UCF Film and Digital Media Students Partner with Sundance Online Film Festival

ORLANDO, June 8, 2005 -- Five digital media students from the University of Central Florida have recorded film history through the Web-based component of the prestigious Sundance Film Festival.

The students developed the five-year retrospective of the Sundance Online Film Festival as a class project at the request of Joseph Beyer, the festival's curator and manager.

The site includes video clips, images from previous festivals and interviews with Robert Redford, Sundance Film Festival programmers and independent filmmakers. The site has a brief timeline listing the prize-winning films and new media works featured during each year's online festival.

The site can be viewed through June 20 by going to www.sundanceonlinefilmfestival.org/2005 and clicking on "Splinks" and then "SOFF in Retrospect."

The students who created the "Sundance Online Film Festival in Retrospect" site are: Angela Kirshon, project manager; Matthew Crispell, audio, video and original music; Michael Prachniak, concept design; Rachel Joyce, content manager; and Kristen McKenney, Web design.

The five students were all enrolled in the Digital Media Production II class at the UCF School of Film and Digital Media. They worked with Professor Carroll Parrott Blue, a 2004 Sundance Online Film Festival Jury Award winner. Beyer, the Sundance Online Film Festival curator and manager, encouraged students to develop the site during a visit to UCF last fall.

Students benefited from the opportunity to use Web production skills, boost their portfolios and provide a service to the internationally renowned online film festival site. To date, this year's Sundance Film Festival site has received nearly a million hits, counting the 800,000 users who have watched the festival's short films through to completion.

"I learned the value of having a strong and diverse set of skills among teammates," Prachniak said. "I learned a lot about the production process and the importance of following a timeline. I also found that in order to get the job done, it is often necessary to wear multiple hats. Finally, I learned the value of having hard-working, reliable teammates, which I was fortunate enough to have."

The School of Film and Digital Media, which has more than 1,200 undergraduates and 36 faculty members, consists of the Film and Digital Media divisions, the Center for Research and Education in the Arts, Technology and Entertainment and the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy. The school, which offers bachelor's and master's degrees in film and digital media, has facilities on the main campus as well as a new graduate and professional center in downtown Orlando.

DATE
June 8, 2005

CONTACT
Clint Bowers
Director,
Digital Media
407-823-6100
bowers@mail.ucf.edu

DOWNLOADS
(none)

LINKS
Digital Media
Sundance Online