Student Films Hit Biggest Screen for District 196 Film Festival

33 student filmmakers got to see their projects on the screen that boasts of being the largest in the Upper Midwest at the District 196 Film Festival Saturday.

50 video projects were shown on the Minnesota Zoo’s IMAX Theater’s six-story screen, and “The Abduction” by Rosemount junior Ryan Floysand won the prize for best of the festival.

Kathy O’Connell, the theater’s manager, was pleased with how the event turned out. “I was totally blown away by their work,” O’Connell said.

Rosemount teacher Mark Hubbard organized the event. Renting the IMAX Theater is a costly endeavor, so Hubbard secured the corporate sponsors to help fund the event. The theater also cut him deal.

“IMAX gave us a very discounted rate,” Hubbard said. "They made this event possible."

Best Buy was also instrumental in getting the event off the ground, as it provided the ushers and the prizes, Hubbard said.

Hubbard teaches a yearlong course in film and multimedia production titled the Digital Film Factory at Rosemount High School. The course is an intensive study of filmmaking that lasts two class periods. In connection with this course, Hubbard has built a relationship with the theater.

Two years ago, he took a group of students on a field trip to the IMAX Theater and Projection Booth Manager Rodney Johnson showed them around.

Last spring, Johnson gave Hubbard's animation class IMAX film that they used to create animated clips by drawing on the frames with permanent marker. After finishing the clips, the animation students came to the Apple Valley IMAX Theater to view their work on the big screen.

Building on that relationship, this year Hubbard orchestrated the first ever District 196 Film Festival.

“For students this is an opportunity to have their projects displayed on an enormous screen,” Hubbard said. “It’s great we are in the same area [as the Minnesota Zoo’s IMAX Theater].”

"I hope to make this an annual event and make Best Buy and IMAX partners," Hubbard said.

Hubbard’s Digital Film Factory students created most of the entries. However, high school and middle school students from around the district also participated.

In addition, a few students, like Eagan High School junior Phillip Rasmussen, leave their respective high schools to go to Rosemount High School in the afternoons in order to take The Digital Film Factory. The other high schools have their own digital video courses, but Hubbard's course is the most intensive film course the district has to offer.

Rasmussen submitted a film titled "Super Smash Systems" in which a Nintendo 64, Game Cube and Wii game console battle against one another through the magic of stop motion.

Stop motion is a technique in which an object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames. When the frames are played in a continuous sequence, the manipulated object appears to move on its own.

Rasmussen created the film in segments.

"I'd go home each day and shoot some, and then I'd edit some the next day at school," Rasmussen said.

The difficulty of this piecemeal approach was that the lighting would change at different times of day throwing off the continuity of the film, Rasmussen said. He settled on using a flood light to provide reliable lighting for filming.

After two weeks of work, the film still wasn't done, but Hubbard said he convinced Rasmussen to show what he had.

It paid off. Even without the final scenes, Rasmussen's film took first in the stop animation/animation category and took home a $45 gift certificate to Best Buy.

A panel of nine judges critiqued the students work and selected the winners in each category.  The four categories were public service announcements, experimental and music videos, stop motion and animation, and news and documentaries.

Johnson was one of the judges. He was impressed with what he saw.

“If these students had a $50 million budget like they do in Hollywood, they could do the same thing as the professionals,” Johnson said. “The artistic intent is there, and the creative talent is there.”