By Kaydee Donohoo
Staff Writer

Campus MovieFest just ended, leaving many student filmmakers and/or actors relieved and exhausted.

I am glad that I participated in campus MovieFest…mostly. It’s not a decision to regret or not, because it was required for me for a communications class.

I would have loved Campus  MovieFest…had it been during a week I had nothing else going on. A week of making a film is a huge commitment. While it was great and relevant experience for my class, it would have been better as extra credit.

I had progress reports due for work, and another huge project due that accounts for about a quarter of another class grade. I couldn’t just not do these things. Not to mention all that was due the rest of week, that I had to push back and hangs over me still.

Also, making a film, at least for me, wasn’t just shooting then editing. I also had to find actresses, and everyone was busy. I couldn’t tell you how many Facebook messages I sent out.

All my good ideas for films required more people than I apparently had access to.

When I actually thought I could pull off one seven-person idea, I learned I always had one less actress than I thought I did. As if the universe were planning on destroying lives this week, it also sent illness to my lead actress the morning of planned filming.

When I scrapped this idea and began working on an entirely new script, I had to scramble to find people yet again. Filming at night worked better for most, but gave me even less time for editing.

In a few hours I was standing in my dorm full of my four lovely actresses. I couldn’t believe it. I hadn’t had as much time to plan the filming as I had wanted, but I jumped into action and recorded for at least two hours…with the microphone turned off.

It was unreal. Some things just aren’t supposed to happen, and that was one of them. Early the next morning I dragged two of my actresses back and got to directing to refilm what needed audio. I had to do what I was desperately avoiding the entire time: act in my own film.

What I’m getting at here is that a week is a very short amount of time to juggle schedules around and account for inevitable last minute issues.

After turning in my film a wave of relief hit me…as well as awareness of my crashing immune system. Yep, once the adrenaline of finishing left, I realized I was more than likely getting sick.

With the amount of sleep I’ve allowed myself, I would be surprised to not get sick…and I’m rarely one to get sick.

Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think a required project should entail getting an illness.

All that being said, I love my film. It turned out 500 percent better than I ever thought it would. People watching my film, and all the other films will not likely conceptualize the amount of effort that went into these projects. Watching other films, I probably can’t conceptualize the amount for, them either. There were certainly groups with films that required much larger time commitment than mine.

I will definitely participate next year, I’m just hoping it won’t also be the busiest week of my life again. This is always a busy time of year. Why this week? To avoid some of the chaos I want to start planning for next year right now.