Texas A&M University-Kingsville students and alumni dazzled audiences and judges at the Corpus Christi 7-Day Film Project (CC7D) with their film The Dazzling Dancersons.
Current students Laurie Guajardo, Robin Machuca, Devyn Hamblin and Jackson Lewis worked alongside alumni Aaron Salinas, Heraclio Gonzalez Jr., Dylan Mendoza and Nikolas Villarreal to create a short film for competition at CC7D.
The team received two awards – Salinas received Best Actor and the film won Best Film Audience Choice Award. They also received four nominations – Guajardo for Best Supporting Actress, Mendoza for Best Supporting Actor, Salinas for Best Director and the film for Best Original Screenplay.
Salinas and Gonzalez are the creators of Bridge Burners Productions and have competed in the film competition for several years.
Guajardo has worked with the production team for two years at CC7D.
“Since they started, they have been really trying to get the win, and this year we finally got it… everybody who’s there watching it gets to vote on what their favorite film of the festival was, and we won. When the audience just says ‘no this is the film that we love the most,’ to us that kinds of means more. We just really had a great year,” Guajardo said.
The theme for the film was good triumphing over evil or challenges. The short is a comedy that follows the Dancersons brothers who sign up to compete in a talent show. The brothers would compete in talent shows when they were younger, but after one brother was humiliated after falling on stage, they quit performing. Years later, the brothers decide to compete once again to prove to their rivals the “Stapled Thumbs” that they are not losers.
CC7D is an annual short film competition in Corpus Christi. Teams are given seven days to start and finish a short film based on the theme for the year. Everything from the script to filming to music used and the
final edit must be completed by the seventh day of the contest. Teams must also incorporate four elements – a specific character, a prop, a line of dialogue and a random fourth element – into their film.
As the team was on strict time constraints, coordinating everyone’s schedules was difficult. In fact, some scenes had to be shot as early as 3 a.m. to get their film done. However, working with a good group of people made the challenges worth it.
“The seven-day film festival is a camaraderie. It’s about coming back to people who you work so well with once a year who have the exact same sense of humor as you, but who also have the same work ethic as you, and you just know how all of y’all are all so serious about the film and how you just put 100 percent of your heart into it,” Guajardo said.
This year was communications major Robin Machuca’s first time participating in CC7D.
“It was a fun time doing it. It’s fun to do something that is not stage acting. It was the first time in a long time that I did a comedy-based thing, so I think that was the most fun part, that it was a comedy and was something different in terms of acting. And, also it was fun just to working with Aaron (Salinas) and Heraclio Gonzalez,” Machuca said.
Assistant Professor and the Director of Radio, Television and Film, Armando Ibanez has taught many of the students who were part of the project and believes there is more to come from them.
“I was excited for our filmmakers, but not surprised at all. They are gifted, dedicated and work hard on their craft and art. Their future looks bright, and I know that they will produce many more award-winning films,” Ibanez said.
“For TAMUK, our film students winning awards and screenings at film festivals illustrate that we have a productive and promising film program.”
Check out the The Dazzling Dancersons here.