“If apple made cars, would they have windows?” This question was asked in the film Alone, by Hosea Mundi of Hammond High School at the Howard County Student Film Festival. This film and others like it were shown, celebrated, and awarded in the Miller Library for the Festival and awards ceremony on March 9.
The festival was a celebration of student creativity, where students realized they could make something unique.
“If you’re thinking about making a film, just do it,” said Carolin Harvey, who made the 3rd Place Film The Doppelganger. “If you make something and you’re unsure about it, submit it anyways, because I was really unsure about this, and I submitted it, and I’m really glad I did now,” she said.
The Film Fest was started in 2004 by Yuri Stone and Rebecca Zia of River Hill High School for their GT Research Project, according to Ms. McKenna, a Media Specialist and Television teacher at Reservoir Hill High School. The event “facilitate[s] the opportunity for students to showcase their skills as filmmakers,” said Ms. McKenna. The Howard County Film Festival also collaborated with HC Drug Free, some students making their film a Public Service Announcement about how drug use breaks ties with family and friends.
The films were shown in the Miller Library’s film room which has two huge projector screens for attendees to look at, depending on where they sat in the room. The Festival started by showing a short clip of each film. Next, finalist films was shown in full, and the medal winners were announced. Atholton students Nathan Moody, Paul Ciccone, Justin Simons, and Kevin Scanlon submitted the film Prom Date Part 2.
“Not enough people signed up for [television class] this year,” said Moody, the film’s Editor. To solve this problem the filmmakers started Atholton Film and Production Club, and they created Prom Date Part 2 through the club to submit to the festival.
“Lights! Camera! Create!” advertises the Film Fest’s website. While this may seem a little ambitious, being a filmmaker is within reach for all of us. “If you have an idea, write it down,” said Garrett Collins, “because then you’ll come back to it when your bored and you’ll just build on it, and eventually you’ll find something that you’re in love with.”
Collins was the Director, Editor, one of the writers, and one of the actors of the Judges Choice winner Echos, which was about a “smart house robbery,” said Matthew Maddock, Co-Director, Actor, and VFX Artist of Echos. “The idea came into our head that we wanted to do something using the [Amazon] Echo as a plot device, but at that point it was too late to actually develop a good idea for the winter broadcast, so we ended up submitting our music video, Don’t Drool in School, and then we later did this one for the film festival,” he said.
The next Howard County Film Festival is on March 26th, 2019. You could be the next to join the ranks of the winning filmmakers, tell your story, and watch it unfold on the big screen.