by NIKKI ROBETI
Lifestyles Reporter

Whether it’s a class assignment or a personal business venture, there are countless projects being developed on campus at any given time.

However, students may not expect to see a project called “Stalin and Hitler: the Musical” added to this list.

The Appalachian Film Club works together to learn and create films apart from class work.

Sophomore English major, Melissa M. Raver is club’s secretary.

She said the idea for “Stalin and Hitler: the Musical” originated from improvised filming one day, which spurred into “Stalin and Hitler: the college years,” a series found on their YouTube.com account, “Ihavethebest.”

The club has around 20 members, Raver said, which are all “energetic” and “passionate” people.

She said the purpose of the club is to not only have fun, but to learn as well.

Members can join at any skill level and be taught the trade of film.

“We basically educate about the editing, proper lighting, proper sound, [and] what techniques you can use,” she said.

The club is full of new or almost-new members.

“Most of the officers this year, we started last year,” member and sophomore theater major Zaque D. Smith said. “We didn’t know anything about it. But now just from the club we’ve learned a lot and [are] doing it all the time.”

The first project of the year for members was to create their own short film in two weeks, Raver said.

While you learn all aspects of filming, you still get to choose what you want to do, Raver said.

“Even just holding a camera is an experience,” she said. “I strongly believe that film is something you can’t sit and learn in the classroom. It’s something you have to be in the action for.”

Club President Sam Stringsield is a senior electronic media/broadcast and creative writing major.

The main focus of the club is the end of the year Open Apperture Short Film Festival, he said.

This year the film festival will occur March 26-27 in I.G. Greer Auditorium and Greenbriar Theater.

The festival receives submissions internationally, Stringsfield said.

“We get submissions from all over the world,” he said. “Just this year, one of our submissions is from Brazil.

We get things from Australia, and all over the United States.”

The festival is judged in four categories: fiction, documentary, experimental/music video, and the super short, which is one minute or less.

Club members select which films to be featured in the festival, but a panel of professors choose the winners, Stringsfield says.

Prizes for each of those categories include trophies, but the prize for “Best of Festival” wins $100.

Submission fees for the festival vary on the deadline as it approaches. 

Appalachian students get a significant discount in the submission fee, Stringsfield said.

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