By Kaylen Blanchier
This week, production officer Claudia Nussbaumer takes us behind the scenes of one of the biggest societies in NUI Galway: Film Soc. Cameras are rolling, cue to the society spotlight.
With more than 600 students signed up at this year’s Societies Day, Film Soc has grown more and more over the past five years, so much so as to become one of the most established societies on campus. So what’s their secret?
First and foremost, the society is led by a very passionate committee who meet up once a week to discuss the three activities that are held weekly, as well as special events. Secondly, “No, we’re not just watching movies,” Claudia reminds us.
On Tuesdays, Film Soc offers the best student deal ever on cinema tickets thanks to its partnership with the Pálás cinema. You get to see the most recent films for the ridiculous price of three euro! On one condition: you must show up 15 minutes earlier to the cinema because there’s a limited number of reduced tickets.
The screening is then followed by a discussion for cinema enthusiasts who want to have a word about Blade Runner’s spectacular CGI or Christopher Nolan’s complicated storylines. On Wednesdays, it’s free pizza and a movie just like your typical Friday night, in the D’Arcy Thompson theatre at 7pm. The choice of movie is usually determined by the theme of the month, so welcome to moustache – themed ‘Movember’!
On Thursday, Claudia hosts practical and theoretical two – hour workshops. During the first part of the session, the focus is on different aspects of moviemaking (cameras, screenwriting, editing, and more). The remainder of the session is a meeting for people who are anticipating their Hollywood debut, and they get to be part of the production for upcoming shootings.
Special events include table quizzes or other bigger events such as film festivals like OFFline that the crew are just back from, and upcoming ADIFF.
I asked Claudia if it was required or helpful to be doing Film Studies to join the society and her answer spoke for itself; “In our committee there’s only one person doing Film Studies!”
She couldn’t emphasize enough the feeling of community that is shared in this society. She joined Film Soc in the second semester of her first year when she had a high interest in film analysis and making movies herself, but couldn’t exercise her passion in her course.
She found exactly what she was looking for and started as an OCM. Here she is now, at the wheel, and praising the society that welcomed her a year ago; “It’s a nice way of looking behind the scenes and finding people who are like – minded, and you get a chance to watch movies without having to stream them!”
The team will be very happy to give you more information if you email them at filmsoc@socs.nuigalway.ie or check out NUIG Film Society on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat.
And that’s a wrap!
