Dozens of films and music videos showing the minds and creativity of teens are going to be on display this week.
At a film festival on Wednesday, you can see music videos of teenage girls acting like famous pop artists and will see a short movie about a teen who sees the future. Also on the lineup are horror movies, documentaries and other films.
The annual Teen Film Fest is at the Greenwood Public Library at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. Teens who are interested in film making have spent months working on their entries, with the winner earning $400.
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The film festival started nine years ago as a way for the library to encourage teens who were interested in film making to pursue that passion and to teach them about the technology needed to make films, event coordinator Emily Ellis said.
“I thought it would be fun to highlight what (teens) are doing in the community,” she said.
Teens usually turn in 15 to 20 total entries for the annual festival and most teens work on more than one entry, Ellis said.
A panel of judges will watch the videos and decide who gets the coveted first prize. All of the entries will be uploaded on the video sharing website YouTube after the festival.
Part of the draw of the festival is to allow the teens to see that their weekend hobbies of making films is important to the community. And the teens can make connections through the festival, Ellis said.
“I want them to realize that people in the community appreciate what they are doing,” she said. “I want them to know that there are people in the community who are rooting for them.”
Work that can be as short as a music video and as long as a feature length film can take the teens months of work and talent with technology to produce. Some teens tweak school projects to enter into the festival, Ellis said.
Joni Brummett, a junior at Greenwood Community High School, has spent weeks working on the two music videos and short films that she is submitting.
Multiple people might come up with an idea for a film or music video. The idea is tweaked and then the film maker must cast and film the scenes, she said.
Work on a film might actually start before an idea. Brummett is continuously scouting spots that would make good visual filming place for her films before she has a concrete idea of what the film would be, she said.
Then filmmakers hit the editing room where they spend hours splicing and piecing together their footage to make their vision perfect, Brummett said.
Brummett became interested in film making after she took a journalism class. She was drawn to telling stories through film, since that genre encompasses sight, sound and dialogue to tell a story.
And she hopes she will be able to use the experience in the festival for an eventual career in the field.
“I knew this was something I could do for a very long time and not get bored,” Brummett said.
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What: Teen Film Festival
When: 6:30 p.m. Wednesday
Where: Greenwood Public Library, 310 S. Meridian St.
Cost: Free
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