Florida State Showcases Student Films on Internet
Tallahassee, Fla.
Florida State University has a special Web site to enable the general public to view the work of its student filmmakers. Through RealPlayer or QuickTime, FSU's School of Motion Picture, Tele-
vision and Recording Arts' Web site <www.fsufilms.com> is showcasing 30 films. University officials say the digital movies range from comedies to documentaries.
Student films available for viewing at the site will soon number close to 60, with running times from six minutes to 30 minutes. School officials hope eventually to enable viewers to offer their own reviews.
"As far as I'm aware, I don't know of any other university film school doing this," says Raymond Fielding, the film school's dean. "This exposes the student films until they get a big audience for their film."
Last year, he says, 35 FSU films made by FSU students got chosen for screening at 90 festivals around the world. Of that total, 34 won first prizes and 17 took second or third prizes, he says.
One of the films now on the Web site is "Escape Back to the Movies." The film, which was written, directed and edited by graduate student Jason Doty, was awarded the 2000 Coca-Cola Refreshing Filmmaker Competition Grand Prize.
The film school Web site has been funded by a donation of nearly $300,000 in equipment from IBM. The film school at FSU foots the bill for production expenses for all student films.
Each year, Fielding says, the school gets more than 700 applicants, then interviews up to 90 finalists for an entering class of 15 freshmen, 15 transfer students and 24 graduate students.
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