06.05.13 | Stacy Brick
Last week four young women in the Media Tech program at the Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders joined Austin Film Festival for a week long internship. The week consisted of the students each writing and editing original screenplays and shadowing the Conference and Film departments.
The girls shadowed Film Competition Director Bears Fonté and screened some of the films submitted to the Young Filmmakers Competition to get a firsthand look at what young filmmakers are producing today. While the The Young Filmmaker Competition accepts film submissions from students ages 13 – 18 from around the world. Submissions are free and the winning filmmakers receive two Weekend Badges to the 2013 Festival and Conference. They also screened episodes of On Story and a few films produced by Garza High School through AFF’s Digital Storytelling program.
Conference Director Erin Hallagan mentored the ladies on what it takes to produce a Conference: creating and scheduling panels, researching trends in the industry and tracking established and up an coming screenwriters. Working with Matt Dy, AFF’s Screenplay Competition Director, the girls developed and perfected their screenplays for a table read on Friday. Their screenplays all involved young people but were extremely diverse. Themes ranged from a story of a bus ride home gone wrong, an imaginary friend, a friendship unraveling and a precocious child inquiring about where babies come from.
The students, AFF staff and a few Ann Richards School teachers participated in the table read of the screenplays. A couple of the girls talked about the possibility of continuing work on their scripts and even filming them. Marlene, Hannah, Nia and Sid were all a welcome presence in the AFF office – diligently working away on their laptops, picking the staff’s brain for advice and inspiration. The AFF staff was impressed by their professionalism and enthusiasm and we look forward to following their progress.
For more information on AFF’s Young Filmmakers Program, click here.