FSU Student Films Now Posted Online
TALLAHASSEE, Fla.-Get your popcorn, turn down the lights and enjoy some of the best Florida State University films with a simple click of your mouse.
The FSU School of Motion Picture, Television and Recording Arts has unveiled a new Web site, http://www.fsufilms.com, to showcase some of the best student works produced at FSU. More than 60 films, ranging from short undergraduate documentaries to longer high production thesis films, are posted on the Web site. The films can be viewed by using either RealPlayer or QuickTime.
"I don't know of any other university film school that has anything like this," said Dean Raymond Fielding, who noted the Web site allows a worldwide audience to view the films anytime, anywhere. "This increases spectacularly our exposure. It makes our students' work available to a large audience, which enhances their reputation and helps us recruit the very best new students."
The Web site reflects a goal by the university's Office of Technology Integration to be a leader among Internet2 institutions in providing high quality video on Web sites, according to Larry Conrad, assistant vice president for technology integration.
"This is the perfect example of the kind of thing that you can do with an advanced network like Internet2," he said.
IBM has assisted the Office of Technology Integration in reaching that goal with a donation of about $300,000 worth of equipment, including an IBM eServer system as a video server and an IBM workstation for encoding workstation, Conrad said.
"FSU clearly understands how technology and artistry can go hand in hand," said Chuck Bryan, director, eServer pSeries marketing, IBM. "The performance and reliability of the IBM eServer will help FSU offer movie buffs an enjoyable viewing experience."
One of the site's short films, "Escape Back to the Movies," which was written, directed and edited by graduate student Jason Doty, was the recipient of the 2000 Coca-Cola Refreshing Filmmaker Competition Grand Prize and was screened in 13,000 U.S. theaters for six weeks last summer.
"Lector," a graduate thesis production that has won a bronze Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Student Academy Award, will be posted on the Web site after it makes its rounds at film festivals. The award was presented to Greg Marcks, who wrote and produced the film, at a Hollywood ceremony in June.
It is the second time in the past three years that the FSU film school has won a Student Academy Award, considered the most prestigious given to a student-made production exhibited in a film format. To date, the film has won nine first prizes at film festivals around the world and has qualified to be considered for an Oscar nomination in the short film category in the 2001 Academy Awards competition.
In the past year, 35 FSU films were selected for screening at 90 festivals worldwide, where they won 34 first prizes and 17 second or third prizes, Fielding said.
Created in 1989, the film school operates studios, a music recording stage and back lot property - facilities that are among the largest and best equipped in the world devoted wholly to film education. It is the only major film school in America that pays for all of its students' production expenses, including a thesis film, Fielding said. More than 200 complete sound films are made by students each year including 10 thesis films.
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