IU film wins Best Comedy in Hollywood

This past spring, IU students participating in the Campus MovieFest, the world’s largest student film festival, had one week to make a 5-minute long film.

A film that, if they won at IU, would take them to Los Angeles where they would compete with students from college campuses around the world to earn world-wide recognition.

Of 43 movies submitted to the Campus MovieFest at IU, three movies written and directed by IU students made it to the Hollywood Campus MovieFest.

Campus Best Picture “Under Euclid’s Watch,” Campus Best Comedy “SheetWOW,” and Campus Best Drama “Pilgrimage” were the three films representing IU at the 2013 Campus MovieFest in Los Angeles.

“SheetWOW,” won Best Comedy at the Hollywood competition.

“I didn’t think I was going to win anything, it just sort of happened,” Ben Tamir Rothenberg, director of the short film, said.

“SheetWOW” is an infomercial parody making light of the specific ShamWow ad.

“Does toilet paper confuse you,” the short film starts out. It has the initial, traditional black and white cinematic quality of an infomercial and features a person easily confused with every day objects, as presented in infomercials.

Taylor Crousore, who recently graduated in May, wrote the short film and starred as the main character, Richard Scheisse. He said the inspiration for the short came to him one day as he was studying in the library.

“I always think of contradictions, those are always the funniest things to me,” Crousore said. “So I was thinking to myself, ‘what are things you can’t reuse,’ I remember. So I thought, ‘toilet paper,’ but that’s disgusting.”

Crousore said he felt pretty good about the short, but was in total shock when he found out Saturday that “SheetWOW” had won overall in the comedy category.

“I felt good about it,” Crousore said. “I was hoping something would come of it, but I guess I wasn’t really expecting to win overall. I couldn’t be more thrilled.”

Music for the short film was created by Shawn McGowan and Marshall Robbins. McGowan and Robbins are both members of the local Bloomington band the “Phunk Nasty’s.”

“Under Euclid’s Watch,” made it to the top 25 in the Hollywood MovieFest. Brendan Elmore, director of “Under Euclid’s Watch,” was nominated for Best Director.

“Pilgrimage,” did not win or make it to the top 25; however, director Elijah Willis won $1,000 for a short 3D film he created.

Aside from the trophy and recognition he and his team received for winning Best Comedy in Hollywood, Rothenberg won an additional $3,000 to make “Art Heals,” a documentary pitch he gave to ShortsHD, a cable and satellite television channel dedicated to short film.

Rothenberg said the Hollywood experience was “incredible” and he appreciated the considerable amount of networking opportunities.

Celebrities, directors and several affluent members of the film society present at the event, offered advice to Rothenberg and other students in attendance.

“They weren’t trying to scare us or anything, they would just tell us the way it is, and if you want to succeed, how to succeed,” Rothenberg said. “Film is an industry that, if you’re not pushing yourself really hard, you’re just not gonna make it because there are so many other people who are trying to do what
you do.”