Students interested in filmmaking have two big opportunities to showcase their work in Bloomington this month.
Two film festivals — the Trailer Fest Film Festival and the 13th Annual Gadabout Film Fest — will accept submissions for their respective events throughout October. According to Chris Rall of Roller Mortis Films, the Trailer Fest Film Festival is one of the few events that celebrates fake movie trailers, or trailers for movies that do not actually exist.
“Making a fake trailer is a great exercise for filmmakers, and it really allows them to refine their craft,” Rall said in an email. “To be effective, you really have to do a great job at planning out every shot and every edit of the trailer.”
Rall said the goal is to give audiences the illusion that there is a full film outside the brief preview by constructing a trailer that looks like the filmmaker chose from a full film’s worth of shots.
“We hope that the audience will find the event to be very entertaining,” Rall said. “In many cases, our submissions have been very humorous. The fact that each piece will be shorter than three minutes should create a fun and fast -moving evening.”
The festival’s trailer screening will take place Nov. 8 at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, according to a press release. Fee for submission is $10 for students. Submissions will be accepted through Oct. 31 and can deal with any genre the filmmaker chooses.
“It’s a great opportunity for filmmakers to show their work in a venue alongside other works from all over the world,” Rall said. “We’ve already received submissions from Europe, Asia, Australia and Canada, as well as submissions from all over the U.S.”
The Gadabout Film Fest, according to the release, has traveled across 15 countries and 75 cities around the U.S. Charlie Jones, co-producer at Gadabout, said the festival came out of frustration with more commercial film festivals.
Jones said founder Eric Ayotte wanted to experience and share filmmaking as he did music in the Do it Yourself punk scene growing up, to make film accessible for all.
“We try to break down the film festival stereotype and place the program with a variety of other things,” Jones said in an email. “It makes for a really inspiring and unique night.”
Submissions for this festival are also not restricted by genre, just given a 10-minute time limit, Jones said. Unlike the Trailer Fest, this event will not include a cash prize for the winner, as the focus is more on sharing work.
“A lot can be communicated in 10 minutes or less, epic stories can be told and huge emotions expressed,” Jones said. “We keep things short as we are curating a program that must fit in to an hour as we take the films on tour as one act on a bill.”
The festival looks to celebrate both new and experienced filmmakers, Jones said.
“We want them to know that they don’t have to pay to share their work, they can submit as many times as they like and if their work is selected, we don’t want to hold them back in sharing it with other festivals,” Jones said. “Short film often has a short life span — we want to help their work get shared.”
The deadline for submissions to Gadabout is also Oct. 31, and films will be screened Nov. 13 at the I Fell Building on West Fourth Street.
“We encourage the filmmakers that are selected to come to see the festival where they can as it’s great to see their work as part of an international collection — it’s inspiring,” Jones said.
