Forget Hollywood—the red carpet will unroll at Bowdoin this week at the annual Film Society Student Festival.
The short films from 14 different student directors range from a "mockumentary" to a 19th century psychological thriller.
The Bowdoin Film Society (BFS), which collects film entries and recruits volunteers to judge them, will hand out the awards tomorrow night in Sills Auditorium.
"Chick Magnet," directed by Sam Tung '09, is the story of a boy who comes across a tube of chapstick that makes women fall in love with him. A problem arises when the flocks of girls prohibit him from attracting the one girl he wants, a cutie he spots at the Café.
Tung is the sole creator of "Chick Magnet," and while he enjoyed the creative control, he admitted that having more people involved would have been helpful.
"There were times, though, when a team of writers to bounce ideas off of, or a team of camera people to assist in shooting, would have been incredibly helpful—it's a lot to organize and control," he said.
Using student actors was also a challenge for Tung, who employed three of his peers to bring his movie to the big screen.
"One busy Bowdoin student trying to schedule three other busy Bowdoin students for shooting, as well as rallying crowds of extras for unpaid work" was difficult, he said.
"Chick Magnet" has been nominated for Best Original Song and Best Writing. Actors Sam Waterbury '11 and Sam Duchin '11 have also been nominated for Best Actor.
Another of the film festival entries is "Library," directed by Kate Krosschell '09.
Taking place in Bowdoin's own Hawthorne-Longfellow Library, Krosschell's film is a romance about a boy and girl who encounter one another among the shelves.
Based on the song "The Warning" by the band Hot Chip, Krosschell had a very specific visual idea of how to create her movie but found that editing her film was a challenge.
"When it came to writing the script and editing during post-production, I realized just how hard it was to cut the movie to fit the specific moments and changes in the music," Krosschell said. "I had imposed some pretty rigorous constraints on myself, so I had to work within those confines. In the end, I managed to make it work, and I'm glad to have had those limits to keep me from getting sloppy."
Actress Meredith Steck '09 has been nominated for Best Actress for her work in the film.
Finally, a unique title on the list of film entrees, "It Will End With Seven Shots From Kookamunga in Saturday's Spilled Blood on the Steps of Solidarity," directed by Lucas Delahanty '10, is described as an action-drama-comedy-mockumentary.
Delahanty, who is also one of the coordinators of the festival, added an original touch to his film.
"My short film is made to look like it's completely one take, lasting 10 minutes, taking place in real-time," he said. "This was the most difficult part of filming, as it involved a lot of coordination on the part of my actors, limited shooting time due to lighting conditions, and some tricky editing."
"I'm really happy with how the illusion turned out though," he added.
The film is a love letter to the BFS, according to Delahanty. He is unconcerned that most of campus might not understand the intricate message of his piece.
"It is purely an entertainment piece I made for the Film Society, and a parting gift for the BFS President, Jake Daly, who takes the lead role in it," Delahanty he said. "Also, young children and those with sensitive vocabularies should wear earmuffs, because Jake, Hannah, Sam, and Chester use a lot of grown-up language."
"It Will End With Seven Shots From Kookamunga in Saturday's Spilled Blood on the Steps of Solidarity" has been nominated for Best Sound and Best Editing.
Lucas Delahanty has been nominated for Best Director and Jake Daly '09 and Hannah Hughes '09 are up for Best Actor and Actress, respectively.
The Bowdoin Film Festival will be presented at Smith Auditorium in Sills Hall tomorrow beginning at 7 p.m. It is free and open to all students.