Out of the 87 films submitted this year at the 7th edition of the Grand Angle competition, our first-year Bachelor students took 3rd and 2nd place in the schools prize, respectively: Rock'n Run and Le réveil de la raison.
1 theme, 1 video, 1 minute
At the start of the year, our students spent six weeks creating short films aligned with this year's theme: "Sleep and connected devices: sandman or smoke and mirrors".
As the first group project for our first-year bachelor students, the video module is an essential initiation rite in the creative process at Digital Campus.
Every year, our students respond with enthusiasm to this challenge set by the MAIF Foundation for Research: through highs and lows, they quickly find their footing and learn to work as a team — from writing the script, casting, shooting, and sound recording, all the way through to editing and color grading.
The MAIF Foundation's mission: amplifying researchers' work to create social impact
When the competition was created in 2016, its primary goal was to reach young audiences through video. The competition combines academic research, scientific data, and video campaigns produced by young participants.
This year, the research focused on sleep and connected devices. For the MAIF Foundation, conducting an in-depth analysis of the wave of technological products that promise improved sleep quality was an obvious choice.
The topics covered included: the link between accidents and sleep, how the lack of regular sleep can affect individuals' behavior, the importance of sleep for health, and psychological risks. The aim is to provide a critical perspective and offer practical guidance and recommendations regarding these devices.
Rock'n'Run by Marianne Platel, with Emma Perrin (Assistant director), Clément David (Script supervisor, lighting engineer), Gabriel Zemsta (Camera operator)
Le réveil de la raison by Quentin Deleu
Interview with the Rock'n'Run team
1/ What did you enjoy about this experience?
We are super proud of our final result — it taught us a lot about ourselves in terms of what we're capable of and showed us that we can push beyond our limits.
2/ What did you enjoy less?
We ran into a huge number of problems in pre-production, during shooting, and in post-production — like having to call at least 200 dentists just to hope for the chance to film in a dental practice, or our first actor dropping out on the night of the second day, forcing us to start almost from scratch (except for our script), not to mention our group splitting into two.
3/ A word of encouragement or a golden piece of advice for the next bachelor students who will take your place in the video module and the competition next year (in the spirit of: "If only I'd known beforehand..."!)
Our parting words: Don't forget to get the right image rights release forms signed right from the start of your shoot, never give up, and with Yann as your teacher you won't be able to get away with average work — you'll always need to go above and beyond despite all the hard work involved. But most importantly, have fun and remember that every problem has a solution; don't let stress take over.
The talent and motivation of our first-year Bachelor students have now become legendary at the MAIF Foundation, with 8 awards across 5 participations. Beyond the prize itself, this is an irreplaceable experience for getting to know yourself, creating, writing, directing, casting, shooting, editing, and post-producing — just like the pros, or at least on a par with students from the best audiovisual schools. Congratulations to them all!