Out of all the emails that flooded sophomore Max Howard’s inbox, only one instantly caught his attention: an email from SM East administrators asking for his signature to submit his short film to the University of Central Missouri Film Festival.
Students taking Spanish 4 and 6 were required to make groups and create a short film in Spanish. Afterwards, students will vote and nominate three films to submit and present at the UCM Film Festival in Warrensburg, Missouri, on April 16.
According to Spanish teacher Leigh Rysko, the film has to be five to 10 minutes and convey a message that provokes thought, empathy or awareness. The dialogue also needs to be in Spanish, with English subtitles.
Howard and sophomores Kendan Kaplowitz, Eli Cima, Thomas Sweeney and Eric Smith were members of one of the three out of twelve groups voted on to submit to the film festival.
The film is called “Tres Dias,” or “Three Days.” It’s about emotions, people’s reactions to situations and the importance of balancing positive and negative attitudes.
“Everyone has feelings, and everyone can relate to our message, because everyone has good and bad days,” Cima said. “I feel like there’s something that every single person in this school can take away from our message.”
The group spent five hours filming with each other and their friends, who acted as extras, and a total of 20 hours editing their movie.
“I think we put a lot of effort into it and we have a bunch of great actors,” Howard said.
Although there were setbacks in the production process, such as Howard getting sick and communication difficulties between group members, the team was still very pleased with their work.
“I thought we just made a really fun movie, and it was just so fun to do that,” Howard said. “I had such a great time making it, and all the members of the cast were amazing. It turned out exactly how I had it in mind.”
Another winning group in Rysko’s class were sophomores Mia Wimer, Isabel Wisdom, Alexandria Fraley and Miles Broce.
Their short film, titled “Después de Conocerte,” or “After Meeting You,” is a short romance movie that follows a love triangle.
According to Wimer, the story’s main theme is that underneath all your drama, the right person will let you be yourself.
Each team member wrote an individual scene, and the group edited them later to create one cohesive story.
The group spent hours shooting scenes across the city, from the Country Club Plaza to Starbucks.
Fraley was in charge of editing, spending 48 hours in total on the project.
Throughout the hours spent working on the film, the group grew closer as friends. Before this project, they had never been a friend group, according to Fraley.
Now, they have a group chat, and have spent time together when not working on the short film, even getting dinner once.
“It’s the school project that’s felt least like doing school for me,” Fraley said.
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