Festival Director Bobby Styles, the Video Production teacher for Monache High School’s Multimedia & Technology Academy, welcomed everyone to the 2nd annual l Porterville Film Festival on Friday at the Galaxy Theatre.
Styles explained the pathway, also known as MTA, is designed to give students the real-world experience of working in the industry of Arts, Media, & Entertainment.
“We are excited to have everyone here with us this evening, and we’re looking forward to showing some of the incredible work made by students all over the San Joaquin Valley,” Styles said. “I’d like to start by thanking a few important people. This festival would not be possible without all of their support and assistance.”
Advisors from 13 high schools and middle schools from throughout the Valley, representing Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, and Tulare counties assisted students.
The Festival Jury Team consists of 12 influential and knowledgeable educational, technology, and community members, who volunteered their time to watch and score the videos, and more importantly offer positive feedback and constructive criticism for each video.
After the festival the jury comments were shared with the filmmakers to help the students reflect on their work and improve their skills.
Styles thanked all the many sponsors from MTA students, local service clubs and businesses, Galaxy Theatre Manager Belia Sierra, Pathways staff and all the parents and students.
Styles explained students were given a prompt and given two weeks to complete their videos. The limited amount of time gives them the experience of real-world situations in the film industry. More than 150 teams submitted videos and the top-scoring ones were featured.
The audience watched 10 of the highest-scoring videos, as scored by our Festival Jury Team. And the Awards were given out later in the evening.
The original prompt for the videos required the students to film their entire video in one room using one light source at a time, and the story had to feature one character keeping a secret from another character. After all the videos were watched the audience voted on the winner.
While Styles and his assistants counted the votes Roger Perez and Diran Lyons from Porterville College spoke about their new video production program and showed some of the work made by their students this year. Lyons said the program would help train and promote film making at PC, as well as teach commercial layout and design. Perez is on the board for MTA, and he said they want to build their program to work with the MHS pathways program to promote practical work that can be applied in sought after careers.
The winners:
Audience Award Winner Videos:
3rd Place: College 1: Error Code 4 - Ethan Willett, Erik Tyler
2nd Place: College 2: PC - Eating Something You Don't Like - Abby Stephens, Christian Rivera, Andres Gonzalez, Steven Galindo
1st Place: Career & Technical Education Center (CTEC )- The Unexpected Guest - Ameerah Chatman, Hadleigh Wilson, Ruben Chavez, Paradiz Gurule
Best Advertisement Videos:
3rd Place: Monache High School - Esperanza Chavez Tapia, Isabel Castro Ramos, & Jonathan Lua for “Porterville Library”
2nd Place: Redwood High School - Darius Coley, Klaryassa Munoz-Gonzalez, Henry Maslanka, Nicholas Amstutz for “Taylor Hot Dogs”
1st Place: CTEC - Leonardo Gallardo - “McFarland Tent & Awning”
Public Service Announcements Videos:
3rd Place: Redwood High School - William Youngquist, Nikko Gutierrez, Micah Stipech for “Domestic Violence”
2nd Place: Redwood High School - Hannah Johnson, Brookly Amstutz, William Youngquist, Micah Stipech for “Vaping”
1st Place: Redwood High School - Jacob Perch, Jacob Shin, Jayden Licon, William Youngquist for “Call or Text 988”
Narrative Competition - Middle School Division
3rd Place: Alta Sierra Intermediate - Ryan Lev, Jayce Traeger, Justin Downer for “Terminal”
2nd Place: Pioneer Middle School - Nathanael Rice, George Ceballos, Jesus Palomares in “The Missing Chip”
Ist Place: Alta Sierra Intermediate - Zachary Huber in “The Zach”
Narrative Competition - College and High School Division
3rd Place: Exeter High School - Chloe Hyder, Emma Howell, Lily Lorenzi, Jake Muth in “The Loft”
2nd Place: CTEC - Shelby Wood in “Partners in Crime
1st Place: Redwood High School: Ian Cook, Tyler Patterson, William Youngquist, Micah Stipech for “The Maestro”
“This has been a great celebration of student creativity and passion,” Styles said. “We hope you had a good experience, and hopefully you can join us again next year for this annual film festival.”