This is… CAMSFest — Art-house Aesthetics in Film School Format
Hey folks — just a heads up that this week’s post is a departure from my regular finance-related topics. I’m shamelessly plugging something I’m proud of working on, so please feel free to skip this one and I’ll see you next post!
This past week has been an utter whirlwind of paperwork, administrative meetings, and a litany of other organizational headaches. You see, I’m currently the head of media review and the sole web developer for the USC Cinema and Media Studies (CAMS) film festival, CAMSFest. This is the second year the festival is being held, and like with any scalable event, we’re experiencing some massive growing pains.
The festival was started in 2019 by a then-student, now-alumnus who was frustrated with the lack of sharing opportunities for CAMS students. At USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, Production majors draw audiences each year to see their semester-long or year-long efforts at an event aptly titled “First Look.” It allows them to solicit feedback, gauge audience reactions, and learn how to become better filmmakers. Over the years, USC has expanded this idea to other SCA majors. Animation gets to have “First Frame,” Writing gets “First Pitch” to actually share their scripts with studio executives, and even Interactive Media gets demo days to show off their games. Where is CAMS, you ask? Me too.
Our plan for this year’s festival is to have competitive entries and allow audience voting to assign awards for “Best Film,” “Funniest Script,” and more, inspired by the People’s Choice Awards. This is wonderful because of the engagement we’re getting but, oh man, am I loaded with management work now.
If you would be interested in seeing these films once they screen in mid-April, please reach out to me anytime! I would be thrilled to share my work with you!
