Illuminate 48 Film Festival

Frequently Asked Questions

• Registration and Eligibility

  While there is no entry fee, teams must register before the event begins. For student teams, early registration allows you first access to equipment checkout. Registration may be completed online or by submitting a registration form to stafford.matt@occ.edu. The team leader will be the primary contact person for each team.

  The following teams may enter the competition:

  • All Student Team (all team members are current OCC college or high school students
  • Community Team (at least one member of the team must be associated with OCC, whether a current OCC student, staff member, or alumnus)
• Competition Time Period

  All creativity must take place during the Competition Time Period (Friday, April 11, 3:00 PM through Sunday, April 14, 4:00 PM). Any creative work in advance of the competition weekend is prohibited. Creative work includes, but is not limited to:

  • Writing the script
  • Rehearsing
  • Costume/Set Design
  • Shooting
  • Editing
  • Sound Design
  • Rendering
  • Outputting to video file or other media

  The only work to begin prior to the Competition Time Period is:

  • Organizing Crew
  • Organizing Cast
  • Securing Equipment
  • Scouting/Securing Locations
• Footage

  All footage must be shot within the Competition Time Period of the project.

  Animation and special effects are permitted, but must be created during the Competition Time Period.

  No stock footage or footage shot or created at another time may be used unless the footage is part of a post-production effect or on a background monitor, i.e., a television, as long as the team has rights to the stock footage and the stock footage is placed over or under footage that is shot within the Competition Time Period. Allowable stock footage includes bullets, fires, explosions, chroma keyed backgrounds, etc., but stock footage of people or other performers is not allowed.

  Pre-made sequences or compositions that are available to all via purchase or download are permitted if a majority of frames contain content (e.g., text or images) created within the Competition Time Period. The pre-made portion of the sequence may not include people or other performers.

  Still photographs are permitted, provided that the team has the rights to them. The photos do not need to be created during the Competition Time Period; however, stills created outside of the Official Time Period may not be used in sequence to create the illusion of motion.

• Kick-off Event

  Each participating team must have a representative at the official Kickoff Event of the OCC Illuminate 48 Film Festival at 3:00 PM Friday, April 11, in the Choir Room (Chapel basement).

  • At the event, each group must submit a complete Team Leader's Agreement, signed by its team leader. A team may not participate without submitting this agreement.
  • Each team leader will need to obtain copies of the various release forms available at the Kick-Off Event.
  • The topic of the film and required elements will be announced at the Kick-Off Event at 2:00 PM Friday, April 11.

  Note: If you and your team are unable to attend or are off-site, this year we will be Live Streaming the Kick-Off Event from the OCC Illuminate 48 Facebook Page.

• Required Elements

  Each team will be assigned required elements that must appear in its film, such as a character, a prop, a line of dialogue and location.

  • The required character must be seen on-screen and it must be clear who the required character is (either directly shown or by context). The character name does not have to be said out loud or written on-screen.
  • The required prop must be seen on-screen. A picture of the required prop is also allowed.
  • The required line of dialogue must be used verbatim. It may be spoken, sung and/or written. It may be in any language, though if it is unclear that it is the required line, there must be a translation.
  • The required location must be seen on-screen in some way.

  *Note: These required elements will not be shared with any participating teams until the kick-off event during the festival*

  • To qualify as an Official Entry, each group's film must contain all required elements within the official time limit and prior to the credits.
• Equipment

  Any type of video or film camera may be used. There is no limit to the number of cameras. Some equipment is available for checkout to OCC Student Teams on a first come, first served basis. Equipment is reserved in the order in which requests are made.

  • Cameras and lenses
  • Microphones and cables
  • iMacs with the Adobe Creative Cloud (including Premier Pro and After Effects), Ableton Live 10, and Logic are available for reservation in the Creative Arts Lab (C12)

  Any equipment that is checked out requires a $50 deposit. Deposit will be returned to the user upon return of the equipment without damage. Once equipment is checked out it becomes the responsibility of the user to replace it if lost, damaged, or stolen.

  Teams may reserve space in OCC campus facilities for production meetings and filming on a first come, first served basis.

• Music Rights

  Participating teams are encouraged to work with a composer and/or musicians to write and record music for the films. It is permissible for a participating group to use pre-recorded music; however the participating group must have the rights to any music used in its film and must provide releases for all music used. As with music, pre-recorded sound effects are allowed, but you must have rights to use them. Written proof of your legal right to use the music in your film must be submitted with the film upon the conclusion of the Competition Time Period.

  *Note: Song parodies (i.e., use of identifiable pre-existing compositions with new or altered lyrics or music) may not be included in the film without a signed release from the composition's rights holder. This rule applies without regard to whether the song parody arguably constitutes "fair use" under US or international copyright law.

• Total Running Time

  The finished film must be a minimum of 3 minutes in duration, and a maximum of 5 minutes in duration—not including end credits. In other words, the official running time begins after the required slates and ends prior to the end credits. The required slates and the end credits do not count towards the minimum time of 3 minutes. The film story may not be longer than 5 minutes. Films longer than five minutes may be screened but will not be eligible for any awards. OCC Illuminate 48 Film Festival reserves the right to shorten any film that exceeds the maximum length for screening purposes.

• Credits

  Pre-film Required Slates

  Before the finished film begins, the media should have...

  • 3 seconds of black
  • A title card with: team name
  • OR- a title card with: This film was made for the 2025 OCC Illuminate 48 Film Festival
  • 2 seconds of black

  Your short film follows this structure:

  Opening Credits

  After the 3 seconds of black, some films start with opening credits. These are not encouraged, but if you use them, opening credits are considered to be part of the film, and therefore count against the five minute maximum. Additionally, if your film has opening credits other than simply the film's title (for example, the names of directors, actors, etc.), you must include one of the following:

  • the text “YOUR TEAM NAME presents” immediately followed by “an OCC Illuminate 48 Short Film” or
  • the text “an OCC Illuminate 48 Short Film” immediately following the title of your film

  End Credits

  Credits at the end of each film are limited to a maximum of 30 seconds. The 30 seconds is considered additional to the length of the film, as stated above. (That is, a film may be five minutes long, with an additional 30 seconds of credits, for a total running time of five minutes, thirty seconds.) OCC Illuminate 48 Film Festival reserves the right to shorten any end credits that exceed the maximum length for screening purposes.

  The end credits must include an image (that will be provided) stating that this Film was produced as part of the OCC Illuminate 48 Film Festival and including film festival and any sponsor logos for at least 5 seconds.

• Submission Notes
  • Each team must secure releases for talent, crew, music and locations (and any other applicable releases), which must be turned in to the festival organizers with the finished film.
  • All films received on the evening of the deadline (both on-time and late) will be screened, presuming they meet the eligibility requirements.
  • We recommend that you make sound levels relatively even throughout your film. (If your film has uneven sound or sound that peaks, it may be modified to protect the playback equipment.)
  • When completed, you will upload your film to a Google Drive folder that the Festival Planning team will provide you access to after the Kick-Off Event on Friday, April 11.
• No Pre-Screening Distribution

  Entrants should not distribute their film in any way prior to it receiving its official OCC Illuminate 48 Premiere Screening at the Monday, April 14 Awards Show. This includes uploading the film to any website or screening the film for groups of anyone other than the team. Each team has the option to make a teaser trailer of their film and distribute that instead, however the teaser should be no longer than 30 seconds.

• Rights to the Film

  Entrants agree that the film may be used for promotional purposes and that OCC has full rights to the film for those purposes, but the producer has full rights to their film for any use they may desire.

• Disqualification

  OCC Illuminate 48 Film Festival reserves the right to disqualify entries for consideration and showing that are deemed to be inappropriate or otherwise non-compliant. To avoid disqualification, the content of films should be rated the equivalent of PG-13, PG, or G based on the Motion Picture Association of America film rating system with the equivalent of PG or G as it is related to language and sexuality.