By Emily Huizenga, News Staff

Forget a six and a half hour flight. It only takes five minutes to get to Hollywood.

Campus MovieFest (CMF), the world’s largest student film festival, occupied Snell Quad Tuesday to kick off a weeklong movie-making competition – one that could give a handful of students the chance to showcase their films at the national Campus MovieFest in Hollywood this June.

“Through CMF, students meet the next generation of filmmakers,” Diane Payes, the festival’s marketing manager, said. “And if they advance to Hollywood, they get to network with the real movers and shakers. It’s a great stepping stone to the careers they’re aspiring to.”

The process goes like this:  Students have one week – and one week only – to make a five-minute-long movie. CMF will supply any support filmmakers need – from a MacBook Pro, iPad 2 or Panasonic HD camcorder, to technical training.

At the end of the week, a panel of students, staff and faculty select the top 16 movies to be screened at a campus premiere, which Payes described as a “little Oscars” ceremony.

This year’s premiere is Tuesday, April 3 in Blackman Auditorium. Free and open to the public, the finale features dozens of door prizes like Amazon Kindles, gift cards and Netflix subscriptions, as well as the opportunity for family, friends and movie lovers to support the budding filmmakers.

“We literally roll out a red carpet,” she said. “With lights. We give awards for Best Comedy, Best Drama and Best Picture, as well as Best Actor and Actress.”

From there, if the top three movies win at regionals, they are screened alongside more than 200 other award-winning films in Hollywood. The filmmakers themselves get all-access passes to receptions, workshops and panels, concerts, movie screenings and the official CMF awards ceremony.

Payes, who has worked for CMF for two years, said the students who make the films are of different abilities, levels of experience and knowledge.

Senior communications major Douglas Quill has made four films for CMF and won Campus Best Picture twice, Campus and Regional Best Comedy and Campus Best Drama, along with other regional and national nominations.

He and his crew started shooting on Tuesday after roughly a month of pre-production, which included staking out locations, recruiting actors, acquiring equipment, formulating a budget and getting local restaurants to donate meals.

“We don’t do it for the prizes, we do it for tradition,” Quill said. “It is the one week out of the entire school year we live for – that one week where we don’t feel bad about blowing off classes, not doing work. It’s a week where any kind of responsibilities or commitments go out the window because we don’t care. All we care about is making a movie.”

On the flip side, NUTV Treasurer and middler computer science major Christopher Jelly said by providing equipment and technical support CMF makes a great opportunity for cinematic novices who might just want to get out and shoot something with their friends.

Jelly requested funding to invite CMF to campus, the first time NUTV has organized its arrival, after students who participated in the past requested the event.

“It’s a really good program because there are students who don’t usually have the opportunity to make short films for class,” Jelly said. “Plus it gives us exposure as a club and university.”

One thing seems evident:  The week will be busy.

“For me and my team it’s just crazy. We’re out all day shooting and when we’re not shooting we’re up all night editing,” Quill said. “Tonight I’m hoping we figure out how to shoot tomorrow, then tomorrow we’ll figure out how to shoot the next day. Things change, things get cut. I don’t know how we do it. To be honest, I don’t know how it gets done.”

Payes said though students value the prizes and awards, the real reward is showcasing their films at the finale.

“If you get a chance to talk to them, they’ll tell you – they put so much of themselves into their projects,” she said. “At the end of the day, all they want is to make their audiences laugh or cry, or move them in the way their film intended.”

Quill said he agreed.

“The great thing about the industry is you meet talented people who are all in it for the same goal, and that is to make movies,” he said. “We create something out of nothing. And that for me is the most exciting part. Creating and telling stories.”