For years the WCU School of Stage and Screen has hosted Controlled Chaos, a film festival designed to give students inside and outside of the department a chance to have their creations shown to an audience.
The 16th annual Controlled Chaos will be divided into two days. The first day begins at 6:30 p.m. May 2. It is meant to help filmmakers better their craft and spectators better understand the work that goes into each production. It will feature workshops and panels with professionals including Veronica Bouza and Kevin Cagnolatti. At the end, a few films will be screened.
The second day begins at 7:30 p.m. May 3. This day is more aligned to the traditional festival setup. There will be a live-streamed red carpet for attendees to walk, hosts on stage and screening of selected work. There will also be an award ceremony that will highlight the different roles and films.
Tickets to Controlled Chaos are available at the official website, controlledchaos.wcu.edu. Those not attending can stream the films live as they’re shown at the festival on the Stage and Screen YouTube channel.
The festival’s production and constant evolution is no accident. Every spring students enroll in FTP 485 Film Festival Production and dedicate a semester to brainstorming, organizing and producing the festival.
This year the class was taught by assistant professor Steve Kniss. According to Kniss, the festival is mainly created through the efforts of the students in the class. The class also has a student leader, this year that was fourth-year David Chandler.
According to Chandler, the class is structured as a meeting. Kniss gives students updated information then Chandler speaks to each team about their contributions.
The class was divided into six teams: editing, design, show, decoration, writers and merchandise. Each team contributes equally to ensuring each detail of the festival is intentionally perfected, often working outside of the class. A testament to the dedication of the students was this year’s poster which was hand-painted by second-year Eli Thorton.
