On March 21, families, teachers, students and friends gathered to celebrate the 5th Annual DeKalb County Student Film Festival.
The festival, which featured 19 films from high schoolers across the county, took place at The Plaza Theatre. According to Thomas McFerrin, the coordinator for the DeKalb County School District’s Career, Technical, and Agricultural Education (CTAE) program, it was the first time the district had been able to hold the festival in person for two years.
“It is so good to be back,” McFerrin said as he introduced the slate of films at the Plaza. “The students, for the past two years, have been doing virtual film festivals. Of course, it’s just not the same.”
The film festival comes through a partnership between the DeKalb County School District and the DeKalb Entertainment Commission (DEC), which is a division of Decide DeKalb Development Authority.
“There is no question of the impact and success that filming, and television production is having on the state of Georgia’s economy and workforce,” Dorian DeBarr, president of Decide DeKalb Development Authority, said in a statement. “DeKalb Entertainment Commission, is actively identifying ways to ensure our youngest residents have access to meaningful career paths within the entertainment industry.”
The 19 films spanned the genres of comedy, drama, horror, and more. One of the films came from Symone Neal, a senior at DeKalb High School of Technology South. Neal’s film was called “Bloody Reflection,” and takes place in a dystopian society where nobody can look in mirrors for fear their reflection will kill them.
Neal, who worked on the film with classmate Jaylen Miller, said she was inspired by the 2018 horror film “Bird Box,” which features a monster that kills people simply by looking at them. It took her quite a bit of time to come up with the finished product.
“Coming up with the story took me like a day or two. But actually going through the pre-production process took three weeks,” Neal said. “The post-production process didn’t take too long. I was able to edit in two to three days”
Neal said her love of film comes from her father, who always had a camera out taking pictures or videos of family moments growing up. While she enjoyed film, it wasn’t until later that she began considering it as a viable career. She now wants to be a production designer and work behind the camera.
“Me and my sister would record me and my stuffed animals, stuff like that, and my dad would always edit our videos,” Neal said. “It wasn’t until I got into high school that I took a film class and I was actually really interested.”
Another student from Chamblee High School, senior Nadira Peterson, also competed at the film festival. Chamblee High School’s film was called “Guise,” and was about a student who mysteriously disappears. The Chamblee production took home the awards for Overall Best Cinematography and Overall Best Editing.
In addition to the film festival, both Neal and Peterson recently attended a film convention called Student Television Network (STN) in California. STN brings together students from high school and middle school journalism, film, and media programs.
This was Peterson’s second year at STN, which took place March 16-19. On different days, the student groups are tasked with putting together things like broadcast news segments or short films to be judged at the end of day.
While the students can’t actually start physical work on the film before the conference, Peterson said her group spent a lot of time discussing the types of cinematic visuals they were drawn to in the weeks leading up to STN. They even got together on one Sunday to screen films that had done well at STN in the past.
“The main thing that we were looking at was, I would say, their story structures – so if they had a full beginning, middle, and end – and also what elements they focus on,” Peterson said.
Peterson became really interested in film in eighth grade when she had to pick a pathway for high school. She wasn’t interested in things like food sciences or healthcare, but the Audio/Video Technology and Film program stood out to her. She didn’t know much when she started freshman year, but as a senior, she became the president of Chamblee’s Film Club, which is a sector of SkillsUSA Georgia.
“I love directing, I love being behind the camera, and I really enjoy script writing as well,” Peterson said. “I just found what I was good at, and I made sure other people knew I was good at it too.”
A list of all festival winners can be found below.
Best Overall: Dekalb School of the Arts: “Brink of Hell”
Novice Category:
Overall Best Editing: Chamblee High School: “Guise”
Overall Best Cinematography: Chamblee High School: “Guise”
Overall Best Acting: Lakeside High School: “Friendship”
Overall best Sound: Lakeside High School: “Friendship”
Overall Best Set Design: Arabia Mountain High School: “Wishing Well”
Overall Best Wardrobe: Columbia High School: “The Shattering”
Advanced Category:
Overall Best Editing: DeKalb School of the Arts: “The Brink of Hell”
Overall Best Cinematography: Lakeside High School: “Presque Vu”
Overall Best Acting: DeKalb School of the Arts: “The Sitcom”
Overall Best Sound: DeKalb School of the Arts: “The Real Talk”
Overall Best Set Design: Lakeside High School: “Presque Vu”
Overall Best Wardrobe: DeKalb School of the Arts: “The Brink of Hell”
