by Morgan Davies
 

L-S’s Seventh Annual Student Film Festival was held the evening of May 28, 2008. Spearheaded by media arts instructors Paul Sarapas and Ken Kimura, the event is made up of films written and created by students taking classes in beginning or advanced video production. This year eleven films were chosen to play at the Festival.
The time filmmaking takes is significant; in order to complete a film of even two minutes and fifteen seconds, the length of the shortest selection, students must draft story ideas, make storyboards or shot lists, film scenes, and carefully edit their footage into a coherent narrative. Editing is easily the most time-consuming step in the process. Students often take the majority of the semester carefully cutting clips and putting them in sequence using powerful digital editing technology.
Their months of hard work paid off when their films were shown in the auditorium. As Mr. Kimura said, no matter how many times someone has watched his movie, seeing it projected on the big screen is always exciting. The selected films ranged in ability from beginner to expert and were made by freshman, sophomores, juniors, and seniors. The selections also varied in theme: although the majority of the films could be categorized as comedies, there were also examples of drama and experimental films.
Although there were many remarkable films shown, highlights included the following: “Rejected,” made by Kathryn Andrews, Kelli Ciampa, Sara Edwards, Nisha Sharma, and Patrick Wilver, which depicted a senior getting what she thought was bad news from the college of her choice.
Unsurprisingly, the comedic film resonated with many students in the audience, particularly the members of the senior class. “Psycho Driller,” made by Jeff Bradford, Connor Bodell, and Peter Rogers, the longest film in the festival at fifteen minutes and fifteen seconds, is the story of a student whose egg baby for Psychology is taken hostage in return for Math homework. The puppet delivering the ransom message got the biggest laughs of the evening. Lastly, the film “Look,” created by Dan Schwartz of the L-S class of ‘07, in his last semester of high school, featured a man coming out of a book, and can only be described as charming.
 Some awards and honorable mentions were given out by four qualified judges, including Peter Kahn ‘02 and Ali Mandelkorn ‘06. Awards were given to films in each level of experience based on technical skill and creativity. Proceeds of the show went to the L-S Film Society.