Freshmen With a Camera

First-year student Ben Soltoff didn't come to Duke to study film. The environmental science major from Boston arrived here knowing next to nothing about camera techniques or video editing.

But for the past two weeks, Soltoff and a dozen of his first-year classmates from Gilbert-Addoms residence hall have been immersed in producing a short film on a subject near to their hearts: the freshman experience.

This weekend, the Gilbert-Addoms film and a dozen others will get their "premiere" at a red-carpet gala, judged by a panel of campus notables, in the culmination of Duke's seventh annual Froshlife film competition.

Almost a quarter of Duke's 1,600 first-year students participated in the Froshlife competition, organized by the Office of Information Technology and the Division of Student Affairs. Student teams, grouped by residence hall, were given equipment for filming and editing. They had two weeks to draft scripts, recruit actors, and film and edit movie that clock in at eight minutes or less.

This year, participants received coaching from an old pro: senior Shang Gao, a 2006 Froshlife winner and director of Freewater Productions, Duke's student-run film and video production group. Freewater led two video production workshops for first-year students and invited Duke alum Dan Levinson, founder of the commercial production company Moxie Pictures, to speak on campus last week. 

"Froshlife is a gateway (into film) for a lot of kids," Gao said. "There are lots of talented filmmakers on campus, and Duke has a strong network of alums in the film industry. Froshlife is one way we can begin to unite the film community at Duke."

As with most of the Froshlife participants, Gao didn't come to Duke to study film. But after winning the competition, the economics major from Atlanta founded Sweet & Sour Productions,which has produced award-winning PSAs and commercials.

"Our generation is used to fiddling around with the technology, but not necessarily learning to fine-tune it and turn it into art," said Gao, who aims to pursue a career in film when he graduates in May. "Learning to make a film is easy. Making something other people want to watch is hard."

This year's Froshlife also added a new tool in the students' equipment kits. In addition to the usual miniDV camera provided through the Duke Digital Initiative, each team also received a pocket-sized Flip minoHD camera -- good for quick, spontaneous filming, said Michael Faber, an OIT multimedia specialist and Froshlife organizer.

"With the ubiquity of YouTube and the ever-increasing knowledge students have coming into the competition, people are starting off at a higher level of creativity," Faber said. "By providing more resources, we can better encourage that creativity."

Froshlife encourages students to explore new technologies as tools for learning and processing new experiences -- and they're embracing the opportunity.

"Our generation is more likely to relate our experiences to movies than books. Video is more a part of our consciousness," Soltoff said. "The freshman experience is really unique -- it's a key point in your life. By capturing it on film, you can really express what you're feeling."

The movies will be shown at an awards ceremony at 8 p.m. March 1 in White Auditorium on East Campus and will be webcast live at http://www.duke.edu/froshlife/. Winners will receive Froshlife-branded Flip cameras and Duke Stores merchandise. The winning films also will be shown on Cable 13, Duke's student-run television station, in March.