The fourth annual Teen Film Festival at the M. Allan Vogelson Library is coming close to opening night as the red carpet-themed event is scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 20.
Teen filmmakers in sixth to 12th grade will get a chance to showcase a three- to 10-minute film in front of a judging panel.
“I think we are providing an outlet for creative teens to express themselves and be recognized by their creativity,” the library’s head of youth services Emily Moore said.
According to teen librarian Christen Orbanus, this year’s festival has an addition that will hopefully spark interest.
“Become a Maker” workshops were added to the library’s teen programs this year, hoping to attract new faces to submit films and help previous participants to use skills learned at the workshops on current submissions.
From script writing, film editing, photography basics, creating a digital logo, podcasting, photo editing and more, teens were able to get hands-on experience in various aspects of filmmaking and digital media.
Orbanus said the script-writing workshop attracted 14 teens, which is a successful turnout for a teen program, and a handful signed up for the most recent film-editing workshop. Additional workshops might be offered during the winter to help teens prepare for the festival.
“I think having these programs before hand would result in more people submitting,” Moore said.
Sarah Pike submitted films with her sister, Hannah, in the first and second festivals. She won the judges’ vote for the second year for the film “Devil Take the Hindmost,” a rendering of “Love Never Dies” — a sequel to “Phantom of the Opera.” Last year at the film festival, she submitted “Pepper Quest.”
Pike, now at Rutgers University — New Brunswick studying English, is coming back to the library to teach in the film-editing workshop.
She said she is going to teach the teens the things she wished she would have been taught before submitting films — making plans, story boards and having a backup plan.
“It’s a lot of long hours to try to make it as best you can with the tech that you have,” she said.
Horror, drama, romance, comedy and suspense are welcome for submission. A live action film was even submitted last year, Moore said.
The hope is to have more than five or six submissions — the average for the past three years, Orbanus said.
When the teens stand before the judges, they are given the opportunity to discuss their films and the participants would receive “swag bags.” In addition to the filmmakers, the teen who racks up the most reading hours by logging in the times read over the summer would receive VIP treatment at the festival, a gift card to have dinner at Chick-fil-a before the event and a “swag bag.”
Although no films have been submitted, Orbanus said she normally receives the films on DVD within two or three days of the showing.
The hope is to attract more teens to the library and offer a variety of program opportunities to a wide range of teens.
“We definitely get a different group of teens that participate in this program verses our more traditional library programs. They are usually teens we don’t see on a regular basis,” Orbanus said. “It’s a nice way to reach out in the community and get more interest in library programs.”
Participants are asked to submit films on a DVD between three to 10 minutes long that would be appropriate for all ages to watch.
The submission deadline is Friday, Aug. 16, and all crewmembers must be in grades six to 12. Entry forms can be found at the library.
After screening, the videos will be posted on YouTube for all to watch.
For more information, visit www.camdencountylibrary.org.
To watch past festival submissions, visit www.youtube.com/CCLTeen
