Bert Green

Paul Hinson (from left), cinematographer/editor, Virginia Patterson, actress, Tyler Henderson, actor/producer, and Tony Lazzeroni, director/writer, film on location in Mill Mountain Coffee & Tea in Blacksburg.

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Once the camera starts rolling, it doesn't stop -- at least not for Virginia Tech students Tony Lazzeroni, Tyler Henderson and Paul Hinson.

Last month, the filmmakers took home first place in Virginia Tech's Four Minute Film Festival for their video "First Impressions."

Now they're in the running for an award in Apple's Insomnia Film Festival for their video "Tuned Out." The 24-hour shoot began at 9 a.m. Oct. 13; online voting will continue through Nov. 9.

The 25 teams who receive the highest ratings online will have their film critiqued by 10 celebrity judges and be promoted through various Apple products.

Lazzeroni, Henderson and Hinson said their success in Tech's Four Minute Film Festival -- in which teams of three were given 24 hours to create a four-minute film -- gave them the confidence to tackle another contest.

"The Tech one was funny -- we were really nervous," Lazzeroni said.

For Tech's contest, the team wrote and filmed the story of a job candidate who, while waiting for his interview, became enamored with the toy soldiers on the coffee table in the waiting room. The film received the most votes at the festival's film premiere Sept. 29.

"We were not so worried that it wouldn't be good, but that someone else would come up with a concept that would blow us out of the water," Lazzeroni said. "This one, we didn't second-guess ourselves as much. We picked a story line and ran with it."

For Apple's contest, some 2,000 teams of high school and college students across the nation, including six teams from Virginia Tech, submitted three-minute films, which could be shot at home and uploaded onto the contest's Web site. "Tuned Out," which tells the story of a man who hears a radio voice in his head, was filmed in eight locations in the New River Valley, including Mill Mountain Coffee & Tea in Blacksburg.

The Apple Insomnia Film Festival required filmmakers to use at least three of 10 elements: a bird cage, a park bench, radio static as a background sound, a character named Robin Darjeeling, a tuxedo, a camera angle called a dutch angle, a dream sequence, an editing technique called a match cut, "don't tempt me" in the dialogue and makeup for an old person.

Team members stuck with the roles they established for the Tech event: Lazzeroni was writer/director, Hinson was cinematographer and editor, and Henderson was producer. This time, Henderson also played the main character.

In the Insomnia Film Festival, five people were allowed to help the team with editing and shooting, so the group invited senior Eric Steinat and sophomore Ryan Watson to join. Virginia Tech alumnus Bert Green served as the group's photographer.

The filmmakers borrowed equipment for both film festivals from Virginia Tech's New Media Center, where Henderson and Lazzeroni work.

The filmmakers met one another through their participation in the Association of Movie Productions, a club that meets weekly on campus to create and talk about films.

"We bring in people who are writers in the English department, cinematographers from the communication department and even people who are into makeup and lighting," Lazzeroni said.

"We're not a school that's been known in the past as being a big film school," he added. "We've got a lot of equipment and knowledge at our disposal, but it's been hard figuring out how to come at that."

Ben Hannam, director of Virginia Tech's Four Minute Film Festival, said he is happy to see the winners pursue other film contests.

"There's a lot of people who entered our competition who said that this was a great warm-up for the Apple competition," he said.

Most of all, Hannam said he is happy to see amateur film taking off in Blacksburg and across the country.

"I think that people are warming up to the idea," he said. "They're not being intimidated by the media or the cameras and the editing. Because all of the equipment is at the consumer level, people feel like if they have a story line, they have a good shot."

Lazzeroni is working on another film to enter in Fox Searchlight and YouTube's Project Direct contest. Henderson is hoping for exposure through Apple's contest, he wrote in an e-mail. "This could potentially be a big stepping stone to get our feet into Hollywood."