Last month the journalism and digital media department and Ashland film group hosted their first ever 48-hour film festival. The festival consisted of four groups with three students per group.

Groups were given a list of guidelines, which included five categories. They were required to choose at least one item from four of the five categories. The categories were props, locations, characters, quotes and character actions. The films were also required to be 3-5 minutes in length.

“The purpose of the 48 hour film festival was to get our students engaged in working in teams, to be creative, to understand dynamics of deadlines, and to really produce a creative endeavor,” professor Dave McCoy said.

McCoy was a judge for the competition along with JDM professors Tim McCarty, Gretchen Dworznik, and operations manager John Skrada. They judged the finished films along with freshman student judge, Chris Beisel.

Groups had to write their script, shoot and edit their projects all within 48 hours. After all projects were complete, the groups viewed all the videos to see what each other had done.

“The experience itself was exciting. We were all stressed for time, and it when came down to the wire, everybody was freaking out,” junior Tim Hawk said. “It was fun and you got to see what everybody could do in 48 hours and how creative they could be.”

Despite having to choose from four of the five categories, the groups all managed to choose different things and have completely different storylines for their films.

“We could expand the list, we could expand the groups, and get more people involved and hopefully be a better experience,” sophomore Katy Higaki said.

In years to come, the JDM department hopes to expand the film festival past the department and involve other students. The department hopes that eventually the festival can include the Ashland community.

“Our hope is that down the line, maybe even as soon as next year, we might do this twice a year with really the belief that we can expand with a few more groups,” McCoy said. “Inevitably we believe we can have an open film festival down the line.”

This year’s 48-hour film festival winning film “5/2/12” created by Dan Griffin, Tim Hawk, and Hilary Neal. The group chose the following from the requirements: Prop – Starburst and Hand Sanitizer, Line of Dialogue – “She knows whats up!” Location – University cement bench, and Character action – Pulling weeds.

Their film was about Alexander, played by Hawk who discovers a CD with important information about the future and how he can change it. Alexander is guided by Sergeant Riblets, played by Griffin, who is from the future and has a plan for Alexander to save the future of the world.

“It means that our hard work was noticed and what we had fun making, someone else enjoyed it too,” Hawk said. “That’s what filmmaking is all about, right?”

The department also announced that they would host the second 48-hour film festival in the fall.

To view the winning film, visit ashlandcollegian.com.