From mock-horror to romance movies, seven groups of freshmen cinema students competed over the weekend in John P. Harris (JPH) Film Society’s 4th Annual Freshmen Film Festival to create short films in 48 hours.

“You get a lot of freshmen film majors who are eager to collaborate and make something,” said JPH’s head of screening committee James Van. “This is the first big opportunity for a lot of them. They get to start working together, picking up cameras, figuring out stories…”

“Who is Jeremy Braverman?”

That was the question that was asked in every film screened at the festival, which kicked off Oct. 21 at 3 p.m. Freshmen participants were to create short films that included both a variation of the phrase, “who is Jeremy Braverman?” as well as a pumpkin.

“It’s fun when you’re screening these, just because there are seven groups, so there’s going to be seven different ways they come about using this,” JPH secretary Scott Kidwell said.

Teams submitted their finished products Oct. 23 by 3 p.m. Films were screened in the JVH Auditorium at 8 p.m. the same night.

After the films were screened, a panel of judges determined the winners for each of the four categories. These categories were Best Editing, Best Sound Design, Best Direction and Best Use of Prompt.

The award for Best Editing went to “Rapture Me Not,” a short film viewed through the camera footage of a man in a post-apocalyptic world. The film was created by James Garvin, Kevin King and Matthew Leslie.

“By Tonight,” created by Jimmy Elinski, Nicole Kennedy and Dominec Porcari, was an action-filled short film about a drug cartel and a stolen ex-girlfriend. The film secured the award for Best Sound Design.

Best Direction went to “Popped,” an animated love story between balloons that went wrong. “Popped” was created by Daniel Kelly, Ethan Green and Leo Pfeifer.

The award for Best Use of Prompt went to “Popping the Question.” Created by Kelly Tran, Lauren Balint and Jenna Ligdas, the film explored a young relationship that quickly went from the honeymoon stage to questioning the faithfulness of the partners.

The teams behind the winning films in each category were given a sort of gag prize — things like Expo markers, scissors, and DVDs were handed out as prizes.

Upperclassmen members of the society expressed that the festival is a competition organized as an attempt to get freshmen’s feet wet upon entering their first year at Point Park University.

“Freshmen in the first semester, they don’t get a chance to make their own film,” Kidwell said. “So this a chance for them to get on one of their own sets and create their own thing first semester.”

Senior cinema production major and social media coordinator for JPH, Anna Rigatti, said that the festival is about the relationships that students build with one another and the experience they have together.

“I just remember that I didn’t have a crew really, so I was adopted by a crew and then they ended up being the people I worked with for my junior film,” Rigatti said, reminiscing on her Freshmen Film Festival experience. “The relationships you make during this festival can influence your time here.”

According to Van, working hands-on with a crew in a setting that is not the traditional classroom can be one of the best experiences any student can get during their time at Point Park.

“Any professor in the cinema department will tell you, the majority of your education you get in filmmaking is outside of the classroom,” Van said. “This whole thing is a 48-hour film festival all about trial-and-error and figuring it out on a set in the moment.”