Herman Bubbert is known on campus as a fictitious perennial Bethel student. He is known mainly for campus pranks. The Bubbert Awards, specifically, are a yearly film festival showcasing creative videos that students produce.
There are always a wide variety of videos sent in. They range from being funny and absurd to dramatic. The films cannot be longer than five minutes.
One successful creator of these films would be Austin Regier. Regier, along with his modmates, created one video each of the three years they lived together on campus.
“My modmates and I had a successful Bubbert’s career. Our friend group took home an award about every year,” Regier said.
Some of the popular videos that Regier and his modmates created were entitled “Dream Girl,” “Code Regier,” and “The Flood.” Participating in this gave Regier and his friends something to look forward to every year.
“The best part of participating in it was probably the sheer dominance we had over the videos of our peers. We took home first place five years in a row. Second was the Pilot Peanut Butter club hats that we won in year three,” Regier said.
There are three people that watch and review the videos before the actual awards show. Those people are the SAC secretaries, Brianna Reeves and Taj Munnings, as well as Sam Bond, the coordinator of student activities. They look at criteria such as appropriateness of the subject filmed, language used, and common decency.
“Part of the reason we review the videos is for appropriateness, but I think the best part about it is being able to plan out fun little skits with the hosts of the show. They perform these in between videos to give the audience a sneak peak of what they are about to see,” junior Brianna Reeves, from Derby, said.
After viewing, a panel of judges critiques each video and selects winners for the awards. There are four different award categories. First place receives $250, second place receives $200 and third place receives $150. The people’s choice video receives $100.
“‘The Flood’ was our most successful video as far as the positive impact it had on campus. I think it really helped our community heal after such a devastating event. Of course, we donated all the prize money back to the families of the victims,” Regier said.
If you are having a hard time thinking of an idea, it can be anything! As long as it is appropriate and will make at least a few people laugh, you are good to go.
“As to where our ideas for the videos came from, many people have speculated divine manifestation, but the videos were really just the brainchild of a group of prodigious thinkers and scholars,” Regier said.
If you still aren’t sure whether or not you want to participate and make a video, just think how awkward the awards ceremony would be if nobody made a video.
“There is no greater honor than winning a Bubberts award. I know, for our mod, Bubberts was the highlight of our lives. It's really all gone downhill since then,” Regier said.
So, get a group of friends together, get your phone camera (or if you really want to be fancy, you can have someone film it on a real camera), think of a funny idea to make into a video, and watch your chances at winning $250 increase at the awards show on Friday, May 6th.
No more than two films can be submitted by an individual producer. Films need to be sent in by April 28th at 5:00 PM, and can be sent to sac@bethelks.edu for review, along with any other questions you might have.
