The University of Windsor student filmmaking team “The All-Stars” took home two awards — for best cinematography and best use of character — at this year’s Windsor international Film Festival Mark Boscariol 48-Hour FlickFest.

The team comprised six crew and two actors, all third-year students:

• film production majors Clay Leblanc, producer and co-director, and sound recordist Gwyneth Roy;
• communications, media, and film majors Evan Johnson, co-director and assistant camera, director of photography Sam Rosso, editor Kendra Schmidt, and art director Olivia Patricia;
• and the actors, computer science major Zach Ublansky and acting major Rylan Thomas.

They have been working together since second year on personal and school projects and knew that they could come together and make something great for FlickFest.

The competition, named in honour of festival founder Mark Boscariol, is an intense, hyper-local movie-making challenge. Supplied with a line of dialogue, a character trait, and a prop, filmmakers must complete their entries within 48 hours.

“Our motto throughout the pre-production process was something we learned in professor Mike Stasko’s screenwriting class: K.I.S.S, Keep It Simple, Student (Stupid),” says Leblanc.

“Although it would have been fun to go over the top and make a musical or a complex, crazy film, we know that we are still in the beginnings of our careers and on a tight timeline, so we decided to do something simple really well rather than make something complicated just okay.”

It turned out to be a winning strategy.

“We are all super excited to have received these achievements and are more motivated than ever to do it even better next year,” says Leblanc.

Watch the award-winning short on YouTube.

—Susan McKee