SEQUIM –– It’s time again for the celebration of pageantry and art that is the Elkies, Sequim Education Foundation’s eighth annual student film festival.
The foundation will roll out its red carpet at the Sequim High School auditorium, 601 N. Sequim Ave., at 7 p.m. Friday to celebrate the celluloid creations of students from grades 6-12.
During the evening, scholarships will be awarded along with other prizes.
Admission to the festival of original films will be $5.
A fundraising spaghetti dinner at 5 p.m. will precede the film showing. Tickets for the dinner are $8 for adults, $5 for children, with preschoolers eating free.
Six films
On the marquee will be six student films, none more than six minutes long.
“These kids put so much work into these projects and really produce some wonderful films,” said Elna Kawal, foundation director for the film festival and a former School Board member.
“These teams will spend hours on the sound alone,” she said.
Sound was a primary concern for senior Torrie McIntyre and brother and sister, Tristan and Tenille Tosland, who explored Sequim’s generation gap in their film, “T3 News Report.”
“We had some sound issues last year,” said Torrie, who won second place last year for her film that looked at a decline in the area’s agriculture industry.
So that was a special focus for this year’s production as the trio checked and double-checked microphones while conducting interviews for the film, which interviewed members of both the city’s senior set and its teen troop.
Even more time was spent in the editing booth, where Tenille, a sophomore, said they spent hours getting the right balance of criticism and appreciation.
“Some people have very strong opinions,” she said. “Some are maybe too strong.”
Tristan, a senior, noted the 2010 census found 40 percent of the city’s population is older than 65.
Said Torrie: “We just wanted to show how the elderly think of the youth and how the young view the elderly.”
Other entries are:
■ “Biomimicry” — Seniors Ian Jones and Derek Chamblin explore solutions to the energy crisis.
■ “Bad Breath and Beyond” — Blake Wiker, sixth grade, and senior Brendon Hudson collaborate on an advertisement for one product that no one can be without, described as “out of this world.”
■ “Murcielago” — Junior Angela Bentley documents the research of bats done at the Smithsonian Tropical Institute on the Isthmus of Panama.
■ “The Quest” — Sixth-grader Damon Little, fifth-grader Kaylee Dunlap and first-grader Garrett Little create a short movie trailer for an upcoming feature film
■ “Paint the Town” — This film “features the work of Luke Kisena and his plot to paint the town of Sequim.” It is created by sophomores Kyle Lee Gordeuk and Stephen Silliman, junior Josh Finch, eighth-grader Daniel Call and seventh-grader Luke Silliman.
Film festival winners will be awarded up to a total of $6,750 in scholarship funds, plus cash and merchandise prizes.
Scholarship prizes will be divided equally among members of winning video production teams.
Scholarship prizes
The maximum amount of scholarship prizes for first place is $3,000, with no team member receiving more than $1,000; for second place is $2,250, with no one getting more than $750; and for third place, $1,500, with no team member receiving more than $500.
Trophies will be given for best actor and actress, and the “people’s choice” Elkie Award will go to the winning video chosen by the audience.
Videos are judged on the basis of content, presentation and production techniques.
Judges are Colby Thomas, Shelley Taylor, Elaine Caldwell, Marine Jahan Hirschfeld, Akasha Atherton, David Herberg, John Manno, Bruce Hattendorf, Sherry Niermann and Renne Emiko Brock-Richmond.
A pre-film festival workshop in February gave students the jump on movie-making, teaching them legal and professional guidelines, especially about copyright rules and music, Kawal said.
Students Ben Heintz, Danny Willis and Dylan Chatters will serve as masters of ceremonies.
All proceeds go into the foundation’s scholarship fund.
For more information, visit the foundation’s website at www.sequimeducationfoundation.org.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Joe Smillie can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or at jsmillie@peninsuladailynews.com.
