An Inside Look at the ITF Short Film Festival

Featuring 21 categories, the Thespy awards celebrate student achievement in a range of practices, many of which focus on and around the stage. That’s why the short film category provides a unique departure that challenges Thespians not only on their medium, but also their creative process.

“It’s a different type of ‘suspense of disbelief’ that resonates with a larger audience. It also has so many moving parts that anyone and everyone can find a home in to fulfill their passions,” said Ella Wissing, When the Grass Was Greener. “The challenges of continuity and needing to understand your story fully from writing to filming to editing; the artistic and technical aspects need to be all in sync.”

In some cases, that also meant finding the talent for the films. “Oftentimes you have to come up with a plot, find actors, film it all yourself, and even act in your own film,” said Jack McCarthy, DUNK.

Of course, film also offers some advantages. In addition to having more control of what the viewer experiences and the flexibility of multiple takes, it also sharpened many Thespians’ directorial skills.

“While on the stage, a director’s main objective is to essentially train an actor over multiple rehearsals to independently perform a scene in the director’s vision without any input from the director. In film, the director and actor only need to get the take right once. This usually means that the director and actor have a sense of co-dependency that never leaves throughout production,” said Drew Gordon, The Understudy. “I found this process to be both challenging and rewarding, as I had to carefully choose my words and pieces of direction while my actors carefully adjusted subtle nuances and emotional delivery of their acting from take to take. Despite this sometimes-painstaking ordeal, I feel as though my actors and I grew closer and more understanding of each other not just over the course of production of the film, but also in later shows and rehearsals.”