‘Claymation’ flick wins 7th annual Shoot Out competition
Actress Lisa Summerscales performs a scene in one of the films produced during the 7th annual Shoot Out.

Andy Brown does a practice run before filming a scene during the Shoot Out competition.

Photos by Maisie Crow

By Kristen Rapin, kr323705@ohio.edu
Published Tuesday, February 10, 2009

More than 27 teams made 48-hour deadline for consideration

ATHENS, Ohio (Feb. 10, 2009)—After 32 student teams spent 48 hours running around campus and various locations throughout Athens writing, shooting and editing short films, hundreds filled Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium for the seventh annual Shoot Out screening and judging.

“(Shoot Out) is a blast, I call it the MDIA Christmas,” said senior Bryan Cain, director of the production team Boogie Array. “The entire college comes together, and its fun to see the outpouring of creativity in just 48 hours.”

The event began Friday when teams were randomly assigned a genre, prop and line of dialogue to use in their productions. The teams were then charged use all three elements to produce a three- to five-minute short film by Sunday’s judging. A total of 27 teams made the 48-hour deadline.

“The most challenging part of the event is coming up with a good story that you can film and edit in 48 hours,” said junior Patrick Muhlberger, of Mata Hari Productions. “A lot of time you get caught up in things you can’t do.”
 
Junior Caitlin Corns, a member of Parkersburg Project, said the main thing she learned from the event was “watch the tapes before you leave a location.” Her group managed to work around some missing shots, but said it would have been better to know upfront when there was still time to fix things.

Students had a chance to produce films in the genres mystery, horror, thriller/suspense, mockumentary, science fiction and instructional video. Among the entries, topics ranged from an instructional video about eggs, an epidemic of students abusing lotion and a man who communicates with God through his car.

This year’s winner was a sci-fi “claymation” entitled “A New Frontier,” by Clay Nation. Second place was “Game Night,” a comedy by TDW. Third place was a tie between OU SigGraph’s digital instructional video “Wake Up,” and Boogie Array’s action adventure “What a Racket!”

“The best part of the Shoot Out was the finished product,” said sophomore and Clay Nation captain Samantha Levy. “All the tension and stress was just this huge build-up to what we had by the end of it.”

Clay Nation’s team of three created the unexpected winner of this year’s event. The group of Levy, Matt Emmons, Andrea Otto ended up with a product with roughly 3500 frames, meaning 3500 adjustments of their set and puppets.

“There were points where we decided that people would think we were absolutely out of our minds,” said Levy. “The fact it turned it turned out so well—and people really enjoyed it—made the sleepless weekend more than worth it.”

The group said the 48-hour time limit is sort of a blessing. It allowed the video to be their only focus and forced them to set aside other obligations and create a project that they couldn’t have created otherwise.

Win or lose, many of the students say the Shoot Out is their favorite weekend at Ohio University. The group The Legion, although sleep-deprived, joked about their off-camera experiences and said it was “sweet being together all weekend.”

“Over the past seven years, Shoot out has become a very important event in the School of Media Arts and Studies,” said associate professor Frederick Lewis, faculty adviser for the event since its inception. “It gives students the opportunity to work together under pressure, with a deadline. It also helps build a sense of community and camaraderie within the school.”

Last year, the event was moved to Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium to accommodate for more seating. The Shoot Out began as a pilot program for Athens Video Works in 2003.