Senior Elon Communications student Philip Kimbrough directed the winning film in the 2011 Sprite Refreshing Films contest. His work was shown at the Los Angeles Film Festival earlier this summer.
Kimbrough, a media arts & entertainment major, directed the film “Cease and Deceased,” featuring actor Donald Faison of “Scrubs.” He and his team of students, who made up some of the almost 100 students from 12 schools nationwide who participated in the contest, beat five other short films.
The shorts were shot in Los Angeles (where Kimbrough made his movie), Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago, Miami and New York. In the final round of voting, “Cease and Deceased” outpaced the film “Magic Ribbon” from the Miami student team.
Films began production at the end of January with a completion date of March 31. The original films featured celebrity talent, including Faison, Natasha Bedingfield (Grammy-nominated singer), Mia Michaels (Emmy award-winning choreographer, “So You Think You Can Dance”), Alexis Jordan (RocNation recording artist, “America’s Got Talent”), Jennifer Stone (actress, “Wizards of Waverly Place”) and Christopher Gorham (actor, “Covert Affairs”).
Every 10 days starting in early April, two films went head-to-head in online voting. The three films with the most votes moved on to the second round, at which point they competed against each other for votes from the general public and from industry professionals, who offered their reviews and helped determine the winner.
“From day one, I’ve always been grateful for the fine students here at Elon,” said Communications assistant professor Paul Castro before the results of the contest were announced. “They’re both talented and fiercely motivated. It’s a blessing that now the rest of the world will get to see their creativity brought to fruition.”
Castro secured the Sprite Refreshing Films contest opportunity for Elon students. In addition to Kimbrough, 13 other Elon students participated in the challenge, two of whom had their screenplays selected for production.
Participating schools included:
Elon University
Northwestern University
Savannah College of Art and Design
University of North Carolina School of the Arts
Columbia University
Chapman University
Florida State University
University of Texas at Austin
University of Iowa
Indiana University
California State University Long Beach
University of Colorado at Denver