Light House Studio is proud to announce that after entering two teams into this year’s Virginia Film Festival Adrenaline Film Project, one of them walked away with the Jury Award! The team was composed of Jake Farrell (11th Grade, Renaissance School), Sam Gorman (11th grade, Nelson County High School), and Will Jones (9th Grade, Charlottesville High School). This competition is presented by the Virginia Film Festival, and requires filmmakers to write, shoot, and edit an entire short film in just 72 hours. There were 12 teams in total, ranging from UVA students to community filmmakers from all around Virginia. The films were screened in Culbreth Theater on Saturday night, where the winning team was announced. Light House plans to enter this film in festivals and competitions this year, and will post the video publicly after going through the festival circuit.
Every team was given a prop and a line of dialogue that had to be used in the film. This year’s prop was a bottle of hand lotion, and the line was “You’re running out of time.” The winning team’s comedic story, entitled “The Iranian Job,” revolved around two comic-book loving teens trying to prevent a collector’s item samurai sword from being shipped to none other an Iran president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
“The goal was to be competitive with the other groups and to represent Light House,” said Light House mentor Jason Robinson, who oversaw the team. “They definitely exceeded our expectations by winning.” When asked how he felt after winning the award, tired filmmaker Jake Farrell said, “It was worth it.”