By Janine Alven
Slickrock, one of the Central Valley's top student film festivals, is a big thing here at Minarets High School, with the media department being nominated and winning 19 awards over the years. And this year is no different, with media students from the media 1, 2, and advanced media classes being nominated for a total of eight videos in five categories.
Those students and categories being:
Blockbuster
“Disclosure”
Evan Bethel, Dustin Chancey, Jacob Viloria,
Abigail Campbell, Austin Bethel, Abigail Goodwin
“Legacy”
Ryan Abner, Lynden Johnson, Sam Franco,
Jacob Spain, Nick Sultana, Evan Bethal
General Advertisement
“Coast2Coast Pizza”
Ryan Abner, Sam Franco, Brandon Guy
“Mariposa Coffee Company”
Aidan Seielstad
General PSA
“Dangerous Distraction”
Delaney Stevenson, Daniel Stevenson, Isaac Townsend
“The Fear of Missing Out”
Ryan Abner, Lynden Johnson
Opioids/Fentanyl and Marijuana Prevention PSA
“Grass is Bad”
Luke Pearson
Suicide Prevention PSA
“Lonely”
Aidan Johnson, Niko Lombardi, Linden McDougald,
Ben Mooney, Isabella Barnes
Senior Ryan Abner, nine time Slickrock nominee, has been involved in the festival since he started at Minarets.
When asked about what being able to be a part of Slickrock is about, he said, “Priding yourself on your work and holding your work to a standard of being able to compete against the best in the Valley.”
The eight films that were nominated at Minarets will be competing against the others in the area that made the top five in their category. The winners of each category will be announced at the actual film festival on May 13, 2022 at the Visalia Fox Theater.
Abner also spoke about what he has experienced at the event since his freshman year.
The event itself has changed over the years; the last two years it has just been an awards ceremony. Though previously it was a full film festival, which is what it is slowly returning to, with the videos that made top five being shown thought the day, with people being interviewed by news anchors, then you get to the awards parts of the day where finalists ride in a limo to a red carpet which leads into the theater, where the top five videos are shown during their category which is when the awards are giving to the students who created the winning films.
As some of the eight films are in the same category, some will be competing against each other. So what are these films actually about?
Disclosure one of the two blockbuster films from Minarets is about a girl whose car breaks down on the side of the road, she wanders into the forest she find herself lost and encounters a creature in the woods
Legacy, the other blockbuster film nominated, is inspired by Abner’s grandfather, who was his main father figure until he passed away. The idea for the film came from when he went on rides in classic cars with his grandfather and, after he passed, Abner inherited the car.
Coast2Coast Pizza, one of the nominated videos in the general advertisement category, talks about business and origins of Coast 2 Coast Pizza in Clovis.
Mariposa Coffee Company, the other general advertisement from Minarets, and is about t
Dangerous Driving, one of the general PSAs from Minarets, is about texting and driving and the danger of doing so.
The Fear of Missing Out, the other film in the general PSA category, is about cell phone and screen time addiction, using many film techniques to show how even thirty seconds can seem excruciating while waiting for a notification.
Grass is Bad, is Minarets’s only film to make top in the Opioids/Fentanyl and Marijuana Prevention PSA, and is about the dangers of smoking weed.
Lonely, is the only film from Minarets to make top five in the Suicide Prevention PSA, and focus on how even if you have friends you can still feel alone.
With these eight nominations, the Minarets media department is excited to see if they can bring home some more rocks to add to the collection from this year's festival.