"There's not going to be anything you've seen before except for maybe one or two someone may have seen just because they are by a filmmaker from Norman and there's been a few showings around town. But most of them are new to just about everyone. Most of them were done on a shoestring budget but that doesn't mean they can't be a quality production.

"And there's filmmakers coming in from all over the country, even from Canada and France. About half of the films are from Oklahoma and half aren't. It would be neat if we could make it with all Oklahoma films but it would defeat the purposes of the film festival to expose our films to other audiences and to bring in tourism to the area and the state as well."

Getting four evenings packed with independent films organized and funded with only a few weeks' notice is a pretty tall order. A tall order which gets even taller when taking into account the decision by Aspell, Allen, Montgomery and the festival's other organizers to include music performances in the festival.

"It didn't start out that way," Montgomery said, "but we got to thinking, film and music go together. What film have you seen that doesn't have music involved with it? Music is a big part of the Norman arts scene and it just kind of spiraled into '(the musicians) need a platform. They need to be heard as well.' We have just as much talent here musically as there is in film and in both fields, people are told they have to go somewhere else if they want to succeed."

The film festival is about finding a new way to make a living at a creative profession without traveling far away to an established hub of the music, art or film world to do so.

"The idea of Vacant Era was, instead of going to other markets and trying to 'make it' there, they can get known and circulated in and from their area," Montgomery said, stressing the importance of making connections with new colleagues and with new fans from other regions. Having fun doing it is a nice bonus.

"I mean, how often does a band from Oklahoma, unless it gets a huge record deal, get to play with another band from Seattle, or France? It just doesn't happen."

Internet-based networking and Web site traffic had a definite impact on making the Vacant Era Film Festival a reality.

"I will say that MySpace has been a great tool, so has having a strong Web presence, but we did a lot of old-fashioned publicity too. We hit the streets, handed out flyers, put up posters, spread word of mouth all over. You can't just go with the newest ways of getting out information," she said.

"If we had stuck with just MySpace and Web presence, we wouldn't be having nearly the participation and interest in the festival that we are having. Yes, the Internet helped, but so did the old-school methods. The fact that all these other papers and different places got the press releases was a big help. It definitely was a combination of both."

Montgomery gave an example of the aforementioned old-fashioned publicity in action.

"I've been out and about all over town and around the area the last three weekends, as has everyone else (organizing Vacant Era). Every bar and every club that we went to: Flyers. Hanging up posters all over town. Everywhere."

Montgomery outlined the different admission charges to the festival, contingent upon what entertainment festivalgoers seek -- and how much of it.

"Per day, it is 15 dollars for a ticket for the entire day and night. That allows you to go to every music performance that night at Coach's as well.

"Just going to see the bands playing at Coach's one night -- that's $5. Some people may opt for just that because of when they are off from work, school or whatever. But if someone has purchased a movie ticket for the festival that day, they get in free; the music's included in the ticket price."