NHS Film Festival Hopefuls Prepare Entries

With the submission deadline for the second annual Niwot Student Film Festival rapidly approaching, NHS teacher Jim Asmus is helping his digital film editing students prepare their entries.

All students in Asmus’ year-long video class are assigned to create a film that meets the festival’s requirements. Though submission to the festival is optional, Asmus encourages all students to enter. “The biggest reason for students to participate is to experience the audience watching their film, and to see their reaction in real time,” Asmus said.

Aamuro Kanda, one of Asmus’ film festival veterans, looks forward to watching the reaction of the live audience. “You work so hard on [your film] and not a lot of people get to see it,” explained Kanda, who has been making films and posting them online for several years. “When it’s a whole audience watching and reacting to your video, it’s pretty mind boggling.”

In 2015, Kanda was the youngest filmmaker selected for the Niwot festival, and received the YOUTUBE PLAY BUTTON award for the film most likely to go viral. Despite his film experience, “I haven’t had any really good classes,” Kanda said when explaining why he chose to study with Asmus. When asked what he learned in class that helped him prepare his submissions for this year, Kanda’s reply included film terms, like the different types of camera shots, and how to create a storyboard.

Like Kanda, junior Meade Halsey-Mendez looks forward to screening her work in front of a live audience. “People give honest feedback online, but it’s revised,” she explained. “At the festival you see the authentic reactions on their faces.”

This live reaction is especially important for Halsey-Mendez who considers her work more high-concept and experimental. “I like storytelling, but I don’t like walking the audience through step by step,” she said. “It’s easier for me to represent things visually than with words.”

Halsey-Mendez credits Asmus’ class with giving her the knowledge and experience she needs to prepare her festival entry. She took his class both as a freshman and again this year. “The space is a good environment to get a lot of creative feedback,” Halsey-Mendez said.

Sophomore Giselle Palomares looks forward to showing her film, because she hopes to convey a message. “I feel like a lot of people don’t cherish their friendships with other people,” Palomares said, explaining the concept behind her film.

Palomares said the most important lesson she’s learned from Asmus’ class is not to procrastinate. “Never leave filming to the end,” she said. “What if something goes wrong?” Fortunately, her project, a drama about friendship in which she plays the lead role, should be ready for the Feb. 12 submission deadline.

After all submissions are received, a selection committee will review all the entries in each of the six categories: action, animation, comedy, documentary, drama and experimental. Around 30 of the best films will be selected to be shown at the festival on March 12 at Niwot High.

Asmus encourages community members, even those without high school students, to attend one of the three screenings, and vote for their favorite films. “It’s good to see the talent that’s out there and to see what young filmmakers have in mind,” Asmus said.

The Niwot Student Film Festival is open to middle and high school students in the St. Vrain Valley and Boulder Valley school districts. For information on the festival or to submit a film, visit NiwotStudentFilmFest.com.