Hatboro-Horsham Students Cue Up for Film Fest

Roll film. Cut. Print.

Hatboro-Horsham High School students – along with peers from 20 other high schools – will learn hands-on essentials of video pre-production, production and post-production during a day-long educational seminar of sorts today at Montgomery County Community College in Blue Bell.

The workshops are the precursor for the annual Greenfield Youth Film Festival. Held in the spring, the red carpet gala showcases the talents of area enterprising filmmakers and awards cash, trophies and more.

While Hatboro-Horsham has played a major role in the festival since its inception, Dave Thomas, a former Emmy award-winning TV reporter and the high school’s TV/film production teacher, said fellow educators had shared that an educational component was missing.

So, with Thomas’ lead and the ok from Jill Greenfield Feldman, executive director of the Greenfield Youth Film Festival, Thomas spearheaded the effort to bring credentialed, hands-on panelists to share insight on film production, screenwriting and more.

“I’ve got people there who are relatable to kids,” Thomas said. 

Students will also hear and learn from area alumni, who have since moved onto college, including three Hatboro-Horsham graduates.

The former students offer a sort of “alumni swagger,” Thomas said, adding that they understand the questions and challenges that students face in preparing for the festival.

“We’ve created a something,” Thomas said. “It feeds itself year after year.”

The Greenfield Film Festival began in 2008 with five participating schools and has since grown to include 21 schools.

“In a world that keeps being reminded of the terrible things that teenagers do we encourage them to share their thoughts, ideas, and stories in a productive way, and know that we care,” Greenfield Feldman said in a press release. “The Greenfield Youth Film Festival is making voices heard.”

Following Friday’s workshops, students will have two months to complete their own short films, which will be submitted for judging. Winners will be announced at a gala reminiscent of the Oscars on May 2 at the new Upper Dublin High School Performing Arts Center.

Of the 300 or more students vying for Greenies – the festival’s trophies – Thomas said more than 40 will be from Hatboro-Horsham. Films will represent all four categories: documentary, fictional narrative, music video and experimental, Thomas said.

Yet, even with so many students participating, Thomas said he was more concerned with quality as opposed to quantity. Because of setting high standards for the submitted shorts, Thomas said it was too soon to tell how many films would be entered in the contest.

“If it wouldn’t get a C or higher in your class don’t put it in the film festival,” Thomas said. “That raises the bar for everybody.”