A chance for teams of (up to four) Geneseo students to participate in a twenty-four hour race to write, film, edit, and post a video of no more than three minutes using three or more elements from a generous list provided by the GIFF staff. Check out what past Insomniacs have done.

GIFF staff will be on hand for the entirety of the event to answer questions related to the GIFF and assist with technical issues. It is, however, recommended that you recruit SOMEONE for your team with some level of technical expertise.

Besides a great time you will talk about for years?

The top three teams chosen by our panel of judges win valuable prizes!

See below.

If you still have questions, please, reach out to our GIFF staff at brookes@geneseo.edu.

The South Hall Mac lab (345), complete with iMovie and Final Cut Pro, is available for Insomniacs to work during the the entire 24 hour period. Your team is expected to provide your own camera. Be creative with the tools at your disposal! There is a very limited number of cameras and tripods on reserve in the library. We don’t recommend expecting this to be your primary means of video capture.

If your team’s video requires a soundtrack, GIFF has a strong preference for music which you create and perform yourselves. The point of this contest is to spotlight Geneseo students’ ability to tell a story using video, and music is an important part of the storytelling. By putting other people’s music, especially well-known national artists, at the forefront of a video, the very nature of the competition changes, and takes the spotlight away from your own work.


If creating your own music is not a feasible option, any sound you get from outside sources should have a legal copyright license that allows you to use it for free. Check out Creative Commons for a reader-friendly explanation of what that means and a list of reputable sources to find the right music for your needs.

The point of this contest is to spotlight Geneseo students’ ability to tell a story using video. By putting commercially available, top forty, or music produced by professional/semi-professional musicians at the fore-front of the video, the very nature of the competition changes. This says nothing about the the legality involved in copyright issues.

It should be remembered that GIFF staff maintains the right to remove any video from competition for any reason. That having been said, the staff has yet to withdraw a video from competition. If you’re in doubt as to whether or not something would be too offensive, use this rule of thumb: Would you be embarrassed to sit next to your parents/grandparents while watching this video if they knew you made it?

Each GIFF participant will be given an immensely valuable “Golden Ticket.” Each ticket should be given to a member of Geneseo’s faculty or staff after putting your name and the name of that faculty/staff member on it. If the faculty or staff member comes to the GIFF Award Ceremony on GREAT Day and redeems the ticket at the door, both people listed on the ticket are entered to win raffle prizes! Entrants must be present the evening of the award ceremony to win.

On the evening of GREAT Day, all submitted videos that follow the rules will be screened at a public showing where the winning teams will be announced. Historically, this has been a memorable event. Insomniacs are encouraged to invite friends and family over the age of 18.