On May 1st, FX students will present their own short films to the public.
The event, dubbed Film Fest, is set to begin at 7 PM, with a format similar to that of a real movie festival. Across three different venues (rooms in the high school), three different movies will be playing at one time. Audience members can view the majority of the 12 films as each movie plays twice.
This Thursday, Film Fest celebrates its 25th year. The event started in 2001 as a way for students in FHC’s broadcast class, FX, to display their creativity. The tradition persists under the direction of current FX teacher Jeff Manders.
“Film Fest is an opportunity for the FX kids to really explore their technical creativity and their storytelling in a different format than the typical stories we play on the FX broadcast,” Manders said.
Primarily, the FX classes focus on delivering news to the student body. As all FHC students know, twice a day—after first hour and after fifth hour—a brief 5-minute show is broadcast to all classrooms. These shows inform students of upcoming events, school sports results, and weather, among other practical topics. However, throughout the year, these students are simultaneously working on their own short films.
In the first semester, FX members focus on developing the plot and creating storyboards for their roughly 15-minute movies. As the second semester begins, the students create production plans and move on to filming by February and March.
The films can generally be about any topic, as long as they are school-appropriate and fictional. Naturally, inspiration for the stories comes from a variety of sources. For the film of graduating senior Addison Sanford, the plot is a convergence of the high school experience and a real blockbuster movie.
“[Our movie] was inspired by The Hangover—loosely,” Addison said. “[It’s] the school appropriate version. It’s about this group of friends and instead of studying for their final exams, they decide to party, and they don’t make the best decisions. They end up in a random field in the middle of nowhere, and they have to try to make it back in time before their exam so that they can graduate.”
The project is called The Morning After and stars Addison, senior Meredith Morrison, junior Mady Scarlato, and junior Raegan Price. Last year, the group created a parody of the Y2K drama movie, Mean Girls, with their own, Pick Me for Queen. Even though the plot had its faults, their production and humor were well-executed, leaving some audience members asking for a sequel.
However, choosing to leave the fans in suspense, they crafted a new storyline for the 2025 festival. With the movie being a self-proclaimed “very low budget production,” the group didn’t feel it needed to be immensely serious. Consequently, the group enjoyed filming the movie’s light-hearted and humorous scenes.
“Filming the party scenes was fun,” Addison said. “[The characters] plan to have a study session, and then instead of studying, they end up partying. [These were the most fun to film] because they were the most unserious and least stressful. My favorite part was writing the screenplay and getting to create the story. Actually, filming the movie and editing it has been really stressful.”
As Film Fest creeps closer, the students rush to put the finishing touches on their projects. Most films range from 14 to 16 minutes long. While an audience member may not think this takes much work, more time and effort go into the productions than expected. The small scenes—ones that only last around a minute—can take hours to film. Especially considering that these movies aren’t closed-set and therefore have to account for real-world complications, executing the movies is time-consuming and, at times, difficult.
Despite the constraints of the production process, Manders emphasizes how crafting an exquisite movie remains feasible.
“Some of the better movies don’t try to be a big Hollywood-budget film because that’s not going to be possible, most likely,” Manders said. “They embrace what they’re able to achieve and then tell a really neat story, so when you’re watching it, you’re thinking about the story and not thinking about how it was put together. You’re not thinking, ‘Oh, there’s [this student] pretending to be so and so,’ which is hard to some extent.”
Understandably, adult and student perceptions on the films often differ. While the student body tends to favor the comedic films, Manders notes that the most promising movies are typically the ones with strong narratives. Even with rough production, a well-crafted storyline can make a film one of the most impressive. Some elements of these successes include relatable characters, a fully formed structure, and an overarching message of the work. Simply, the films with a reason and a purpose make for some of the best.
Senior Hailey Beels—a three-year member of FX—is embarking upon the final stages of her film, The End of Us. With a three-person team (most groups have four or five), putting together the film has been more work-intensive than in her previous years. However, despite this, completing portions of the project instills a sense of satisfaction within Hailey.
“You get out of school and there’s a sense of accomplishment,” Hailey said. “Yes, it was stressful while we were making our films, but afterwards, it’s just like, ‘We did that, we stuck through it together.’”
This year, Hailey’s film centers around a friend-group blowup. Amongst a group of three high schoolers, two get into a fight at a sleepover. Understandably, the third friend becomes fed up with their bickering, leading her to make some horrible choices, leading to utter chaos. Throughout her senior year, Hailey has been working on the movie with juniors Ava Mattson and Reese Clarkin.
Even though these stages of the film’s production are stress-inducing, she looks forward to the end of Film Fest celebrations. The festival serves as a mergence of AM FX and PM FX, the two broadcast teams that typically don’t work together throughout the school year. However, at Film Fest, they come together to appreciate each other’s work and vote on whose film was strongest in what areas (for example, “best editing” or “funniest”).
For long-time members of FX, the wrapping up of Film Fest is essentially a goodbye to their high school broadcast careers.
“Sometimes, after [the festival] we get together, we do a fire pit or just hang out,” Hailey said. “It’s just kind of like an ending of an era, an ending of FX, because FX is usually half seniors. [We] send off the seniors because [we] won’t see them again.”
As Film Fest comes around next week for its 25th year, multiple promising movies lie on the horizon. They span across genres, ensuring that every audience member can find a film that peaks their interest. If looking for a laugh, The Pantry Grinch promises humor. On the other hand, The Dunies showcases strong editing skills and a snowy setting of Sleeping Bear Dunes.
Manders and the FX members encourage students to come to support the festival, whether for an impactful narrative or a series of jokes. Regardless, the movies will take audiences to a different world, if only for the films’ 15-minute runtimes.
“Those movies that can kind of make the audience lose themselves in the story are the ones that I think are the best,” Manders said.
