The Socorro Independent School District rolled out the red carpet for future filmmakers at the 2022 Horror Fest at Pebble Hills High School in November. The film festival showcased the talents of high school audio/video students across the district with special screenings of the scary movies they created.
Socorro High School sophomore Briana Ramirez won first place for her short film about aliens, first love, and time travel. She said Horror Fest allowed students like herself to express themselves creatively through the filmmaking process.
“A lot of people aspire to do these things, and sometimes they don’t do it because no one supports them,” Ramirez said. “Events like this really help to unleash (that) creativity in people that never would have done (this) in the first place.”
The Arts, Audio/Video Technology, and Communications career cluster in SISD’s Career and Technical Education program allows students to develop the technical knowledge and skills for success in these areas.
Benjamin Munguia, Pebble Hills High School audio/video production teacher, said the annual movie festival empowered audio/video students at the different high schools to use their creativity to create short films in the horror movie genre. He said students gained hands-on opportunities to learn the filmmaking process because they followed the same production standards and protocols of real Hollywood movies.
“A lot of kids think that you point a camera and a movie appears,” Munguia said. “They don’t necessarily realize all of the logistical challenges that are in place. So, we try to teach them the actual production process from preproduction all the way through post. The most exciting part, of course, is this event distribution, sharing the movie with your audience, getting instant feedback. That’s what (this) really gives us the opportunity to do.”
In keeping with the red-carpet treatment, students dressed up for the film festival as if they were attending the Academy Awards ceremony. Hollywood producers and directors judged the films.
Munguia said he hoped that the opportunity for students to see their movie and name appear on the festival’s big screen would inspire them to pursue filmmaking as a career path.
Miguel Valverde, a senior at Eastlake High School, said he has been making films since he was a child, starting with stop-action movies featuring his toy action figures. He joined the high school’s audio/video program during his freshman year. He said the red carpet festivities helped him to get a taste of real-world filmmaking.
“You can make a movie at a professional level,” Valverde said. “We made it at an amateur level, but we dipped our toes basically. We’re getting a feel for what it really is (to make a movie). So, I think it’s really important to have events like this because it gives us an idea of how it’s going to be in the future when we really pursue this.”
Horror Fest film festival event photos
Published January 13, 2023
Strategic Direction: College and Career Readiness