This Saturday ACTV will be hosting its third annual Film Festival, which will take place in Quigley at 8 p.m. and will be free to students and community members.
“We received a lot of awesome submissions this year,” said Kate LoPresto, ’10, the president of ACTV.
Submissions included two senior projects, a public service announcement about drunk driving, a documentary about Lego fans, a children’s show, a couple of animations and several longer narrative films.
Monetary prizes will be awarded to the best films, including best short film and best longer film.
Due to scheduling conflicts, the festival will not be held in the Vukovich Center as it has been in past years.
Still, students believe it will be a success.
“This year we opened up submissions for the festival to students in Ohio, western New York, and western Pennsylvania,” LoPresto said. “We hope to expand even more next year.”
“On the day of last year’s film festival, we had Relay for Life to compete with,” said Ben Goldstein, ’12, president–elect of ACTV. “But we had tons of films: every room in the Vuk was playing movies. The festival is such a great opportunity to bring film to the forefront here at Allegheny. Everyone should definitely come.”
In addition to the festival, ACTV is excited about its plans for next semester.
“We’ll be continuing the news show that we do with ‘The Campus,’ and we’re also planning on partnering up with the Meadville community to do a daytime talk show,” Goldstein said. “It will be played on the ACTV channel and a local cable channel. We’re really looking forward to getting the community involved with what we do.”
Sarah Gentile ’10, outgoing vice president, added that members of ACTV are hoping to organize a cooking show for next semester.
The main goal ACTV has set for next semester is to get more Allegheny students involved with the program, so it can become even bigger and better than it already is.
“The main thing I love about ACTV is that you don’t need to be a comm arts major to get involved with it,” Gentile said. “People with all different interests can come together, bring their own ideas and create their own programming. And Professor Keeley is always very supportive.”
Dane Holding, ’10 agreed.
“There’s only one video production major on the board for ACTV, Holding said. “Our treasurer is a neuroscience major, for example.”
Video and film production, it seems, is something that all students can enjoy and benefit from, no matter what other academic disciplines they’re involved with.
Gentile also mentioned that TAs will be getting more involved next year, so it will be easy for any student to come in and learn how to use all of the video equipment available in the labs and the studio.
“It’s a great way to meet new people, get involved and just enjoy a chance of pace,” Gentile said.
Goldstein is anticipating next semester to be a great one for ACTV.
“I’m hoping to get lots of students involved,” he said. “TV production is a lot of work, but it’s a lot of fun and very rewarding. And it’s really fun to see yourself on TV.”
By MOLLY DUERIG