Western Christian High School students win contest
Posted October 13th, 2009 in Fine Arts, HS Special Events, High School Comments Off
Luke Snyder, 17, Jacob Fletcher, 15, and David Reynosa, 17
Article from DailyBulletin.com
By Sandra Emerson
Staff Writer
Sometimes with a little creativity, a small budget can go a long way.
Three film students at Western Christian High School in Upland recently won a video contest held by Bite Me Energy Drink in Corona, which included a $2,000 prize.
Jacob Fletcher, 15, Luke Snyder, 17, and David Reynosa, 17, used the lessons they learned in film class and from freelance filming jobs to put the video together.
“I didn’t expect to win, but I was really relieved that we did because $2,000 is a good amount of money for a film project, so it was very satisfying,” said Luke.
Their video was voted on publicly before going on to be judged by Bite Me Energy Drink officials.
“I was really excited,” said Jacob, who has a starring role in the video. “I didn’t know how lucky we’d get, but I thought it was great to hear.”
Perhaps it was the Bite Me energy drink the students consumed during the filming that helped get the video done quickly. It took the students only a few days to do the filming and editing.
“We were pretty hyper during the shoot. We drank five energy drinks. We had to calm ourselves down for the takes,” said David, who has won a video contest in the past.
Using a video camera David purchased through a class he took at Citrus College and whatever they could find lying around, the students made their video with a low operating budget.
“Just kind of things you’d find about the house that you wouldn’t typically use for filming, but when on a budget you find everything you need,” David said.
David, who hopes to attend film school after he graduates in June, had won a contest before that focused on different ways to eat a pomegranate.
This was the first video contest for Luke and Jacob, who are also brothers.
The three students have been shooting video and editing together for some time now, but for the time being they intend to focus on their class projects.
“We’re working on our film project for school, and we will not enter any contests yet,” Luke said. “We will try to find one that doesn’t involve public voting because those can be pretty rigged.”
To get as many votes needed to even get in the top five, they had to send mass e-mails out to friends and family. They even took to the streets.
“We went on probably the biggest campaign ever,” David said. “We were grabbing people off the street saying `Hey, vote for this video.’ ”
The students’ videos, including the winning Bite Me Energy Drink commercial, can be watched on You Tube under the name “InTheLunchBox.”
sandra.emerson@inlandnewspapers.com
(909) 483-8555
