Local teens compete under deadline in Apple's online film festival
By Sylvie Belmond belmond@theacorn.com

Making a film is a complex process that usually requires a lot of time and preparation. However, time was a luxury unavailable to the five young area filmmakers competing in the Apple Inc. Insomnia Film Festival.

The festival is geared toward creative high school and college students who can work under pressure.

Participants had to incorporate into their films three of 20 elements provided at the last minute by Apple Inc. before they could begin to write, cast, shoot edit, and score their threeminute masterpieces. Their films had to be completed within 24 hours.

Current and former Santa Susana High School students who took film production classes at a magnet high school in Simi Valley comprised the five-member local team. They live in Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley and Chatsworth.

The group produced "Unbound," a film about a young girl who discovers someone special is in the palm of her hand.

Creating a story, putting that story on film and piecing it back together all in the 24 hours was quite a challenge, said Mike Vannelli, a senior at Santa Susana High and "Unbound's" assistant editor and director of photography.

"Filmmaking allows you to express a vision to the world," he said.

The script, filmed in Simi Valley, was written by Craig Amromin, Kevin Maksimenko and Andrew Rede.

"Making a film is one of the most demanding and gratifying experiences," said Amromin, who also directed the film. "It enables creative people to take their ideas and put them onto the screen, sewing all the pieces together to create a final, complete piece of artwork," he said. Amromin is now a freshman at Moorpark College.

"I'm interested in filmmaking because you can tell a story without saying a word," said Kurtis Guy, who put together the team for the competition.

Guy especially liked the editing process because that's where the story is told, he said.

"Shooting on location is fun, but to cut together what you shot and make it magical is what it's all about," he said.

In addition to making films, working part time at a photo lab and volunteering at church, Guy, a senior at Santa Susana High, takes Emergency Medical Technician classes at Moorpark College in hopes of eventually becoming a pediatric cardiologist, he said.

"Unbound" can be viewed and rated online at the website www.vote.t1pictures.com.

The competition ends on Fri., Nov. 9. The 25 entries with the highest ratings will be screened by industry professionals, including Barry Sonnenfeld, James Mangold and Nora Ephron.

Winners will receive a MacBook Pro computer and movie editing programs made by Apple Inc.