A Showcase for Students: Hudson’s Big Break

A Showcase for Students: Hudson’s Big Break

By Jarron Gravley

With the eighth annual Lander University Film Festival right around the corner, a new series of feature articles, titled, “A Showcase for Students” will debut, focusing on the event, its films, and its participants.

Daniel Hudson, sophomore mass communication major, recounts his experience in last year’s festival, “Like every other entry in the film festival, I was given a line by one of the judges.” He spent time trying to form a movie based around the line, “Are you looking for one of these,” until he decided that this method did not work for him. He notes, “Maybe I’m approaching this the wrong way. I should just think of an idea first, and work the line in second.”

He says that once he slept on the idea, he “eventually came to the idea of a fish.” This idea was based on his old roommate’s goldfish, who wasn’t taken care of, and what that goldfish might say. “I felt so bad for the poor thing,” he notes with a simultaneous sense of sincerity and humor. This idea would eventually be known as “Something’s Fishy.”

Hudson regards the filming process as being “a bit of a nightmare.” It was difficult for him to find a goldfish to feature in his film, as the first fish he considered for the starring role belonged to his old roommate with whom Hudson “wasn’t on the best of terms.” A friend later provided a fish to film, and another friend provided the voice. He says filming “got pushed to the last minute,” as the other actor in the film was frequently busy. It was eventually done, and won second place in the 2016 Short Film Competition.

Hudson is preparing his film for this year’s competition. He says he cannot reveal his ideas at this point, but his idea going into pre-production is not thinking too much about the specifics of the film, as he has to adapt the given line into the film. He says that he is primarily thinking of the characters he will feature, as he believes that “if you have good characters, you can put them in any setting and make them say anything.”