Ossining High School Filmmakers Progress to Next Round of Film Competition

All four films created by Ossining High School students last month for the 10 Day Film Challenge, a high school competition, are among the top 30 in the region.

The students made the films between March 16 and 27 for the 10 Day Film Challenge and learned this week that they had made the top 30 in the region. They are invited to attend a screening and awards ceremony May 7 in New York City.

High school students who participate in the challenge have 10 class periods over 10 days to script, shoot, score and edit a three- to four-minute film. The filmmakers are given a genre, a character, the character’s backstory, a prop, a line of dialogue and a cinematic technique, all of which must be used in the film.

The four entries from Ossining students are titled “Phantasm,” a fantasy; “Alone,” a mystery; “My Strange Phobia,” a mockumentary; and “Enclosed,” a superhero film.

“The students were restricted to only working on their films during the school day and felt the stress and challenge of collaborating with their creative ideas, managing their time and taking on various roles within the production process,” said Jessica Beattie, one of the film teachers.

“Students were forced to step out of their comfort zone as actors, directors and editors in order to produce and submit the final product on day 10. Many students described the process as eye-opening and an authentic experience for what they anticipate to feel in college, as well as in their future career,” she said.

This is the first year of the filmmaking program at Ossining High School. Beattie, who teaches theater, and Harry Quiroga, who teaches photography, collaborated to co-teach a new course that captures the experience of storytelling and artistic expression through film. Thirty-three students are taking the course.

“We’re extremely proud of the evolution of this course and the progress our students have made since the beginning of the school year,” Beattie said.

Other students whose films are in the 10 Day Film Challenge’s top 30 in the region are from Dobbs Ferry High School, Westlake High School in Thornwood and schools in Dutchess, Nassau, Queens, Suffolk and Ulster counties.

The 10 Day Film Challenge was first held in 2011, when three New Jersey high schools participated. This year, more than 3,000 student filmmakers from 106 high schools in 15 states entered the competition. The group anticipates the challenge will become a nationwide event in future years.