April 14 marked the 8th Annual Focus Film Festival’s ceremony, sponsored by Room 125 Production.
More than 80 films were submitted by high school students from all over northeast Kansas, and students from Room 125 won multiple awards for their works.
Seniors Eddie Loupe, Joe Ryan, Liam Reynolds and Mitchell Eifler won best science fiction for “An Interview.” Loupe, Ryan and Eifler also won best experimental film for “Pizza is for lovers.” Senior Keyty Ashcraft won best drama for her film, “Autorretrato: Self Portrait,” and senior Savannah Jones won fan favorite for “Wednesday.”
Joe Ryan
What is the Focus Film Festival?
“It is a film festival put on by LHS students. We are responsible for getting sponsors, raising money, organizing it and getting submissions.”
How did you get into film?
“It started for me at a young age. I took my first film class in seventh grade and fell in love with it. As a kid I used to make videos with my sister, and once I found out it was a career. I went with it.”
What are the qualifications?
“You have to be in high school and taking a film class.”
What was your film category? What was the plot of your film?
“The first film we submitted was called ‘Pizza For Lovers.’ It was submitted as a drama but moved to an experimental film because of the unique story telling and use of text on the screen to convey the messages. It is about the first 30 seconds of a break up, and we slowed it down and it moved to about five minutes long. It is very interesting. The second one was submitted as a science fiction. It was the only submission in science fiction. But unlike horror and action which had plenty of submissions (the judges thought that none of them was a clear winner and got rid of those categories), they kept science fiction, even though it was only one submission. They thought it was very strong and would have won anyway. It is called ‘An Interview.’ It’s about a guy going into the woods and pressing a button that allows you to see the future but not very clearly. All he got was images of him working himself to death pretty much, and so that was his fate. It gives an underlying theme of high schoolers worrying about the future and what will bring from that.”
What did you win?
“The science fiction film won science fiction and the experimental film won experimental.”
What did winning mean to you?
“ It meant a lot. It showed that we put a lot of work into it. The judges had awesome things to say. Pizza was compared to Jean-Luc Godard, which has been an impact on Film 3 [class]. The only movies we have seen are Godard’s films. His way of storytelling really influenced us in both ‘An Interview’ and ‘Pizza is for Lovers.’ Winning just shows that all of our hard work paid off in the end. The director of ‘Winter’s Bone’ got to see it, and she wrote a paragraph long description of how awesome our film was. That meant a lot, just to hear someone in the industry complimenting us.”
Eddie Loupe
What is the Focus Film Festival?
“A film festival for high school students in Kansas, which is managed by Room 125 Productions of Lawrence High School.”
How did you get into film?
“I had a friend who was making movies in junior high, Joe Ryan, and I took an electronic media class because I thought it looked cool. Then I just kept making movies.”
What are the qualifications for the festival?
“Be a high school student with a movie you made.”
What was your film category? What was the plot of your film?
“One in science fiction/fantasy called ‘An Interview,’ about a young man who experiences a very strange interview. The second in experimental called ‘Pizza is for Lovers’ about a young man being dumped in a pizza place and the thoughts that run through his head as this happens.”
What did you win?
“Best science fiction/fantasy and best experimental.”
What did winning mean to you?
“It meant people were able to relate to the characters in my films and have an emotional response to my stories. And that’s the goal of filmmaking itself, so it’s really nice when it happens.”
