Lights, camera, action! On April 7, Radford University students gathered at the Bonnie Hurlburt Student Center auditorium to watch videos that were submitted last month from fellow contestants to a competition that ROC-TV sponsored.

Participants could enter their films into six categories of the Highlander Film Fest: comedy, documentary, horror/drama, experimental, and animation. Entries were judged on production, quality, creativity, attention to detail, and editing techniques. A large body of art and media studies majors submitted videos into the film festival.

Each of the films evaluated for judging were shown. Before winners were announced Geoff White, Jeff Wilcke, Tim Thornton, and Curtiss “Pap” Thornton from the bluegrass band Fort Vause entertained with music from Appalachia. At the end of the film festival, winners in each category were announced and received their certificate and monetary prizes.

Jimmy Buxton’s film The Hero won in the comedy category. Mark Craddock won the documentary category for his film Joe’s Diner that talked about the demolishment of the Radford diner.

For the horror/drama category there was a tie for Brent Saltzman’s film The Storm and for The Whisper in the Dark by Samuel Case. For experimental, Sean Engel won for People in Elevators and for animation Pacman by Edwin Baladi.

ROC-TV provided students the opportunity to take out their cameras, to be creative, and to find a new dimension to the art of film-making. Saltzman who won the horror/drama category said his film The Storm required a lot of hard work.

“There were a lot of obstacles to overcome,” Saltzman said. “I had my actor drop out at the last second and my brother, a photography major at [the University of North Carolina], couldn’t make it up for filming, so I had to rely on a lot of camera tricks and lots and lots of patience to make it look like it was actually a film and not just some kid rushing with a camcorder. I’m hoping in the future, though, I never have to be in front of the camera ever again, I prefer to be behind it.”

Saltzman wanted to get away from devices that modern horror filmmakers use today and to bring a unique approach that would keep the audience’s eyes on the screen.

“It wasn’t so much about horror as much as it was about intelligence,” Saltzman said. “I wanted to tell a horror story that wasn’t really ‘in your face’ or use blood and guts or anything, but instead something very cerebral that took a lot of thought.”

Case’s film The Whisper in the Dark followed a similar style to what Saltzman used.

“I think that unique quality complements very well with Sam Case’s film, that uses a different type of approach, so I think the two sort of go hand-in-hand quite nicely, which is why I think both of our films both received the honor,” Saltzman said.

The strenuous process of filming has led to fruition. Case was overwhelmed to win his first film festival and it is a large step toward reaching his dreams.

“The Whisper in the Dark took about a month to finish, partially because I filmed, wrote, starred, and edited the entire movie myself,” Case said. “In total, I had about 25 minutes of footage but after editing the final product was only about 7 minutes.”
As ballots were passed out, the audience voted for their favorite three films. For first place, Jimmy Buxton won again for his film The Hero, second place went to Samuel Case for The Whisper in the Dark, and third place went to Neely Johnson for Rebecca.

Winners received a certificate, monetary award, and gift card to Macado’s and Sharkey’s.

“The best prize, though, is the satisfaction of success,” Case said.

For Saltzman, the prize wasn’t just an end to itself but “it was about exposure and a chance to have people watch your films.”

Members ROC-TV staffers put a lot of planning, work, and effort to make the festival a success and for it to go smoothly. There were a few technical problems but it didn’t stop the show.

“ROC-TV was extremely happy with the turnout at the film fest last night,” said ROC-TV supervising producer Sawyer Smith on Wednesday.

Brian Seay is an intern for the New River Voice.