SV film classes host 12th annual film festival

Film Fest

On June 2, the College in High School (CHS) Narrative Film class hosted the 12th annual SV Film Fest at the Strand Theater in Zelienople. The film fest marked the culmination of months of work learning the basics of single-camera narrative film production, generating original ideas, writing multiple drafts of scripts, engaging in pre-production and design, shooting and editing their finished products. The process of making a professional short film required extensive collaboration, planning and organizing, mastery of difficult equipment, and unparalleled time management—making this project unlike anything else offered at the high school level.

Recent SV graduate Ben Stanton, director of photography on the film “Everything Around Us,” had this to say about the process: “Making a film is a lot more challenging than you’d think. There are so many things that can go wrong and will go wrong. You have to adapt quickly and work with what you are given. Regardless of the many struggles, at the end of the day it feels amazing to get that great shot or finish the scene.”

The four films from this class — “Trip,” “Pardon the Silence,” “Three Strangers,” and the aforementioned “Everything Around Us,” premiered along with other short films and fun animated videos from multiple classes this year at the Strand Theater.