Editor’s Note: This is the final of four profiles of students who have submitted films for the Penn State Student Film Festival, which will take place at 6 p.m. on Saturday at the State Theatre. Tickets at $7

A handful of tired students ran in and out of the empty building at Innovation Park for food and coffee runs, knowing they'd be there until dawn.

They were working on the final touches of ARTISTS., a film directed by Chris Chandler (senior-film), before the approaching deadline of the Penn State student Film Festival. The film, written by Penn State alumnus Nate Charney, is a comedy about a painter who steals his own work to create a buzz but is foiled by a lesbian detective couple, a blind girl, a caricature artist and a handicapped rival.

Chandler has been working on the film since September 2006 as part of a class that "allows you to make mistakes and not have it cost you a fortune," he said.

After deciding to enter a script for the class's consideration he turned to friend and Phroth writer, Charney, for help.

"This kid has the same sense of dry humor that I do. He'll just say a joke and keep talking," Chandler said. "That was the script -- every line is a joke, a pun. But they're subtle so it doesn't feel like a string of one-liners."

Chandler said the idea of that constant humor flows through out the film. Some people might miss the jokes, he said, because there is no indication -- i.e. a laugh track -- to let the audience know one just occurred.

As director, Chandler has to read the script and figure out how to turn the humor and words on the page into a movie and how to bring the characters to life. The hardest part of making the film, he said, is that there are so many different ways to do just that. "There's ultimate freedom, and it's up to [the director] to decide what the audience is going to see," he said. "There are infinite possibilities for shots, and that's overwhelming."

However, Chandler knew exactly what kind of style he wanted to use for shooting the film -- one that is inspired by Arrested Development. Like with the show, the cameras for his film were handheld to give it a spontaneous look.

However, Chandler said he wasn't trying to convey a specific message in making it -- the film is just supposed to be comedy.

"I think its harder to do comedy, because if people don't laugh it's the biggest catastrophe ever," he said.

Chandler said he knows he can't please everyone, but he's happy with the sense of humor and comedy in the film -- and that it is something that sets ARTISTS. apart from the others in the festival.

To describe the film in one word, he said, "absurd."