Adams City High School students had the opportunity to make their filmmaking and acting debut at the school’s SeriesFest Screening on Feb. 4 in front of friends, family and community members.
Adams City High School partnered with the nonprofit storytelling organization SeriesFest to help students learn how to produce films by using cameras, audio equipment and editing software. The partnership, which started in a Freshmen Foundations class, has now moved on to the high school’s digital media class and next year will be available to juniors.
The first film presented was “The Basement Secret,” an action-packed mystery short that follows two friends investigating an abandoned hospital where people have been reported missing.
While the finished product may have been packed with epic scenes of stunts and fake fighting, film editor Braydin Wolff faced a major problem of footage getting lost during the editing process. However, it was not the only challenge he faced.
“I learned that Premiere Pro sucks at keeping your work,” said Wolff during a Q&A segment after the screenings. “We had to restart, like, four times.”
The second short film was an action comedy featuring an epic stunt scene by Kevin Sierra Diaz in “Election Rivals.” That story, which was not fully completed, follows two friends running for class president. Digital media class teacher Dr. Paul Cama emphasized that the students worked very hard on it and deserved to have their work honored.
The horror short film “Lights Out,” which featured a crazy plot twist at the end, was also not completed but it showed great special effects of lightning shooting out of a classroom’s fluorescent lights. The film’s scene-stealing special effects was a great example of the students’ mastery of editing software.
“The Love Triangle” follows the story of three high school students who find themselves caught in a day-long high school romance with an interesting twist. When asked what movies or TV shows influenced the film, Leianna Demos cited various high school series.
“We wanted to do a student’s life, like how it is in high school,” Demos said. “Then people added romance and it was like ‘Oh! We have to hold hands with each other.’ ”
Last but not least, “Who’s There?” falls into the same category of “The Love Triangle,” but takes a darker and more mysterious tone. Actor Xochitl Franco Rascon said that their film was inspired by the Netflix series, “Stranger Things.”
The group of students who worked on “Who’s There?” originally were part of “The Basement Secret” film crew, but then switched over to do their own take on the same plot.
“After all, it was just fun and we enjoyed it,” said Danna Chavez, actor and editor of the film. “One of my favorite moments was while I was editing because we got to see all the bloopers, and we all laughed as a class. It’s a nice memory to keep.”
Adams City High School students’ films not only show the plots of life that intrigue high school students and provide a peek into Adams City culture, but they also showed how much fun one can have while collaborating on a creative project with classmates.
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