Most people, students included, watch movies fairly often and think little of the creative process that took the film from the idea of a film, to a script and storyboard, to a filmed image committed to celluloid and distributed around the country.

There are those, however, who know exactly how difficult the film-making process is, and how great the rewards of creating a great film can be. These student film-makers are among the most creative and talented groups of students on campus, but do not always have a forum to share the fruits of their imagination. However, on Tuesday, March 6, student film-makers get their due recognition at the 2nd Annual Monumental Film Festival.

The festival, presented by University Housing and Apple Computers, will showcase student short films, between two and five minutes long, that hit on an extremely vast array of themes and genres that appeal to a student audience. Films range from experimental art pieces to mini-epic fantasy battles and gritty real-world drama. Students had under a month from receiving their Apple loaned equipment to complete filming of their movies.

“The deadline was pretty tight this year, but I think it just motivated me more,” said Roshan Murthy, junior in LAS and captain of a film-making team. Murthy was also captain of the team whose movie won last year’s festival. “If you don’t have a deadline or pressure, things just don’t get made. I love being on a deadline. I really think that I do my best filming when I am.”

In fact, it was the pressure of last year’s Monumental Film Festival and his teams’ eventual win that convinced Murthy of pursuing his interest in film throughout graduate school, which he now intends to attend studying film.

“I realized that I really enjoyed being under the pressure,” he said. “I was actually rather disappointed this year by the decreased time limits on the films. Mine is over twice as long as it should be.”

Describing it as “At the end of the world, one man must come to terms with loss,” he doesn’t mind being disqualified from the prize-winnings for exceeding the maximum length. He simply wants his film shown to the crowd of students.

“That’s what a film-maker really lives for, getting to show his craft,” he said.

The prizes mentioned go to the top three teams that finish in the competition. First and second prizes are provided by Apple Computers; the first place team receiving four gigabyte iPod Nanos and the second place team receiving iPod Shuffles. Third place is provided by University housing, and is receiving extra dining credits for all team members.

“It’s a great event to attend,” said Donna Price Pumphrey, an assistant director of housing who was the driving force behind the conception of the film festival last year. “We expect somewhere around 250 people to be there, and we’ll be providing free popcorn and drinks for students who want to come watch these great student film-makers.”

Judging will be handled by a specially picked team of three judges.

“We usually have two professionals involved in the field of film and a special student judge,” Pumphrey said.

This year’s judges will be Robert Baird, a film class and cinema history teacher, David Ruby, an acknowledged film buff, and Shannon Sword, the student judge. They will select winners based on originality and film-making technique.

“This is a great chance to have an experience to play around with some new film-making styles,” said Derek Klein, junior in the communications and a first time entrant into the competition.

Klein’s film, an “Experiment in Animation and Live-action” uses the animation method of “rotoscoping” to first film a scene in live-action and then apply animation over the actors. The end effect is the surrealistic art-effects found in movies like “Waking Life” and the recent “A Scanner Darkly.”

“I was inspired by new-age cinema courses examining new digital techniques,” Klein said. “The digital editing actually took a lot longer to do with this movie than actual filming, but I’m happy with how it turned out. I got to do a film in a way that I’ve never done before and I get to show it to a large audience. Can’t ask for more than that.”

Klein also intends to pursue a career in film.

“I’m considering film-school or going directly into film-making when I graduate,” he said “My goal is to eventually direct at least mid-budget films.”

The Monumental Film Festival begins at 7 p.m. Tuesday night at the Illini Union’s Courtyard Caf‚. More than 20 student films are expected to be shown, with awards following.