Two-Day Event to Feature Nationally-known Media Experts
Preparations are underway for the tenth annual West Virginia Flash! Festival, which takes place on Friday, April 23 at 7:30 p.m. in the Boyle Conference room. This year’s festival includes events stretching over two days.
Some changes include the addition of two new categories, free media workshops and the presence of three highly-experienced media experts to West Liberty’s campus.
The first thing you may notice is the change of name. No longer is the festival focused primarily on the art of flash animation. This year, founder and director of the previously named “Flash Animation Festival”, Professor James Haizlett, has broadened the scope of the event.
“We have dropped the word animation from the title because we have expanded the festival to include categories in electronic music and video.” said Haizlett.
There will be a juror covering each of the three categories. Animation presenter, Robert St. Pierre, from Los Angeles, CA, has worked on recent films such as Disney’s Princess and the Frog. Audio presenter, Jeff Effex, of San Francisco, CA is Creative Director of Audiosync.com, where he creates music, sound effects and voiceovers for multimedia. Video presenter, Christian D’Andrea from Washington D.C. is a video and film producer who has worked with Quentin Tarentino’s production company “A Band Apart”, and has recently sold a screenplay to Universal Studios.
Not only will the jurors be helping present the winners of each category and provide interviews prior to the event, they will also be spending some time with students before the awards are given.
“We are also bringing the jurors to campus to provide free media workshops on the day of the event,” said Haizlett.
Beginning at 9:00 the morning of the competition tours of the Media Arts Center and the Nutting Art Gallery will be available. At 10:00 there will be a keynote address by our three guests in College Hall. At 11:15 the three jurors will conduct sessions and workshops showcasing tips and tricks they have gathered so far in their professions. They will speak on their respective areas in two one-hour sessions, the first at 11:15 and another at 1:15.
Finally, the lessons will come to a close with a hands-on workshop starting at 2:30, working on such topics like animation background layout, game audio, the importance of story structure and many other useful tools of the trade.
Haizlett said that along with the workshops, everyone will get the chance to meet the presenters in a casual setting when the festivals kicks off with a Meet and Greet in the Boyle Conference room starting at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday April 22, followed by a viewing of the film 9, which animation presenter, Robert St. Pierre, worked on.
With $2,000 in cash prizes, the competition will be intense. Although the deadline is almost upon us, you do still have time to enter at https://westliberty.edu/madfest/. College students currently enrolled in institutions of higher education throughout West Virginia and all bordering states including Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, Virginia and Kentucky have until April 13 for final entries.
You may enter as an individual, or a team of two people may collaborate on a project, with a limit of up to two entries per person or group.
Anyone interested in attending any of the events during the festival can register online at https://westliberty.edu/admissions/visit/events/. Although all of the events are free, the seating may be limited, so it is very important to register ahead of time.
Even if you do not compete, the West Virginia Flash! Festival seems to have something for everyone.
“We always have some great food to munch on, and we will be having some giveaways.” Haizlett said, “Everything is free, so everyone wins!”
The Trumpet Online – written by WLU Student Josh Jenkins.