Last weekend, 13 Castaic Middle School students traveled to Nashville to test their video skills and compete against students from across the country at the annual Student Television Network, or STN, competition.
Individually, in groups and as one large team, the students participated in 10 different STN competition categories that included everything from silent films and music videos to a broadcast show and spot feature.
“This is a great group of kids, I enjoyed my trip with them,” said Ro Osano, a Castaic Middle School history teacher and advisor to the CMS TV program. “I’m very proud of them and we worked for weeks from December preparing for this — and the results are we got five awards out of 10.”
These awards included an honorable mention for Silent Film, an honorable mention for Spot Feature, third place for Music Video, third place for Anchor Team and first place for Convention Recap.
One of the students, eighth-grader Jessica Schubert, was also given a special honor when she was selected as an award presenter for the competition.
For the individual and group competitions, each category had its own theme, requirements and deadline, and made the students think quickly on their feet as they created original video productions.
“Mr. Osano has been stressing how much deadlines are important and I finally got the experience and found out how important they are during the competition,” seventh-grade student Ethan Mower said.
The quick turnarounds of each competition also encouraged to be creative and come up with original ideas as they created silent films, spot features, nat packages, PSAs, movie trailers and music videos.
For example, a PSA prompt about the importance of music education inspired students Mason Freed and Aidan Lindquist to create a scene where students were inspired to do something based on the sound of an accordion.
And a movie title “In Bloom” inspired eighth-grade student Beth Powell to create a script in which a student thinks flowers were her kids.
“It was really exciting to put a lot of effort into something and then turn it in and get your name called for something you put so much effort in,” said seventh-grader Andie Rubio, who received an honorable mention for her work in the silent film category. “Filming it and editing it was a good experience overall especially because of how much energy and happiness was in the room.”
A major accomplishment for the entire team was turning in their broadcast and movie in just eight hours during a competition called “Crazy 8s.”
Although this part of the competition was stressful and difficult, the students learned to work together to complete their projects on time.
“At the end when things were starting to go wrong, they held it together, and I’m proud of them that they held it together to finish,” Osano said. “They overcame any obstacles they had and any problems they had. They dedicated themselves to completing what they had started.”
The three-day competition and convention also drew the group of students closer together as they spent nearly 24 hours a day with each other.
“It was great seeing other people get the awards,” seventh grade student Angelina Lasso said. “With the people I roomed with, it was nice to spend time with them and I felt like we grew closer as friends.”
The competition also taught the students that “winning isn’t everything” and that they could learn from their own mistakes and from others’ mistakes as well.
“On the trip I learned a lot of things,” eighth-grade student Chris Taguba said. “Win or lose you should always be learn from your mistakes and be proud of what you create.”
CMS TV Student Participants:
- Aidan Lindquist, 8th grade
- Alec Gomez, 8th grade
- Andie Rubio, 7th grade
- Angelina Lasso, 7th grade
- Beth Powell, 8th grade
- Chris Taguba, 8th grade
- Eliza Anchondo, 7th grade
- Ethan Mower, 7th grade
- Faith Violent, 7th grade
- Jamie Lee Hyde, 7th grade
- Jessica Schreier, 7th grade
- Jessica Schubert, 8th grade
- Mason Freed, 7th grade
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