In films less than four minutes long, student filmmakers were able to produce laughter, nostalgia and inspiration from the audience of the fourth annual Student Short Film Showcase in D.H. Hill auditorium at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

 Adam Rogers, an emerging technology services librarian, got the idea to hold the Showcase after hearing about Campus MovieFest, which also gives N.C. State students the opportunity to produce a short film and enter it into a campus-wide competition. However, the SSFS features films produced for courses at N.C. State.

 “The idea was to lead up to Campus MovieFest to showcase the cool film and video work that was already being done on campus,” Rogers said. “We wanted more people to be inspired by film.”

 The showcase featured films produced by N.C. State students in video, film and animation classes chosen by professors in the College of Design and the Department of Communication.

 Marian Fragola, NCSU Libraries director of Program Planning and Outreach, said the professors select the films that they thought were the best representations of the assignment or were particularly well-made and interesting.

 “We are proud to be able to celebrate the creativity and incredible talent that students produced throughout the semester,” Fragola said.

 The beginning half of the event featured animated films, most of which were about 30 seconds long. The second half featured live-action films. After each half, filmmakers took the stage to describe and answer questions about their work.

 “It’s really amazing how these students were able to totally capture a mood or emotion in as little as 30 seconds,” Fragola said.

 Many of the featured animated films were produced using a technique called rotoscoping, which is when animators film live sequences and then go back and trace the action frame by frame, creating the animated effect.

 According to student filmmaker Alyssa Barrett, sometimes experimenting with different animating techniques, such as rotoscope, can produce unexpected results.

 “I spent so long animating the people moving that I didn’t have time to draw the background frame by frame,” Barrett said. “It resulted in the background being one kind of image while the movement was animated.”

 According to Jason Evans Groth, the Showcase MC and N.C. State librarian, having the two different effects in the film was a happy accident.

 “It may have been unexpected, but I loved it because it added to the mystery of the scene,” Groth said.

 Along with being produced using various mediums of filmmaking, the films also varied in the subject matter and emotions they were attempting to evoke. Some, such as a 30 second animated visual poem containing Katy Perry’s I Kissed A Girl lyrics read in a serious tone, which was produced by Kevin DeHaven, were intended to make the audience laugh. 

 Others, such as a live action film produced by Hannah Bower, depicted more serious and emotional topics such as young love, heartbreak and suicide.

 Neal Patel, a sophomore in biological sciences, said he was surprised at just how much the filmmakers could convey in so little time and without using dialogue.

 “I laughed at clips that were 30 seconds long,” Patel said. “They used music and moving images to tell the story instead of having the characters talk. It was different, but I was pleasantly surprised.”

 Because of the lack of time available to showcase every chosen film in one night, a second event is being held on Thursday, Feb. 13 in James B. Hunt Jr. Library Auditorium at 7 p.m. More student films produced using different techniques will be showcased at this event.

 “I’ll definitely try and go next week too,” Patel said. “I want to see more of what student filmmakers have to offer.”