced at the film festival, and the winning student director will receive a scholarship and a crystal trophy. The People’s Choice Award is given to one student film chosen by the audience.

The multimedia students work hard to run the festival.

“The students do the bulk of the work,” Lindvahl said. “The students have to come up with a business plan to make this work. They have to figure out how many tickets and DVDs they want to sell. Each year the pressure mounts for things to be right.”

Cathy Funneman, student coordinator of the film festival, knows that pressure all too well.

“It’s so stressful. There’s so much work that I didn’t even know about, but it’s worth it,” she said. “You learn about yourself and the creative process and how to deal with pressure. It’s not just about making movies.”

Some of the things the students are doing to prepare for the film festival are designing posters and seminar brochures, creating press kits, selling tickets, inviting guests of honor and putting the final touches on their films.

Funneman said she is most looking forward to the seminars the afternoon of the film festival.

A new aspect of the film festival is an afternoon of creative and technical seminars put on with help from the Mid-America chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS), a nonprofit organization who presents the Mid-America EMMY Awards, Silver Circle Awards and Governor’s Award.

The seminars are available to high school and college students, educators and administrators. Participants will have a chance to learn from writers, producers and composers about documentary production, writing, computers, audio production, new media and careers in broadcast and new media.

There will even be a special seminar for teachers and administrators to discuss digital storytelling techniques. Another partner of the film festival is Apple, which will provide computers to demonstrate techniques in filmmaking.

Students will be able to attend the seminars and film festival for $5 per person, but they are encouraged to make reservations early due to a limited number of spaces.

Films that will be shown at the festival include:

• “Speak” by Brad Gebben and Cody Johnson, which has a run time of 1:45. The film is a thought provoking piece about children expressing their thoughts and feelings.

• “Forsaken” by David Everett, which has a run time of 4:35. This film explores the vicious cycle of death and rebirth for a man doomed to eternal punishment for a crime he committed in a past life.

• “Todd Smith The Movie” by Joe Buhnerkempe and Danielle Kenyon, which has a run time of 2:17. This is a remake movie of two boys who play a game of basketball to win the heart of a girl.

• “Marx of Justice” by Justin Daugherty, which has a run time of 3 minutes. The film is about a male cyborg whose goal is to stop an illegal weapons deal from going down in a warehouse. All perpetrators are guilty until proven innocent, whether they are human or cybernetic.

• “Plow Day” by Joe Buhnerkempe which is the story of a small group of farmers who gather every year at the Ring family farm in Heartville to celebrate past traditions.

• “Tune In” is a four-minute film by Lauren Pruemer about one young girl’s trip from her own reality to a psychedelic musical world.

A band called “Green Children” is flying in from Europe to perform for the students the night before the festival. A music video of the band, who has just signed with Universal Records, will premier during the film festival, as well.

DVD copies of the film festival will be sold for $10 March 31. All money raised from the sales will help offset the costs of the multimedia class. Checks should be made payable to Effingham High School.

For more information, visit www.effingham.k12.il.us/aha.



Tickets Information

Tickets for the Fifth Annual AHA Film Festival go on sale today. The festival will be held at 7 p.m. March 31 at The Rosebud Theatre in Effingham.

Tickets may be purchased at Effingham and Teutopolis high school offices or ordered from the Rosebud, at www.therosebudtheatre.com or calling 217-540-2787. Standard tickets are $5 each, while a platinum ticket costs $35.

DVD copies of the film festival will be sold for $10 March 31, with proceeds going to help offset the costs of the multimedia class. Checks should be made payable to Effingham High School.

For more information, visit www.effingham.k12.il.us/aha.

Angie Faller can be reached at 217-347-7151 ext. 131 or angie.faller@effinghamdailynews.com.