By Alfonso Reyes & Jett Zwahlen
Lights, Camera, Action! Jett Zwahlen, Adrien Bernardino, and Sarah Marquez won the First Place Grand Jury Prize Award in the Porterville Film Festival with their short film Messages from the Stars on December 4th. Sophia Martinez, Kyra Soto, Jayla Parker, and Leslie Rivera also won 2nd Place for the Audience Award with their short film Interval. There were two categories of awards where there was the Audience Award where the audience voted on the best film and there was the Grand Jury Prize Award where a board of judges had voted beforehand on the best film.
Jett Zwahlen (Writer-Director of Messages From The Stars) shared his thoughts. He expressed how proud and overjoyed he was that he and his team won 1st Place. “We had our problems as I’m sure every team had,” Zwahlen remarked, “…but I’m glad our film got the recognition it deserves. […] My team and I spent a lot of time and I’m so proud of my crew and I for using our creativity and skills to make a 1st place-worthy film.”
Sarah Marquez (Producer of Messages From The Stars) said, “It feels good for our work to be recognized because we worked hard on the film and it deserved the win. [Our biggest obstacle was] trying to get everyone on the same page.” Adrien Bernardino (Audio Mixer and Editor for Messages From The Stars) said “It was a fun experience and I’m glad people liked it.” The biggest obstacle Bernardino felt was “Getting it done knowing we didn’t have a lot of time.”
Sophia Martinez (Director and Cinematographer of 2nd place Audience Award-winning film Interval) shared, “[I] knew our film would be difficult to produce since it was a complex story to fit in only four minutes and we wanted to make something that wouldn’t require much special effects considering our time crunch. I’m a little disappointed, but still proud of my team.” There is always room for improvement, and I think this film is a good reminder to challenge ourselves and [to] do better in the future.”
Kyra Soto (Writer for Interval) admits that she was a “sore loser” and felt Monache’s short film was simply a “rip off of Back to the Future and Bill and Ted.” Soto says the film’s loss motivates her to do better on her next film project and to have a better film. Soto shares, “Overall, I was very pleased with the outcome when I wrote the script within a week. I felt that it was an idea that should’ve been put into a much longer project. I also feel that this film was the best project so far that I have worked on, and I do feel that [if we] had we changed a scene or two the outcome of the film would be completely different.”
Zwahlen, Bernardino, and Marquez were able to secure their spot in 1st Place for the Grand Jury Prize at the Porterville Film Festival with their film Messages From The Stars while Martinez, Soto, Parker, and Rivera won over the audience with their spot in 2nd Place for the Audience Award with their film. Together these teams’ achievements not only celebrate the outstanding efforts and creativity of both teams but also serve as a reminder that the El Diamante Media Arts Academy has the best high school filmmaking program in the country.