Birthing the Next Generation of Filmakers

"Did you use After Effects," asks Luke Lasley, 17, pulling his focus from a computer screen which plays a time-lapse video he took of a night with his friends.

Yes, replies his colleague, but the film is still too dark; Lasley furrows his brow.

The exchange might take place in any film school workshop or professional studio, but the two are part of the Media Arts program at , which regularly churns out professional-level films, despite the youth of the filmmakers, for the student showcase at the Sonoma International Film Festival.

The program has come a long way in the last decade, traveling along the same upward trajectory of the Sonoma Film Festival.

In its modern formation, the Media Arts program started 10 years ago when Peter Hansen, then a corporate videographer, volunteered to work during the first student showcase at the Sonoma Film Festival.

"I saw three terrible films, there were 17 people in the audience," said Hansen. "Now I have too many films and there are 300 people in the audience."

Thanks in large part to donations from the Film Festival and private donors, the program has raised almost $600,000, which provides a roster of high-tech equipment - including 32 computers and over a dozen state-of-the-art cameras - software, scholarships, several studios, field trips to film screenings and the majority of Hansen's salary.

But the most important thing the festival provides the talented students: exposure.

"My kids get to hang out with Danny Glover and Michael Keaton - they get to hang out with Batman," says Hansen. "We treat them like the filmmakers they are."

Throughout the year, students submit their best films to the film festival. Hansen, along with the programming staff, select anywhere from 16-20 to show at the student showcase.

That's why students like Danielle de laTorre, a 16-year-old sophomore who is premiering a dance documentary at this year's student festival, target the program as soon as they enter Sonoma Valley High School.

"I've always been a movie freak, so I just watched a ton of movies and got interested in it," said de laTorre, "I just love telling stories and I just love to make something incredible and show it to the world."

"It's just inspiring: you get to capture anything that's beautiful - like a memory," said Hector Flores, a 17-year-old senior whose films are centered around slow images; whatever he finds inspiring.

But, for many first-timers like Flores, the chance to premiere a work at an international film festival is, just a bit daunting.

"It's kind of like a weird feeling, your movie is up there and you want people to like it," he said.

The program provides a mixture of opportunities, a creative outlet for some and doorway into the film business for others.

"Graduates of this program, they're in film school, they've graduated film school, they're production assistants, they're traveling the world - they're out there," said Hansen.

Students like senior Jenna Wirick, who will study film and art at San Francisco State next year, and her cousin Danny Wirick, who was recently accepted into the popular music program at the University of Southern California, are well on their way.

"We would make videos even when we were 10 or 11, we just kind of learned for ourselves," says Jenna Wirick, 18, who will show a music video she made, starring her cousin  Danny, at tomorrow's festival.

But young artists have grown alongside the young festival, says Wirick, pointing at a screen shot from her cousin's 2010 film - which is reminiscent of a home movie - versus this year's film, a professional music video which Danny shot, edited, sang and played background music for.

"Every year the program grows, it's now in its 10th year and you can tell - we even have people talking to us from Pixar," said Jenna Wirick. "It's just cool to watch."

Catch a preview of the students films on the Sonoma Valley High School Media Arts Website. Watch the student showcase on Thursday, April 7 at 9 a.m. or Sunday, April 10 at 9 a.m. at the Sebastiani Theater.  Follow along with the film festival through our series