Our ultimate goal for this film was to make people laugh. We wanted something not too serious and that could just brighten someone’s day. Everyone deserves a good laugh and watching Aliens try to fit into the wacky world of highschoolers seemed like one way to achieve that.

Opportunities like Film Prize Junior are outlets for kids to find what they are passionate about and be able to explore it in a slightly more professional setting. Kids that have opportunities to explore things that are interesting to them will often learn what they like about the industry and if they could see themselves pursuing it further. Allowing students to participate in these opportunities helps them grow not only in their studies but also in how they pursue their career goals.

Our team’s favorite scene to film was the lab scene. We stayed after school one afternoon with our chemistry teacher, Janell Coffman, and had so much fun setting up a lab that we had done early this school year. We might have taken the saying ‘work hard, play hard’ a little far but, replacing certain solutions with cranberry juice and getting to act like you’re drinking them was so much fun.

Some of the obstacles we faced during filming included conflicting schedules and proper lighting. Our team is involved in a lot of different clubs and activities, so planning our shooting schedule was tough. We found ways to work around this and had to plan according to who was available to film at certain times. Our next biggest challenge was lighting, we weren’t working with professional equipment and we had some scenes that needed to be shot in a low lit space. We combatted this using some techniques we learned in class such as using reflectors to create an even reflection of light onto our lead actor.

While making this short film we did not only learn many filmmaking techniques, but also how to work better as a team. We needed to learn to rely on each other and trust certain people to take charge. By allowing people to lead the areas of filming they were most confident in, we avoided many disagreements that could have slowed or halted our progress. After delegating our skills we were able to create filming schedules that clearly stated who and what was being filmed, allowing us to be very efficient while filming.

I’d encourage future participants to have confidence in themselves. This should be a fun and enjoyable process, and while we are being judged in the end, you should be the one that loves the film the most. Your ideas are as good as you make them. Even if your worried someone may not understand or find that idea funny, clever, or exciting, don’t let it stop you from making something that you are proud of.