This is the third part in a four-part series tracking the creative process as Penn State's film/video students shoot, cut and complete their senior films.

David Cui has been in Pollock Building's multimedia lab for 24 hours.

Sifting through footage of the student film Sleep, for which he is director of photography, Cui (senior-film/video) says the day's effort has resulted in five minutes of completed footage, totaling about a quarter of the anticipated film length.

"I'm so exhausted. By the end of this film I'm totally going to hate these two people," said Cui as he edited footage of the film's two principal actors.

No matter how far along a particular film/video senior is into the editing process for their senior film, the final weeks leading up to the deadline for submissions to the Student Film Festival are "amazingly hectic," to use the words of Owen Thomas (senior-film/video).

Thomas' film, Being Both, is a documentary that explores issues facing biracial students at Penn State.

Thomas, who is half Welsh and half Chinese, said it was not until he came to Penn State that the difficulty of fitting in as a biracial student became apparent.

"It bothered me that I was immediately classified as the Asian guy or the Chinese guy," Thomas said, noting that "when I lived in Hong Kong, I was the white guy."

His nonfiction senior thesis film, which was cut down from six hours to a meager six minutes, alternates between a talking heads commentary and group discussion with regard to racial issues.

"I'd like to see perspective, not just on me, but on the biracial issue," Thomas said.

After viewing a rough cut screening of his film, fellow students in Thomas' COMM 438 (Non-Fiction Video/Filmmaking) class told him it had "no narrative flow" and a weak middle section with too many edits.

Some suggestions Thomas is considering are shooting extra footage with more subjects and adding the perspective of students of a single race.

Thomas already has a rough cut of Being Both, so he has enough time for these kind of re-shoots, which might be a major setback to another film. Writer/director/producer Aundrea Posey (senior-film/video) talked about the "glitches and bumps" that came along with her film Finding Ifftin being the only student film project shooting directly on film, which takes four to six weeks to process.

"It's such a gamble when you're shooting on film," Posey said. "You're running against a clock a lot harsher than other people are."

Two weeks before the submission deadline, Posey was still waiting to receive about one-half of her footage. The slow processing time of film would not allow further shooting in time for the festival.

To make matters worse, the theft of audio reels from Posey's car might have led to extensive re-shoots, but only one scene, which had no dialogue, was affected.

"Had it been something like the cafeteria scene [with dozens of extras and dialogue], that would have been brutal," Posey said.

Among other potential issues, Finding Ifftin is presently lacking an editor because the person originally set to cut it backed out because of prior obligations.

After producing, writing and directing the film, Posey hopes sound designer Shaun Mir (senior-film/video) will volunteer to lend a hand.

"I'm trying to get someone to step up and say, 'I'll edit this with you,' " Posey said.

Posey is not the only student filmmaker putting in long hours on projects. Cui seemed more prepared to accept the idea of editing by himself.

"[Director] Per [Argentine] doesn't want to edit with me. No one wants to edit with me," Cui said. But Cui's attention to detail and perfectionist streak are more conducive to solo work.

Going through a rough cut of Sleep, Cui commented upon his careful consideration of costume choices.

For example, the main character, Jeff, starts the film in the slump of writer's block, wearing darker clothes, but begins to appear in brighter colors as the film progresses and his mood improves.

"The thing with editing is there are always things you can do to make it better," Cui said. "It's endless."

Cui said he will not be able to make every possible correction to the film and still meet the deadline. Cui pointed to a camera shadow in one shot, and said he would Photoshop it out if he had enough time.

"I have a pretty good feeling I'll be printing this 10 minutes before the deadline," Cui said. "I'm not last-minute, as you can see, but there's always more you can do."

Film festival submissions are currently being accepted. The deadline is 5 p.m. Friday, April 18. The fourth and final installment of this series, previewing the Student Film Festival, will run on April 24.