The Emmaus Student Film Festival is held annually with the goal of allowing high school and middle school students throughout the Lehigh Valley to express their creativity through film. The film festival is a 120-hour film festival, meaning that after the kickoff event where creatives receive their genre/theme, dialogue line and prop, students then have 120 hours (five days) to complete their film.

Students have the opportunity to win the following awards: Best Overall Film, Best Use of Line, Best Use of Prop, Best Acting, Best Cinematography and Best Editing.

This year the Emmaus Student Film Festival went virtual due to COVID-19. This allowed students to participate in the festival while remaining healthy and therefore safe. Due to this switch, participants were given 168 hours (seven days) to complete their 6-minute short film.

At the virtual kickoff event this year, participants received their individual genres, their prop which was a broom and their line that was, “There is no better way to travel than by ship.”

Participants must include all these elements as well as at least one identifiable shot of Emmaus. Students were judged on effective use of their required materials, cinematography, audio, editing and artistic merit.

Participants were invited to a virtual screening where the prizes and awards were announced. Salisbury students Michael Judge, Alexandera Soleta and Catherine Updegrove participated in this year’s virtual Emmaus Student Film Festival for their fourth and final year. Their short film “Noir” took home Best Overall Film, Best Cinematography and Best Editing. I had the opportunity to interview Judge, director and editor of “Noir.” As Judge says, this year they “took home the bacon.”

This Salisbury team received mystery as their genre. Their short film is a story of two lovers where all is well until the relationship turns obsessive and toxic. During this time, a series of murders have been taking place in Emmaus. In the end, both lovers are found dead. The team pulled inspiration from the television drama, “Haunting at Bly Manor” to collect ideas on how to slowly reveal information to the audience without making the mysterious plot obvious and solvable.

“We wanted to run with the concept that the audience had no idea what was happening until the end, where all pieces come together,” Judge said. He focused on the cinematography and editing to engage the audience for the few minutes they had to tell this story. The message and overall theme behind “Noir” was, “How much are you willing to do for the people you love? How far are you willing to go?” Judge said.

In terms of incorporating all the required elements, this team was able to incorporate them effortlessly. The broom appears in two scenes; one where one of the characters is sweeping the floor while on the phone with his girlfriend and second, found next to a dead body in a kitchen.

The line, “There is no better way to travel than by ship” is heard during a thoughtful dialogue from one of the characters at the end of the film.

Identifiable shots of Emmaus are found throughout the film. With Judge as director and editor, Alexander Soleta as audio technician and main actress, Catherine Updegrove as script writer and actress and lastly, Victor Riche-Roman as main actor, “Noir” was completed with excellence and received awards that were well-deserved.

That’s all for this week; stay tuned for more student news.