Meet the Lane students entering the 10th-annual 72-Hour Film Competition

Lights! Camera! Horror! Meet the Lane students entering the 10th annual 72-Hour Film Competition, where they’ll have just three days to make a film that must include one set prop and one set line of dialogue:

Rachel Hunter

• Major: Media Arts
• Favorite Horror Film: Tucker & Dale vs. Evil (2010)
• Competition Strategy: “This year I got the idea ahead of time. I wrote the script out. I planned everything out. Last year, we winged it and it was a lot of fun. The prop, a banana, became a lot of things, like a weapon. But, really, it comes down to how prepared you are to be flexible.”

Henry Nordquist

• Major: Business and Theatre
• Favorite Horror Film: Synecdoche, New York (2008)
• Competition Strategy: “I studied a lot of screenwriting and I can definitely say it's all about execution rather than ideas. I really enjoyed the 2024 Steven Soderbergh film Presence, where the entire movie was shot from the perspective of an invisible ghost. I hope to do something similar.”

Eugene enjoys a cinema culture unusual for its size thanks to talented students like these, passionate Cinema Studies and Media Arts faculty, and dedicated community business owners. They all contribute to Eugene Film Society (EFS), who puts on the annual 72-Hour Horror Film Competition. Two Lane faculty members, Kate Sullivan and Mel Stark, volunteer on the EFS board. Edward Schiessl, an LCC alum and managing director of Metro Cinemas, is organizing the competition and festival this year.

The competition ends with a special festival screening at the McDonald Theatre on Sunday, October 26th at 7 p.m.

Best of luck to all the contestants who are keeping spooky season and independent filmmaking alive and well!