Sacramento State student Jacob Keller said that perhaps the most common misconception about making a movie is that it can “just be slapped together and that’s that.”

“A lot of people don’t do enough planning,” he said. And after producing a number of local movies, the digital media major and film studies minor, would be well aware of this realization.

Two of these projects were a part of the annual “A Place Called Sacramento” Film Festival, which features up to ten films that are set in Sacramento and created by its residents. This year, Keller produced “Saturday’s a Rugby Day!” written and directed by Jessica Vazquez, also a Sac State student, and was one of nine films featured in the event.

The film tells the story a young woman named Alice, a player on the Sac State girls’ rugby team, trying to deal with stepping up to the position that was originally occupied by her friend Karen, who lost her battle with cancer.

Vazquez, also digital video major and film studies minor, was inspired with the story by her experience playing on the university rugby team and the passing of her grandmother.

“It’s more universal (then other films),” Vazquez said of the script.

One way the film stood out at the festival was its use of a sport many do not understand to tell the story.

“That experience was different than what we had done before,” said Keller.

The creators used both actors and real rugby players, presenting the challenge of teaching a notoriously tough game to those who have not played before. Yet the acting and playing are done so well you wouldn’t even know it.

The cheering crowd during “The Big Game” sequence added a sense of realism to the film. This, along with the players, combined into a cast that Keller estimated brought as many as 30 people together at one time, most likely making “Saturday’s a Rugby Day!” the largest cast of all the films.

Those who were a part of the project showed a great amount of excitement for the film.

“Despite it being ten minutes, it has depth and growth throughout the story,” said Amanda Morish, who played Alice in her acting debut.

“Jess wrote a great screenplay. I loved it was about the bond between two friends,” said Christiana Birdsall, who played Karen in the flashback scenes.

This was the second year that Vazquez’s script was chosen to feature in the festival.

“I’m more confident as a screenwriter, which is what I really want to do,” Vazquez said.

“Saturday’s a Rugby Day!” won this year’s Best Storytelling Award – an honor Vazquez received last year with her screenplay, “Checkmate.”

Vazquez’s film was only one of the many impressive films that were shown at the festival.

One of the most memorable was Alison Wells’s “Sweet Lemonade” – a film starring a group of children from Serna Village who try to produce the sweetest lemonade. While the acting was expectedly amateur, the kids were just too darn cute that it was easy to look over it. The film won the award for Best Ensemble.

Another film I especially liked was “The Note,” written by Savannah Knight. The story was simple – a guy trying to get over the breakup between him and his girlfriend – but filled with humor, a number clever one-liners, and likable characters.

Eric Cotenas’s “Remember Me” was perhaps one of the most difficult to understand, plot-wise. Between the quick change between characters – two of which looked so much alike that one was easily mistaken for the other – and a rather abrupt ending, it was perhaps the most eyebrow-raising film. However, it receives acknowledgement for being the most artistic piece – however obscure as it may be.

What is most impressive about the whole experience was the amount of professionalism and pride that went to creating the films. This festival reflected a respect that many residents have toward the city. Keller mentioned that he recently discovered that, statistically, Sacramento is “the third largest movie-watching city in the country,” giving residents a “higher education” in terms of moving-making.

“We’re a good judge (of movies) for the general populous. It’s possible that Sacramento could be a huge hub for films in 10 or 15 years,” Keller said.

If you would like to see the entries for yourself, go to www.videossc.com/Sac2008.html. It’s definitely worth a look!

Kyrie Eberhart can be reached at [email protected]