In 2009, I worked with senior digital media students at CAL to produce the first Five Minute Film Festival. We held the free event in the CAL forum and expected mostly seniors and their parents to attend. To our surprise, about 150 people showed up for the event. Needless to say we were delighted with the turnout but were unprepared to seat so many people and did not have an audio/visual system that was robust enough.
So on February 24, 2010, we hosted the event at the Mount Hood Community College Visual Arts Theater and charged $3 for students and $5 for adults. Over 250 people attended, and we made over $1000. Plus we had a professional panel of judges and gave away a $100 prize for the judge’s award and $50 for the people’s choice award. Both the event and movies were an improvement than the first year, and I can’t wait to see how next year’s event is even better.
Watch the winners and all five minute films here: http://calfilmfest.com/.
