Every year, North Hollywood High School hosts an end-of-the-year film festival towards the day of graduation to bring students together and enjoy the hard work put into the music videos made by other students. Those enrolled in the NHHS film class are given the opportunity to participate in creating a unique music video with whatever (school-appropriate) song they choose.

Mr. Ward, the NHHS film teacher, has been teaching film for many years. He takes great pride and holds a lot of passion when it comes to the art of film. Those interested in taking his class should do so and take advantage of the opportunity to be enriched by the history of filmmaking and learn about how it all started.

Previous students who took Mr. Ward’s film class expressed similar attitudes by saying how it was “informative”, “fun”, and “thrilling”. Students in this class learn about the birth of motion pictures and the progress we have made to come this far. 

Mr. Ward gives the students many opportunities to take filming into their own hands by assigning their cameras to film during the class to complete other film based assignments. Moreover, they are given plenty of room for improvement and get an overall sense of what to do when it comes to their final project: the music video. 

Jocelyn Sandoval, a senior in SAS, is one of the students in Mr. Ward’s film class. She expresses how nervous yet excited she is to shoot the music video with her friends. “My group and I are kind of behind, we’re working on it…”

Another member of the group, Vanessa Abarca, a senior in SAS, says that “It’s coming along: we have a story board, a director, and wardrobe, so I think we have the basics set.” Abarca is the director of the production and Sandoval is the editor.

“I feel stressed because I had to come up with the script and I have to make sure that my actors perfectly execute their roles,” states Abarca. Taking on the role as director comes with many duties and she expresses feeling the pressure. 

The stars of the music video will be Susen Safryan and Israel Guzman, both seniors in SAS. 

“I had never heard of the song before but I’m up for it,” Safrayan says. She is happy with the role she will be playing.

Guzman believes that playing his character will be  “a little uncomfortable, especially the scenes that include Susen but other than that I’m meh about filming it…”

They are doing “Vas a Llorar Por Mi” by Banda el Recodo, which is the first promotional single from the groups latest studio album. This song is the most played and most listened to this week on Regional Mexican radio in the United States.

The group states that they chose this song among all other ones because they thought it would be funny to make a dramatic telenovela video.

Despite feeling the pressure of time since the project is due on the 22nd of May, and seeing that they must work on it on their own time, they collectively agree that it will be very difficult, but possible.

Another group consists of a single student: Rosie Yorke, a senior in SAS. However, she is not entirely alone as she includes her mom and dad in the film. Her video features “Space Song” by Beach House. The plot is based on her father becoming a widow as his wife passes away.

“Everybody was doing rap and upbeat songs, so I wanted to do something different. I wanted to bring the crowd together and feel for this couple. I wanted to do something sad,” Yorke states. 

Yorke’s father is an actor, with 30 years of experience, she believes that this will be very helpful when filming her scenes.

All in all, the film festival will be very eventful and a fun time to spend with friends.