The Doorpost Film Project’s 2010 Short Film Contest is underway, and this year Compass students and alumni have shown up in full force. Current student Justin Abraham Hall and previous student Caleb Alexander Slain both have films through the first round of competition.

No strangers to Doorpost, Hall and Slain have teamed up on previous Doorpost Competitions, see “Viewfinder” and “M()” under Slain’s profile on the Doorpost site. This year, however, the two decided to both direct films.

The contest is unparalleled. To enter the competition, filmmakers must produce a film, less than seven minutes, on one of the seven topics assigned by Doorpost. This year the topics are: Authenticity, Community, Sacrifice, Commitment, Truth, Identity, and Hope. Merited films are posted online and voted on by the general public. From there, 20 Finalists are chosen to write a script on one of the seven topics that they did not select in the first round. From those 20 scripts, 5 filmmakers will be selected and given a budget of $40,000 to create their film. These entries, funded by the Doorpost Film Project, will be used to determine top competition prize winners. In total, Doorpost is offering over $500,000 in prizes during the ‘10 competition, including all-expense paid trips, final round film budgets and prizes totaling $160,000.

Hall’s film, “The Regular,” is the story of a man and woman who spend the night together. “It’s an honest piece about dishonest people,” said Hall, who submitted the film under the competition’s “Identity” topic. Hall believes that “everyone had their little secrets,” which fit nicely in topic’s subheading: “Who you are when no one’s looking.”  The film delicately and naturally follows two good, but lonely people and their desire for connection. It was produced by Jeremy Rush (09) of Beardcore Media and crewed entirely by current Compass Students.

Slain’s film, “The Lost and Found Shop,” tells the fantastical story of a Lost and Found Shop, its curmudgeoney owner, and the little girl who lost her favorite memory. The film was produced by Compass Alums Jared Rummel (07) and Gorilla Pictures‘ Eric Johnson (00), Eric Machiela (00), and Aaron Smith (01). Also submitted under the “Identity” banner, “Lost and Found” explores sources of joy.

The story idea actually originated from Justin Hall. Slain instantly loved it. The idea machine that Hall is, he let Slain run with it.

“Very few short films examine an element of emotion truth.” Slain said. “They’re created to tell you something. This story seemed to have something that didn’t need to be told, but something to be showed. It was so visually driven that it could be shown so well. And it had to be shown. It was a great story to show.”

For now, Hall is working on his second semester film at Compass. He goes into production this month. Rummel and Slain are already working on their next project, a 30-minute short.

Voting for the films is crucial to their success, and Doorpost ensures that voting is fair and requires all voters to create a user profile and watch and vote on at least five films. It’s genius because it ensures you have committed film reviewers voting on the pieces. So, check out the videos below and be sure to log in and vote.

View “The Lost and Found Shop” here, and “The Regular” here.