Update: On October 27th, LHS students won several awards. The Judges Choice award went to Mia Robinson, Carter Knox, Joshua Sanchez, Walter Walker, and Finn Strong for their film “Happy Birthday Todd”. Best Editing was awarded to “Way of The Ninja”, which was directed by Cora Kelsey, Joe Braun, Charlie Nigro, Jacob Lehrman, Winona Ayon, and Dylan Ishmael. All videos can be found on Room 125 Productions YouTube channel.

LHS is preparing to compete in the 24 hour film fest, held annually in Kansas. It will be held at Lawrence High School this Friday and Saturday, the 26th and 27th of October.

“The 24 Hour Film Fest is a competition for high schools across Kansas. Teams of 6 students have 24 hours to write, film and edit a short film based on a shared prompt,” said LHS film teacher Zach Saltz. “The films are screened and judges award winners in the categories of Best Audio, Cinematography, Screenplay, Editing, and Picture.”

Film classes have been participating in the festival for a while.

“LHS has participated in the 24 Hour Film Festival for many years, since before I was hired two years ago,” Saltz said. “I don’t know exactly how many years. The competition started in 2008.”

Film classes are really excited to start the competition.

“LHS film classes are very much looking forward to participating. It’s a fun event where we can use the skills we learn in my classes and actually put them into action,” he said. “Win or lose, it’s a great event to show off the awesome talent of Lawrence High School students and students across Kansas.”

Saltz says the film festival is a really unique event for his students to participate in.

“It’s a great experience for my students. Not only are they forced to be creative and versatile in their approaches to the prompts, but they have to work in teams and collaborate,” he said. “It is a challenge, but a fun one. Great for team building.”

Film students need to contribute skills they’ve learned to help make their film the best it can be.

“The entries that win awards are always the ones with the clearest and most compelling stories, complemented by aesthetic polish and attention to detail,” said Saltz.

Film student Luke Gottschamer is looking forward to the festival.

“It’s fun to just, be up, and stay up really late, and be with people you enjoy being with, making videos,” Gottschamer said.

Film classes have been preparing for the festival, although there is not much they can do as of yet.

“We’ve been figuring out groups, and getting situated with that. I mean, we can’t really do a lot because they give us the prompt an hour before the competition starts, so we can’t really do any pre-planning before the actual event starts,” Gottschamer said.

Gottschamer thinks the film festival is a welcome challenge for the film students.  

“It is pretty challenging, because it takes a lot of effort to get the idea when they give it to us at the time, and figure out how we’re going to make a video that applies to that theme, and then get it shot, and also edit it, and all in 24 hours,” he said. “It’s also after a school day and we’ve already been at school all day, and then we have to stay up pretty much all night to make it, and we have to get it in by 3 o’clock the next day.”

Even with those challenges in mind, Gottschamer believes it’s a great experience for film classes to have.

“I do think it’s a good experience,” he said. “It helps people get more accustomed to doing deadline work, but also being out in the real world, going to different locations, and shooting video and editing it.”