"Sleepless in Lake Placid"

The 2nd Annual 24-hour student film festival

Story by Jenni McEwen
Photos by Anthony Lucas

It has been the site of two Winter Olympic games and also stomping grounds for a few of history's influential minds, including John Brown and Melvil Dewey.  But what many don't know is that for the last two years, Lake Placid, N.Y. has been home to a very interesting student film contest. Titled,"Sleepless in Lake Placid" (SiLP), the contest, which is part of the Lake Placid Film Forum (LPFF), gives student teams from various Northeastern colleges the chance to explore their cinematic creativity. The catch is, they only have 24-hours to do so.

Upon arrival in Lake Placid, the students and their faculty advisors meet and are given a list of what elements they need to include in their films.  At noon, the time starts and they are told they will have 24 hours to conceptualize, write, film and edit a 10 minute short. They must shoot in the Lake Placid area and follow the parameters established at their initial meeting. After the 24 hour period, the films are screened for judges at the Lake Placid Center for the Arts. The winning team is awarded The Robin Pell Emerging Filmmakers Award. There is also an  award chosen by the audience for their favorite of the shorts. 2008's participating colleges were Emerson College, Ithaca College, Burlington College, Syracuse University and SUNY Plattsburgh.

SiLP was brought to life in 2007 by Kathleen Carroll of the LPFF.  "I always say, filmmaking has to be collaborative."  Collaboration and time management are the key skills the members of the LPFF want the students to walk away with.  "We really feel to encourage the exchange of ideas is the main theme of the event," Carroll explains.

They also find the festival to be an incredible place to meet important people.  According to Carroll, "the idea behind this has been to bring extraordinary people from the film industry to Lake Placid ." These people have involved themselves in the festival either as judges for the contest or in other aspects.  For the 2008 contest, the Adirondack Film Society Board called in, Kevin Craig West-a noted actor (with roles in For Love of the Game, Autumn in New York, and Law and Order SVU), producer, and cinematographer as the Supervising Producer, as well as mentor to the students. All in all Carroll felt that the SiLP not only gave students experience for the filmmaking industry, but also a "good life lesson in being prepared…you have to be ready for whatever life throws at you… it's the unexpected moments that turn out the best."

"We really feel to encourage the exchange of ideas is the main theme of the event."

Ellen Tremiti,a film major from Emerson College of Boston, M.A., describes the experience as being, "more about showing your technical and creative skills than learning new ones. I would say though that it is a good opportunity to show that you can work well under pressure and not let the stress affect your film."  Tremiti and her teammates' work definitely paid off as they took home the grand prize in this past summer's festival.  "Also, I must say we took some criticism from the judges for working so much as a group instead of picking roles such as Director, Writer, Cinematographer, etc. and personally, I know it is why we won," Tremiti says of Emerson's approach. 

Syracuse and Burlington participated in the 2007 SiLP, but the involvement of SUNY Plattsburgh in 2008 was really exciting for Carroll because she felt it was important to have a school from the Adirondack area participating. Especially one with out a formal film school, "it was interesting to see students with training in video thrown in with film students," she says of Plattsburgh's involvement. Christine Johnson, Team Plattsburgh's faculty advisor agrees with Carroll and says, "it's a huge experience for our kids to compete against the top film schools... our students produce really good products and are able to show what we have even though we don't have a film school." Carroll was also astonished at how well the students got along and that even in the midst of a competition were "buddying up by the end".  Tremiti backs up Carroll's opinion and states, "I think it is safe to say that we were a very outgoing group from the start... we even edited our film out in the common area instead of in our room. Also, the following day we had problems transferring our film and other colleges stepped up and helped us out, which was really great."

Similar contests take place in Toronto, and are open to anyone of any skill level from student to professional, and vary from 24 to 48 hour time limits. Carroll says the LPFF decided on making it a 24 hour festival because "we all have limited time, and it's more challenging, and overall, worked best."  The students may have been weary of the 24 hour time constraint but it all behind them in the end. "For a 24 hour competition, however, roles can produce egos, and it's all about the team effort." Tremiti says.

"It was interesting to see students with training in video thrown in with film students"

"This has been a really interesting experiment and I am very pleased at the reactions of the students, they really seemed to get a lot out of it," Carroll says of the past two festivals. She and others from the LPFF are hoping to keep the contest going for 2009 and would really love to have more colleges participate. 

Do you create/edit your own films?