Posted April 13, 2024
My Experiences with Film Prize Jr.
By Vixie Zorra
Last 4th of July, I learned about El Raton Media Works’ Film Prize Jr., which is an annual competition where kids in middle and high school across the state write, storyboard, and direct their own films. On April 5, 6, and 7, there was be a Red Carpet in Albuquerque where all of the students’ films was be showcased and shown live on YouTube. There were a variety of film mediums, including live-action, stop-motion, and animation. The films are usually about 5-10 minutes with a full character and story arc.
Wanting to become a filmmaker someday, I was ecstatic to join what was, I thought, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It took some trial and error before I decided what film I wanted to make. It switched between doing a film about a girl going through domestic abuse to a futuristic, cyberpunk film before settling on a storyline I loved about a boy (who was secretly the Phoenix reincarnated) who was chased out of his Utah home and found by the United States military. Looking back, I am SOOO glad I didn’t go through with it. We were all exhausted when we filmed a much simpler film in one day, that we couldn’t even imagine what War of the Phoenix would’ve been like. That, and the fact that Phoenix was becoming less and less like the storyline that I had loved so much.
Out of the whole thing, I would say that the hardest part for me was the storyboarding. I never realized until I was trying to do it that I couldn’t figure out what I wanted. I feel that I was too indecisive when it came to how I wanted the camera shots, where I wanted the characters to look, and how I could do it well without showing any violence or stunts. Other than that, I had a blast being in front of the camera and filming Doubt Defiers, a simpler film that shows two young girls trying to make their dreams come true despite no one believing in them. I would highly recommend the Film Prize to any young person out there interested in filmmaking.
The Doubt Defiers film was entered into the 2024 NM Film Prize Junior Film Festival held Friday, April 6, 2024. The awards ceremony was held Saturday, April 7, 2024. I’ll provide more information on my experience in future editions of Fun with Vixie!
Photos courtesy Ann Theis, El Raton Media Works
