In Spring 2009, Weston Critchfield and myself were invited to attend a film competition at Skills USA; a program that neither of us had ever heard of before. This was right at the beginning of when Weston and I started doing projects together, and this was to be one of our first, and one of our most memorable film “adventures.”
In any case, we arrived in Salt Lake City expected some kind of competition. Instead, we found ourselves as the only university in the entire state who had sent a team to represent them. With a guaranteed first place, we decided that instead of going with the traditional “inspirational” theme of the contest, we’d just create something interesting and see what happened. So, we invited our good buddy Chris Clark to be our rather “ill-informed” spokesman for Skills USA.
We filmed it with a jury-rigged bounce board, a small Panasonic DVX, and sound work done in a room that we happened to find somewhere on the SLCC campus. They provided us nothing, and were more concerned with dumb rules than anything legitimate. I mean, these guys wouldn’t even let us use HD! In the end, though, the shoot was fast, it was loose, and it was absolute silliness.
The crowning moment, however, is that they showed our video first, with no introduction, to the entire gathered crowd at the competition. It was a group of about 500+ people. As the video ended, there was no applause. No reaction. Just a stunned silence, until a single fellow in the back of the room gave up an enthusiastic cheer.
And then the silence resumed.
My two friends and I just laughed, but this should have been our first sign that we truly didn’t belong in this competition. Still, though, it was one of the most memorable experiences that I had in my college career.
Because Weston and I had won, we were sent to the national competition in Kansas City, which is a completely different adventure that I could go on about for hours, but won’t right now. Just as an FYI to any budding film people, learn from me at least this one thing – Skills USA knows nothing about film, nothing about filmmaking. This competition is bogus, wasteful, and not worth your time.
Stick to making your own stuff, or enter legitimate film competitions. But don’t try to make your way in a place that cares more about your dress shoes than your filmmaking skill.
How’s that for a reference, Skills USA?
