On Sunday Dec. 10 Marquette Filmmakers Association put on their semesterly showcase, by playing screenplays members had worked on over the course of the semester. The Marquette Filmmakers Association is a club that brings together all those who enjoy filming and like to be behind a camera.
Current vice president and soon-to-be president of Marquette Filmmakers Association Miranda Herbele, a junior in the College of Communication, said that the club is always accepting new members and aims to bring together like-minded creative people who love producing films.
“The purpose of the club is to get people outside of the classroom to be creative by making media. We want to get as many people involved as possible. Even if you don’t have an idea for a film we want to get people involved and behind the camera in any way” Herbele said.
Herbele said that the club meets bi-weekly and has about 100 members on their email list. At the club’s pitch nights, members are able to pitch their film ideas and club members decide which films will be chosen to be created. Herbele said that some films make it throughout the semester and some need to be pushed back because they require more than one semester to be filmed.
Herbele’s fiction film and documentary film, both of which she created for a class, were shown at Sunday’s screening event.
“We encourage people to turn in class projects that they are proud of. For my fiction film, me and three other people had 2 weeks to film and we had up until Dec. to submit the final cut. For the documentary, we did three weeks of filming. You need a lot more footage with a documentary,” Herbele said.
Herbele said that most of the short films being shown at the Marquette Filmmakers Association Showcase range from one minute to 15 minutes. At the showcase, there were eight short films shown.
This past year, Emily Sanker, a current junior in the College of Communication, was a part of the club’s e-board and served as the event organizer. Her duties included organizing e-board elections and planning the club’s events.
Sanker’s short film created for her directing class was played at Sunday’s showcase. Sanker’s assignment for class was to recreate a scene from a movie and she chose a scene from the film “Lady Bird” by Greta Gerwig. The scene she chose was about two minutes and showed the main character Christine getting into a conflict with her best friend.
“We had to pick a scene from a movie and recreate it so I picked a scene from ‘Lady Bird.’ In the scene, Christine confronts Julie about why she switched algebra sections. I picked it because I thought it was funny and I love the movie ‘Lady Bird.’ For the class, we had to choose a scene that showed conflict and I thought this scene was a very interesting display of conflict,” Sanker said.
For those who missed Sunday’s showcase, there will be another showcase at the end of the spring semester as well as their 24-hour film race to look forward to. Sanker said that the event happens in the spring semester every year, but there is not a date solidified yet.
Sanker has been a part of the club since her first year at Marquette and enjoys working together with other students who enjoy creating films. She said the 24-hour film race is an event that groups together members of the club to create a short film ranging from two to seven minutes.
“People are put into groups and then you have 24 hours to write a script, film it, edit it and submit it to our showcase at the end of the 24 hours. It’s a lot of fun. Everyone gets the same line prop, genre” Sanker said.
Sanker urges anyone who enjoys creating and watching films to get involved with the Marquette Filmmakers Association.
“I would want Marquette students to know that you don’t have to be super knowledgeable about making films to be a part of our club. It’s a good way to get experience working with others and improve your teamwork skills. It’s also really fun to be able to have something to show you made after working on it for a whole semester,” Sanker said.
This story was written by Avery Darrow. She can be reached at a[email protected].
