Wheelhouse Creative Pleased to Partner with West Liberty University Film Festival
WHEELING, W.VA. – Wheelhouse Creative LLC, Wheeling’s premier advertising and public relations agency, is pleased to support West Liberty University’s upcoming 48-Hour Film Festival slated for Sept. 16-18. The festival is open to all WLU students along with high school students from Brooke, Ohio and Marshall counties. The festival will conclude with a public screening and awards ceremony at Marquee Cinemas located at the Highlands.
Don Feenerty, creative director at Wheelhouse, said sponsoring this community event is important to the agency.
“WLU’s 48-Hour Film Festival is a lot like what we do here at Wheelhouse. The students are given a set of parameters, and they have a deadline to produce a finished product. This is what we do daily,” he said. “A client will give us a vague request, we flesh it out and explore all our avenues. Then we provide a finished product in the form of an ad, a design or as often is the case, a video. I think the 48-Hour Film Festival is a great training ground for these young film makers to gain real life experience. We are proud to be able to support such a project.”
The event begins on Friday, Sept. 16 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 six to 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. Registration will be limited to 12 teams.
Final submissions will be received at 7 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 18 at the public screening. Students will compete for cash prizes for the top three places. Other prizes will be awarded in a variety of categories. Those wishing to view the screenings will be admitted to the theater at no cost, but donations will be accepted at the door. Proceeds will be used for future WLU film festival projects.
In addition to Wheelhouse Creative and West Liberty University, the film festival is presented by The Highlands and Marquee Cinemas.
Jared Thompson, director of the 48-hour film festival and WLU adjunct instructor, said this is the second year for the WLU 48-Hour film festival.
“I participated in a similar type of film festival in 2008 in the Wheeling area and loved the concept, and I wanted to bring that to West Liberty students today. Ironically, Josh Jenkins and Rob Hibbs, who are employed with Wheelhouse and are WLU grads, were participants in the same 2008 film festival, so it’s cool to see it come full circle where Wheelhouse is helping to make this event happen,” he said. “I’m extremely excited about the partnership that we are forming with Wheelhouse and the possibilities that it will inevitably create for the students here at WLU. The 48-Hour Film Festival is just one way for students to showcase their talent to not only the Ohio Valley, but to future employers as well.”
Thompson noted that film festival participants are still being sought. For more information, contact jthompson@westliberty.edu or visit westliberty.edu/filmfest. Team pre-registration is encouraged and all teams must be present at the kick-off on Sept. 16.
“I also encourage anyone from the community to attend the FREE premiere event at the Highlands Marquee Cinemas. I don’t think there is a better way to spend a Sunday evening than to watch the hard work of independent film makers for no cost in a cozy theater,” he said.
Wheelhouse Creative LLC is a full service advertising and public relations agency with offices in Wheeling and Pittsburgh.