STUDENT PRODUCTION IN APPLE INSOMNIA FILM FESTIVAL COMPETITION

Cecil B. DeMille would be proud. Zane Productions, a team of five student filmmakers, including two from Old Dominion University, has submitted its film, "Dreams of Kindness" to the Apple Insomnia Film Festival. The festival is an open, online movie-making competition sponsored by Apple Computers. The competition invites high school and college students to submit films, up to three minutes long, to be rated by viewers who visit the festival Web site.

The ambitious ODU moviemakers produced, directed and acted in the film, a stylized silent drama, which they hope viewers will rate among the top 25 films submitted. Films rated in the top 25 will be screened by industry professionals, including Barry Sonnenfeld, James Mangold and Nora Ephron. The team whose film earns the top rating by either the public or the pros will receive MacBook Pro computers and approximately $1,200 worth of editing software. "It would be awesome if we could win," said Stepheno Zollos, an ODU honors freshman and captain of the team.

The competition gives entrants only 24 hours to create, edit and upload their films to the Web site. The Zane Productions crew took it to the very last minute. "It was pretty crazy," said Zollos. We were watching the minutes counting down, everyone was running around screaming. We got it uploaded with about one minute to spare."

The campus community can show its support for ODU's budding filmmakers by voting for "Dreams of Kindness" at http://www.apple.com/education/insomnia/. Voting must take place no later than 12:00 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 9th.