JBU student films have been selected for the Offshoot Film Festival, which begins today and continues through Sunday.
The festival takes place at the Global Campus at the University of Arkansas, 2 E. Center St., Fayetteville, Ark.
“This is the way for independent film to be recognized, and sometimes the winner will get a distribution agreement,” said Steve Snediker, assistant professor of visual arts.
Five out of the six directors, whose films were chosen, are JBU alumni, and the other is a JBU student. The six student films that are being entered into the festival are: “Good Guys vs. Bad Guys” directed by Jessie Daniel, “Flight Lessons” directed by Jordan Karasek, “Deep Ink” directed by Ashley Randal, “Ballad of Rebirth” directed by Christian Anderson, “Climb” directed by Chelsey Rogers and “Marvin and Me” directed by Karson Holbrook, a JBU senior.
The directors of “Camp” and “Gordon Family Tree,” two other independent films that are also being screened at the festival, offered several JBU cinema students internships. One of whom was offered a job to work on one of the films.
Jacob Roebuck, a JBU graduate and director of “Camp,” worked with five JBU students on his film.
Students that worked on “Gordon Family Tree” had the opportunity to work with LA-based actors, Richard Karn and Corbin Bernsen.
“It takes time to get into the film festival circuit,” said Snediker.
At the festival, the films will be shown followed by a question and answer discussion with the directors.
During the question and answer period, directors will sometimes express their gratitude and explain the reasoning behind their film.
“Entering the festival increases credibility and being selected to screen at a festival will give the possibility to get into other festivals,” said Snediker.
Snediker said that it is important for students to enter festivals, because it will encourage them to follow through.
“Once they do it once they will take the experience and develop a habit of entering their work,” said Snediker.
“Climb” was Chelsey Rogers’ senior project.
“It was a really great experience to manage the various phases during shooting, and also a reminder, film is hard,” said Rogers.
Rogers said that there were a lot of struggles in creating the film. But overall, she thinks directing made her excited about film and more confident in her abilities.
Holbrook entered “Marvin & Me,” the film that he directed during the Narrative Film Production class last semester, into the Offshoot Film Festival because he wanted to increase JBU’s reach within the Arkansas filmmaking community.
“Exposure to a larger community of filmmakers and actors will only help us, so I’m expecting our film to be an example of what we can do,” said Holbrook.
Holbrook doesn’t expect to win anything in the Offshoot festival, but does expect to show what JBU and many Digital Cinema students can do.
“If people know that we’re up here in Siloam Springs, producing good, festival worthy content that only helps us,” said Holbrook.
The schedule for the film screening can be found at www.seedlingfilm.com/blogsite/schedule/