By Nicole Stewart Staff Reporter
UMF’s Association For Campus Entertainment (ACE) recently featured a Found Footage Festival where students were able to sit down in comfy chairs and watch a collection of videos put together for the comedy show.
Joe Pickett, one of the men from the Found Footage Festival, was the host for the night, showing a variety of videos made from VHS tapes. The group finds the videos at various thrift stores and com
Students learn about post-graduate employment opportunities at the career fair. (Photo courtesy of UMF)
piles them together to create a comedy show.
Videos shown at the show ranged from old exercise videos from the 70’s and 80’s to Pickett and partner Nick Prueher going on news shows, impersonating workout instructors and doing wacky antics while the news anchors were unaware of it.
Students who attended were laughing non-stop, as Pickett added commentary while the videos were playing. Pickett also talked about what the people in the videos are up to now after they recorded and released the video.
Gabby Crisafulli, the President of ACE, said this was the first time the club has ever hosted an event like this. “We found them in one of our old NACA [National Association for Campus Activities] catalogues,” said Crisafulli. “I found them really interesting, so I decided to some research. I got in contact with their manager and set everything up.”
Students who attended were able to interact with one of the videos that was shown. “Rent-A-Friend” featured a man named Sam who was interacting with the viewer. In the video, he takes a camera out to take a picture with the person watching, and the crowd, along with Pickett, pretended to pose like they were taking a picture with the man in the clip.
Kali Hopkins, the treasurer of ACE, said that it was a bit of a process to get the Found Footage Festival to come to UMF. “We started talking to them [Pickett and Prueher], I think before last semester ended. We tend to contact people a couple of months ahead of time.”
According to Crisafulli, the shows are not always the same for each event. “They’ve done family videos, like past home made videos that they found. Videos that teenagers took of their friends, that kind of thing,” said Crisafulli. “So, it’s a different mixture of all different kinds of videos, but they’re all homemade videos.”
Those who did not attend the show can still view the videos on Pickett and Prueher’s website http://www.foundfootagefest.com/ which features other videos that were not shown at the festival as well. There is a range of topics in the videos, but some of the content is graphic.
For more information on upcoming events hosted by ACE, students are encouraged to stop by the ACE Office in the Student Center, or they can attend their meetings on Tuesdays at 6:30PM in Roberts 105.
The Found Footage Festival has also been featured on shows such as Jimmy Kimmel Live and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.