Two Lenape High School students earned awards at the 11th Annual Ocean County Library Student Film Festival. The statewide event showcased the best high school filmmakers in New Jersey. The festival took place at the Toms River branch of the Ocean County Library system April 22 and featured a red carpet, awards and refreshments.
Senior Shannon Lambert produced a documentary titled “Cedar Run,” which won first place in the documentary category. The film, which was produced for a documentary unit in her Television Broadcasting Technology III class, is about the Cedar Run Wildlife Refuge in Medford.
A PSA by senior McKenna Samson won first place in its category. “It’s Not The End” focuses on the stress high school seniors face when applying for college. The video was also produced as a project for the Television Broadcasting Technology III class.
Mr. Peyton Ebbeson, adviser of the Lenape Television Club and teacher of the Advanced Television Broadcasting Technology classes at Lenape, was proud of his students.
“My students spend countless hours and in some cases, like the documentary, many months on their projects,” said Ebbeson. “I encourage them to enter festivals such as the OC Library to get feedback from judges and see what other students are producing. It’s such great validation of their incredible hard work to get recognized like this.”
Over 150 films were submitted from 26 different high schools across New Jersey. Just under 30 entries were selected by judges and screened at the event. Other categories included animation, commercial, experimental, music video, school coverage and more.
Films were evaluated for visual and audio quality, creativity and editing. The Judges looked for submissions that were well-paced and told a good story. The panel of judges is a group of librarians, educators, artists, film professionals and film enthusiasts.
