Delaware Tech students participate in Short Wars
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Delaware Technical Community College, Owens Campus, Communications students participated in the Short Wars student film competition against a Wilmington University team in August. From left: Seth Shockley, Adam Smith, Bryce Evans and Lydia Conner.
By Andrew Howard
Four students headed to Milton in August for an experience like no other to compete in a life-changing film contest.
Delaware Technical Community College, Owens Campus, Communications students participated in the Short Wars student film competition for one week against a Wilmington University team.
Teams included an editor, a sound engineer, a director of photography, and a director. The teams both filmed the same scripts, but could change minor details.
The week started on Aug. 9 at Milton Theatre for a meet and greet, then on Monday the teams returned to the Milton Theatre to chose the actors they wanted in their film. Each team got to work with the actor beforehand to see which one they wanted the most. The teams flipped a coin and Delaware Tech chose their actors first. Tuesday and Wednesday they recorded their scenes for the film. Thursday and Friday was spent editing footage and audio.
Saturday was the big day for the production. The films were to be shown at 8 p.m., but during the day the Delaware Tech team was still in full gear editing the film.
Delaware Tech’s team director Lydia Conner said she was excited to get the show on the road, despite the high intensity of the situation.
Conner said, “Saturday day (during the day) was extremely stressful because it was last-minute editing.”
The team got to work with all the last-minute tweaks within the early hours on Saturday. By early afternoon the team had submitted their short film. Then the stress was lifted after they were finally finished, Conner said.
Conner said although Wilmington University won, it was a close vote between the teams and the vote was based solely on audience members. The experience was what made it worth the while to each of the four students.
Editor Adam Smith said, “You’re not going to get that experience at school.”
Smith said W Films owner and film director Rob Waters had come the second day of filming to help mentor them, and it helped, not just him, but the rest of the team learn more and take a different perspective than what they were thinking.
“He’s doing it every day of his life. Some of the stuff that we learned from him isn’t stuff that is covered in class,” Smith said.
Conner said it was a great experience working with Waters because he offered some insight into the film without really getting his hands on the equipment.
“It was a lot of fun working with the other guys, they were definitely very supportive,” Conner said. “It was a good group chemistry. We could bounce our ideas off of each other really well. We got a lot done, and we were very productive.”
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