Student Films Across America festival has low turn-out

The Student Films Across America festival was held at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater on Friday. Fewer than 20 ticket sales later, the tour bus packed up and headed for its next stop. Sparse attendance is something the festival has been fighting all summer long.\nThe SFAA festival gives student filmmakers the opportunity to broadcast their work in professional settings all across the country.\nMore than 600 applicants entered the festival. The winning films comprise a two-hour show scheduled to appear in 50 cities throughout the summer, according to the SFAA Web site. The festival showed films from many genres, ranging from drama to comedy.\n“Where are the students? Where are the film majors?” said Shirley Gedeon, IU summer student and University of Vermont professor.\nGedeon said she was walking by the theater and decided to stop in because she had been thinking about seeing a film but didn’t want to see anything too commercial.\n“It’s a window on the mind of a younger generation,” Gedeon said about student films. \nNot only does festival giving students a venue for their productions, students are also running and financing it. Steve Amos, founder and co-director of the festival, said the cost of the program is falling to the directors.\nNot only are student filmmakers suffering, but student entrepreneurs and film supporters are as well. Amos said the total cost to rent the Buskirk-Chumley Theater was approximately $1100.\n“The bottom line is that the entire staff is volunteers. We are filmmakers ourselves; it’s just something we like to do,” Steve Amos said.\nBrian and Steve Amos – brothers, founders and co-directors of the festival – said they never started the festival as a way to make money. Steve Amos said they wanted to give student filmmakers a way to show their work and at the same time kill some of the stereotypes people have about student films.\n“People have ideas about what student films are,” Steve Amos said. “We want to educate the public that student films are not cliches.”\nStudent filmmaker and Ball State University student Jared Jeffries thinks short films will be the next big thing to happen in Hollywood. \nJeffries said due to the market being given to filmmakers by YouTube, the popularity of original short films is growing. \n“Big corporations are starting to catch on,” Jeffries said. “I think big studios will start to pick up short films again soon.” \nDespite the opportunities the festival allowed, the Bloomington venue had low attendance. It wasn’t the only one: the SFAA cut eight other shows from the festival tour due to financial losses.\n“We had PR out of New York City that we had to drop. We sent out 10,000 posters, we e-mailed every film professor in the country with little to no response,” Steve Amos said. “We even MySpaced and sent out Facebook invitations.”\nSteve Amos said they knew working that with a student-based audience in the summer would be difficult, but they did not anticipate the problems they are facing. \nThe SFAA is counting on their Ohio and East Coast shows to turn the festival around, so they can come back again next year, Steve Amos said.