Laguna Students win Film Festival
February 12, 2018
Update: Seven Hours was named the winner of the 10-10-10 Student Filmmaking & Screenwriting Competition for Best Screenplay, Jack Stein ’19, and Best Directing Camila Lemere ’18.
Ten screenwriters. Ten directors.Ten films. But not 10 days. For the first time in its 13 years of existence, the 10-10- 10 Screenwriting and Filmmaking Mentorship and Competition, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s (SBIFF) local high school and college filmmaking competition, has been extended to a month rather than 10 days.
Amanda Graves, SBIFF’s new education director, explained: “The timeline for the 10-10-10 program was extended to include more time for instructional workshops and individual mentoring. With a 10-day timeframe, students were very limited in their ability to receive feedback and implement changes. This year, we are very excited that students will have the opportunity to view their rough cuts with their teams and receive feedback from a panel of experts before making final edits to the films.”
Prior to the actual filming and editing period, 10 screenwriting finalists and 10 directing finalists — half from college and half from high school — spend several months being mentored by professionals in the field.
For the pairing process, screenwriters pitch script ideas to the directors, who respond to each script with their vision of what the movie would look like. Each screenwriter and director writes down his or her top choices, and once paired, they collaborate to create the final script.Then, each team films and edits their film from December 11 to January 19, when rough cuts are due.
Following notes from mentors and crew, the final cut is handed in on January 25 for the final screening on February 10 at the Arlington Theater. That gives the students 47 days for filming and editing. In comparison, last year’s competitors only had 10 days for filming and editing.
Senior Camila Lemere, who directed “When the Lights Go Out” last year for the competition and is directing again this year, said that this month-long process “is incredibly beneficial for everyone involved in 10-10-10. It allows us time to really put our all into our films and not feel rushed.
This year, Lemere was paired with first-time participant and fellow Owl junior Jack Stein, screenwriter of this year’s film, “Seven Hours.” As part of Laguna Blanca’s first ever screenwriter and director duo, Stein said that he was “very excited to work with Camila because I am already familiar with her work and style, and it’s a lot easier to work on an intense project like this when you’re working with someone you’re friends with.”
Lemere agreed, saying, “It’s great to be working with another Laguna student because of the accessibility it provides. Jack and I are able to communicate with each other whenever and wherever we choose, and it’s so much more convenient than my situation last year.”
Stein described “Seven Hours” as “a sendup of the classic romantic comedy, in which a man and a woman, who are both unhappy with their lives, and each other and try to stay together despite the odds stacked against them.”
The script, based around the competition’s theme of “love,” is particularly exciting to work with for Lemere because “it was written by one of my friends, but more importantly because of the beautiful story it tells. As a filmmaker, I feel that I’m more in tune to tell stories about love and people that move an audience emotionally, and this screenplay that Jack’s written does that in insurmountable ways. To be able to bring a touching story like that to life is a total privilege.”
“Seven Hours” looks to be a pan-Laguna production, with Lemere and Stein enlisting help from producer senior Sydney Edgecomb and production assistants Mathew Goldsholl ‘17 and Zaira Paredes ‘17 along with Cate senior Diarra Pouye.
Edgecomb, who plans to go into creative producing in college and beyond, said “I am so excited to be a part of 10-10-10 this year.The process so far has been stressful but so much fun, and working with Jack and Camila has been amazing. I can’t wait to see the final product!”
When asked about Jack and Camila’s involvement in the competition, Graves said,“We hope you can join us for a 2 p.m. start time at The Arlington Theatre on Saturday, February 10 for the free screening of Jack and Camila’s film ‘Seven Hours’ along with the rest of the 10-10-10 films!”
