From March 13 till March 18, a group of students from the MVHS film class went all the way to Long Beach, California to compete in the STN Conference. Student Television Network National Competition, also known as STN, is a competition open to students around the nation.
The 12 students first participated in around 3 categories. They competed in various categories, one of which was called Silent Film (in which barely any noise is made during the whole film.) The students competing in this category were: Marley Waterman, Euro Quiroz, Ty Deegan, Destiny Bravo, Kayla Williams, and Hyrum Dutson. The comedy group consisted of Norman Nelson, Leia Palmer, Cater Burgi, and Benjamin Hall. The students also competed in a music video category consisting of Aiden Ashton, Dutson, Sierra Jakeman, and Desteny Bravo. The comedy film and silent film came home with first and second place respectively.
When interviewing the video production teacher, Joshua Hall, he talked about the trip and how proud he was of his students. “…I’m really proud of our students,” Hall said. “They worked incredibly hard preparing for this competition and I think all that hard really paid off when we got there because the students were prepared with gear, story ideas, cinematography that they wanted to do, and actors. They put in a lot of hard work to really be ready to give it their all. All 4 of the videos we created were incredible.”
It’s clear that filmmaking isn’t an easy task, especially with a time frame of only a few hours to plan, film, and edit. It cannot be an easy task and yet the students that competed were able to place in the final scoring and not just that but win first and second place.
It’s clear that the teacher holds his students in high regard and is very proud of their work and their achievements. Even if they hadn’t won, he would’ve still been very proud. “I believed that they could do that,” Hall said. “It was fun watching everyone work together and I think once we got a few hours into filming and I was seeing what the students were putting together, I felt very confident that at the very least they would be proud of what they created. If not, also taking home first or second place.”
Having your students win not one but two categories when competing at a national level is something to boast about. Hall had shown the trophies to all of his classes after returning which clearly showed how proud he was of his students. “When my students won first place I felt like a proud papa,” Hall siad. “I was just so happy for them. They put so much work into this. Here at Mountain View High school we have incredible talent in storytelling, filmmaking. Our high school students have unique perspectives and ideas. They are inspired creatively and it was incredible to see them recognized for that at a national level and become national champions in short film. Essentially meaning that Mountain View High School students are the best short film story tellers in the country right now, in terms of high school students.”
In an interview with one of the students competing, Nelson said it was pretty fun. When asked how he felt when the groups won their respective place, he explained how surprised he felt. “ …I didn’t know how to feel about it because it was out of the blue,” Nelson said. “We all were expecting to lose and then all of the sudden we won. It was surreal. It was really cool.”
After the competitions were over, they went to Universal Studios Hollywood to have some fun. They went to rides, shops, and explored the whole park, enjoying being able to de-stressing after all their hard work.
The film students brought back 2 medals, and in the wise words from Nelson, “Filming fun.”
