Out of 744 submissions, three out of the nine LHS films made it to the top 12 of the state semi-finals.  The submissions that made it into state are “Aerial Lampasas: A Hill Country Jewel,” “Hidden Gem” and “Jumpin Ghosts.” 

“Jumpin Ghosts” is a traditional animation while “Aerial Lampasas” and “Hidden Gem” are documentaries. 

Senior Damaris Martinez led “Hidden Gem” production.

“Aerial Lampasas” gained townwide momentum on social media and around the school. 

“We did drone footage for this one,” junior Elizabeth Cross said. “We got information about Lampasas and kind of did a documentary about Lampasas.”

Cross led “Aerial Lampasas” production. Other producers were  Martinez, senior Alyze Guana, senior Marrisa Marez, senior Charlie Herndon and Brin Herndon.

“I liked making films,” Cross said. “I like the independence of it. I liked being able to make something myself.”

Many of the film producers gave up their own time in order to release the films. 

“There’s a ton of time invested into this,” U.I.L film coach Catherine Kuehne said.  “We gave up a couple of days of Christmas to work on this. The programs themselves aren’t hard to learn, but you have to be dedicated.” 

The U.I.L film team is planning to have a film festival in Brook Park that is free to the public.

“It’s fun to see students get creative and express themselves,” Kuehne said. “It’s not your traditional pen and paper homework.”. 

Sophomores Errian Young, Hunter Lea and Jordan Plummer produced “Jumpin Ghosts.”

Skills to perform well in film differ from camerawork, software editing, storytelling, animation expertise and various other branches of ingenuity.

“For traditional animation, you have to draw every frame, keep the style mostly consistent, and you have to add music and sound effects for the tone you’re trying to create,” Young said.