WEST LIBERTY, WV, Sept. 1, 2015 — Plans are underway for the first West Liberty University 48-Hour Film Festival to be held September 18 – 20 and ending with a screening and awards ceremony at Marquee Cinemas, located at the Highlands Shopping Complex.

All currently enrolled students from West Liberty University are eligible to participate. Students will be required to create a short film in just 48 hours to compete for cash prizes for the top three places. Other prizes will be awarded in a variety of categories.

“The event begins on Friday, Sept. 18 when participants will randomly draw the name of the genre, character, prop, and line of dialogue that must be used in some way in their film. The participants will then have a total of 48 hours to fully write, shoot, and edit a 6-10 minute short film. Participants may work in teams of one to three persons, and are solely responsible for their own cast, crew, equipment, and locations,” explained Jared Thompson, adjunct instructor and senior producer/engineer at WLUTV-14.

Only 12 teams will be permitted to register and final submissions will be received at 7 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 20 at the screening.

Team participants will be admitted to the event, and family, friends, and spectators can purchase tickets at the door at a discounted cost to attend and view the screenings. All proceeds will be used for future WLU Film Festival projects.

Any WLU student who is interested in participating as an individual or a team can contact Jared Thompson at 304-336-5523 or jthompson@westliberty.edu. Preregistration of teams is encouraged and all teams must be present at the Film Festival screening, which will take place from 7 – 10 p.m., Sept. 20 and is open to the public.

Students from the College of Arts and Communication are active in the television and recording studios of WLUTV-14 throughout the year, developing and producing more than 12 television shows weekly, seen on Comcast Channel 14. In addition, WLUTV-14 is streamed live via Flash technologies and the Internet to an unlimited number of viewers.

For more information on the Department of Journalism and Communication, please call Chairman Brian Fencl at 304-336-8433.