Deadline garners first place award at Film Festival

By Kassi Rios

Staff Writer

The first annual Film Festival at Indian Trail High School and Academy gave its top award to the film, Deadline, by Simon Cassar, a Communications Academy sophomore, on May 20.

The short film was about a teen-age boy who is on deadline to write a speech for his father, a town’s mayor. The film explores his procrastination and then anxiety that builds as he approaches the deadline.

Anna Hess, the director of the film festival and Multimedia II instructor, said she thinks the film was a winner because of how well it was edited and filmed. It felt very full and complete, she said.

The student-created films competed in various categories including shorts, black-and-white, and stop motion. Judges ranked films based on the creative use of sounds and the filmmakers showcasing of software and filming techniques.

With this new event came hard work in order to pick the best videos from a field of more than 20 entries. Only a chosen few were selected to the semi-finals. Seven of the finalists aired at the festival which spanned two hours and took place at Mahone Middle School auditorium.

In addition to Cassar’s winning entry, Julie Pike’s video Conspiracies took second place. Pike, a Communications Academy junior, created a documentary capturing conspiracy theories held by Indian Trail students. Third place went to a team of filmmakers including Jarrod Langouinski, Alex Batholy, Brendan Powell, Rick Hanson, and Sam Rodriguez for their fight film Epic Clash.

Hess had her Multimedia II class working to get everything set up properly. She created the event as a fundraiser for the multimedia classes. Not only is it multimedia students who can submit videos, but anyone from either comprehensive and academy may have their video submitted and played.

“It’s not only multimedia students, but now we get to see what everyone else enjoys,” said Hess.

Picking the videos that advanced into the next round was difficult. She, as well as the students, had to see the creativity used, how well creators edited their video, and if the plot flowed throughout the whole video.

Pike, also a Multimedia II student, says she enjoyed watching all the video entries and that it was nice to see others creativity.

“I’m excited to see other’s creativeness,” said Pike.