Ryan Snider, left, and Matt Wuthrich are two budding film directors/producers who are assisting Chautauqua-Wawasee with its first ever film festival. The two are editing all the videos together into a movie to show at Pickwick Theater Saturday, Aug. 7.
Both boys will be attending Huntington University where they plan to major in film making.

By Lauren Zeugner
InkFreeNews

SYRACUSE — They are both preparing for their freshmen year at Huntington University, but right now, Ryan Snider and Matt Wuthrich are helping Chautauqua-Wawasee with its first ever film festival. Snider-Wuthrich Productions is editing all the submitted videos together for the red carpet premier at the Pickwick Theater Aug. 7.

Snider explained Jeremy VanLue, an instructor at Wawasee High School, suggested the two friends make contact with Mark Knecht, executive director of Chautauqua-Wawasee.

Wuthrich did a lot of work on the Chautauqua website about how people should submit their videos, while Snider put together a short promotional video explaining the best way people should shoot their videos, hint: do it horizontally or landscape, not portrait or vertical.

Both Snider and Wuthrich took radio and TV courses at Wawasee and both use editing software that meets the industry standards. “It helps us build a portfolio,” Snider said about working on the film festival.

At Huntington University, the two plan to be roommates. Snider plans on majoring in film production while Wuthrich plans to major in animation and film production.

“A bunch of guys in a corn field can beat out the big guys in Hollywood,” Wuthrich said about their decision to study film at Huntington. Both boys live between Goshen and Syracuse.

Knecht stressed those submitting videos need to shoot them in landscape format or horizontally. It makes the editing process easier. “It’s really hard to make vertical work, but you make do,” Snider said. At press time eight videos had been submitted to the film festival. Deadline to submit an entry is July 29 and both Snider and Wuthrich hope a lot more people submit videos.

“The whole Pickwick (premiere) is what I think is cool. You can be on the big screen,” said Snider. And the Pickwick Theater hopes to use the video to run between films as a short after the film festival.

Snider fell in love with movies when he was in fifth grade. He took his mom’s iPad and started filming joke videos and making a bunch of parody movies. “They were horrible, but it was fifth grade,” he said. He is currently filming his first feature length movie in addition to working on Chautauqua’s film festival.

Snider’s junior year of high school, his art teacher asked him to do a film. So he made an ‘80s style horror film. “It was horrible, but I loved it,” he said. He’s taken some video classes and won some awards for his work. “I’m not making money yet,” he said. However, Snider Productions does have several videos on YouTube.

By the way, throughout the interview, Snider described his earlier work as “horrible,” explaining he is an incredibly harsh self-critic. What he loves about movie making is being able to entertain people. As an example, he described making a video that stressed him out and then seeing other’s react positively to it. “It’s worth it,” he said.

Wuthrich has always loved movies and remembers going to LinWay theater in Goshen for the first time. “I just remember it being this special experience,” he said. He still goes to the movies and believes strongly in supporting local businesses.

From that first experience, he became fascinated with what took place behind the scenes when a movie was being made. Wuthrich remembers watching the behind the scenes features before he even watched the movie.

“Through YouTube and the internet, it spiraled,” Wuthrich said of his interest in movies. He too has won a few awards for his work.

For the film fest, Snider, Wuthrich and Knecht said those interested in submitting videos, that they do not have to be from this year. Submit a video that is about one minute to one minute, 30 seconds, that gives Snider and Wuthrich the necessary wiggle room needed for editing purposes.

The film fest will have categories and prizes, so don’t wait until the last minute to submit your video. Visit Chautauqua-Wawasee’s website: www.chautauquawawasee.org/summer-fun-film-festival/ and click on the link which will take visitors to the information page regarding submitting a video to the film festival.

To check out the promotional video Snider and Wuthrich put together go to https://youtu.be/ksIJ4Igg65I.