The audience should take away that while life can sometimes not give you the results you’ve expected, there is always a bright side to things. Everyone has value and they are enough.

One scene we loved filming was the scene where we were promoting Gabriel around school and we got to include some extras. We got a lot of people to participate and it made us laugh the way the scene turned out. It was fun to direct so many people around and made us feel like real directors making a film.

Film Prize Junior was an incredible opportunity to partake in because before doing the film, I felt like good films can only be produced by professionals. It felt overwhelming even thinking about the idea of making a film. However, I wanted to step out of my comfort zone and try something different. As we continued to make the film, it turned out that it was not as intimidating as I thought it was and with the help of other students, it turned into an incredibly uplifting and encouraging experience that taught me a lot.

Some of the biggest challenges we faced were equipment bugs, time, and getting the actors together. We all have very different schedules and It was hard to get everyone together to shoot scenes. Additionally, we wanted to use professional film equipment and it took some time to figure out how to use it and practice troubleshooting techniques when certain elements were not working, especially the microphones. We were working on the film at the same time other groups in our school were working on it and it was difficult to arrange who would use the equipment and when. From making this short film, I learned it’s important to have good collaboration and communication with group mates in any team effort whether it be in school or in the professional sense. We also learned how to manage time.

To the future participants of the Film Prize Junior, I would say that it’s important to develop a good communication basis with the people on your production team and plan things very meticulously before shooting.