RICHLAND, Wash. – A group of eight Hanford High School students won the Tri Fi 72-hour film festival for the fourth time.
Hanford sophomore Lola Thomas said winning never gets old and this year was a wonderful experience for her.
Thomas said last year, she was an actress for the team’s film, but she focused on the behind the scenes aspect this year.
“We had trouble filming, so I just worked on the storyline and (tried) to come up with an idea,” she said. “It gets hectic when you have three days to make something, but I was really glad I was able to come up with a plot.”
Hanford senior Leo Rangel, who was the director, said the film revolved around student filmmakers stuck in a writer’s block, and trying to get out of the mental block.
He agrees production this year was hectic because in the last few years Hanford has been involved with the festival, the team has been able to get the initial filming completed within the first couple of hours, but this year was different.
“It took us all of Friday to plan something, but we never got something done,” Rangel said. “It was only until Saturday morning that we got something, and then … we filmed and then all of Sunday we edited. So it was very stressful.”
Despite the stress this year, Rangle said he is happy he could help continue the winning streak before he graduates, and he hopes that streak never ends.
The winning prize was a lifetime subscription to a script writing website, and Thomas said the website is impactful to the group as high school students because of their limited resources when creating films.
“When we write a storyline and we make a project and we’re able to get an award like that, (that’s) something that benefits how we edit, how we write, what ideas we come up with,” she said. “It makes the process easier and it makes it more fun because it almost feels more professional and it’s really exciting to use new stuff.”
