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By Douglas McCulloch
Hometown Weekly Staff
It was a night of fashion and film as Walpole High School hosted its annual Film Festival over the past two weeks, which ended with the big Red Carpet Awards Night last Thursday.
Over the past two weeks of the Film Festival, students in Walpole High’s film class showed off films that the students created in class. From writing the scripts to acting to producing and editing, the student-made films showcased what the students have learned in Walpole High’s film class.
After all of the films had been shown in a two-night screening event, the awards ceremony was held last Thursday. Before the show, the students who took part in creating the films paraded down a red carpet set up in front of the school just like a real Hollywood awards show.
For James Connolly, who served as producer of the film festival, he always enjoys seeing the buzz and fun that comes with the awards show.
“The place was abuzz,” Connolly said. “It’s abuzz for the other two nights, but there is nothing like the awards night. It’s a really fun time.”
This year, the film “Static” topped the awards ceremony with wins in five categories, including Best Picture, Best Director (Felicia Romeo, Katie McGovern, and Matt Moriaty), Best Actor (Katie McGovern), Best Art Direction (Felicia Romero and Kaitie McGovern), and Best Cinematography (Felicia Romeo).
“Static” is an art film centering on the topic of drug addiction. The film follows a young woman dealing with a lot of stress from academics, her family and friends as she increasingly turns to drugs to cope with her problems. What starts out as a prescription painkiller addiction brings the main character to hit rock bottom, where the film abruptly ends.
The night’s other big winners included the film “RuFiske Cube,” which won three awards, including Best Editing (Dan Mullen, Lisa Regan, and Tyler Barry), Achievement in Music (Rishab Mathur) and Best Supporting Actor (Tess Lancaster).
“RuFiske Cube” is the third film in a trilogy that Walpole High students have been creating at the film festival going back to 2010. It tells the story of a student who stumbles upon a powerful cube that can bend the laws of physics.
“It had amazing editing,” Connolly said. “The girl was invisible, she was walking on the ceiling, they did some amazing things on the computer.”
Leading out the top three winners is “Poetic License,” which picked up two awards, for Best Screenplay (Kristin Mich, Emma Lochhead, Drew Morrier, and Katie Fenton) and Best Faculty Performance (Mike Alan).
The film follows a high school teacher’s attempt to instill inspiration in a student struggling to come up with a topic for his poem. The teacher, played by film and English teacher Mike Alan, sets the student up on a fake date to inspire the student to write a poem about love.
