Action, comedy, romance, music videos and drama are the genres that will be featured at the IB film Festival next Friday June 10 at 6 p.m. in the auditorium.
Students in both the first year and the second year of IB Film will be submitting at least one film for the festival as their final assessment of the year. Their 5-10 minute films will be judged based on sound quality, cinematography, script and editing for both a final grade and the chance to win a prize at the festival.
“There’s a lot of competition between the juniors and seniors this year,” IB Film student junior Jerusalem Mekonnen said.
Although there is a difference of a whole year of experience between the students taking IB Film 1 and IB Film 2, both groups will be judged equally at the festival, which puts the seniors at an advantage.
“[The seniors] are second year students, they know more about films and the techniques,” Mekonnen said. “They have a lot better skill since they’re a whole year ahead of us.”
However, a junior still has a fair chance of winning the grand prize if their film really delivers. Senior Rackel Jurdi won at last year’s festival as a junior. This year, she’s “working on a music video for my original songs that I’ve recorded,” Jurdi said. “Hopefully we win the Best Music Video prize.”
Making a film is not as easy as it can seem to be. It takes “imagination, creativity, passion and a good soul,” senior IB Film student Brian Coffman said. It also requires “a lot of organization, scheduling and of course a camera.”
The students had the option to work alone or with a group of up to four students, however “choosing your group is a challenge,” Mekonnen said. “Sometimes everyone can’t work it out for some reason.”
Most students seemed confident about their film ideas, but expressed concern when it came to bringing that idea to the screen.
“The idea is good; but as for the execution, we probably could have put more effort,” Coffman said.
Some of the challenges the students faced were time management and finding a way to shoot some of their scenes.
“It was difficult to find a location and we had to do a lot of risky things,” Jurdi said. “I had to actually climb on one of the rocks of a waterfall, which wasn’t even legal.” The students also had to be cautious not to include things that were against the guidelines, such as showing blood or direct violence.
Last year, the festival was a hit. “Aside from the technical difficulties, I thought it was a fun time,” Coffman said. “There are food and drinks, and some pretty good films.”
Tickets for the festival are $5 and will be sold at the door.
