My Oscars: The Shorty's
Our student ministry does an outreach event on Oscar night in which we have popcorn and such and watch the event on the big screen in our youth room. We started doing this to balance out the "Super Bowl" outreach since our ministry has become a haven for creative artistic types ever since we installed our art gallery. It's fun...with the highlight of the kids picking the winners with the person who gets most out of the 24 getting a gift certificate to the movie theatres.
Anyway, I think I only saw Lord of the Rings (which, apparently, was all I needed to see) and Finding Nemo...and only want to see Lost in Translation and "13" and 21 Grams on DVD...so I wasn't really into the happenings on the big screen.
What actually made my night was a new addition to our Oscar night outreach: We decided to have a short film festival (10 minutes each) to encourage any budding Christian filmmakers who might be in our group or to have teens who might not have a church home have an opportunity to get involved. It was our first foray into something like this so we didn't know what would happen.
I was pleasantly surprised.
Over the six weeks we got plenty of submissions, and 3 films were nominated to win the Shorty (a golden videotape on a plaque). Over 130 teenagers and parents showed up for the early afternoon screening and I expected the films to all be pretty good. They were...the teens took it seriously. "A Boy Named Dilgo" won...a computer animated romantic short. It beat out a really funny spoof entitled "Bored of the Rings."
What I thought was really cool was the enthusiasm the crowd showed. At the end of each film that won a spot in the screenings there was genuinely appreciative applause and all sorts of encouraging hooting and such. And when the winner was announced the place really went wild. And Everett Bradford, the senior that wrote, directed and animated the film, gave a really touching acceptance speech when he talked about his girlfriend being the inspiration for it. The placed "awwww"-ed and then when he said his final thank you they went wild again.
Even the directors/actors of runner-up Bored of the Rings were excited to have been in the screening and were excited over the true enjoyment the crowd showed them and their work. They were getting the accolades of their families and friends after it was over.
I guess what I never get tired of seeing is watching how much teenagers support each other on things like this. There just doesn't seem to be any of the normal divisions. They showed up to watch their friends' movies. They clapped for the directors of the movies whether they knew them or not. They shook hands and gave hugs. Athletes applauded goth-dressed directors. Goth-dressed friends laughed at drama kids' production. And it was real.
And it was cool to watch. It made my Oscar night...before the show even came on. And I think we're on to something. I already can't wait for next year's Shorty's.
Our student ministry does an outreach event on Oscar night in which we have popcorn and such and watch the event on the big screen in our youth room. We started doing this to balance out the "Super Bowl" outreach since our ministry has become a haven for creative artistic types ever since we installed our art gallery. It's fun...with the highlight of the kids picking the winners with the person who gets most out of the 24 getting a gift certificate to the movie theatres.
Anyway, I think I only saw Lord of the Rings (which, apparently, was all I needed to see) and Finding Nemo...and only want to see Lost in Translation and "13" and 21 Grams on DVD...so I wasn't really into the happenings on the big screen.
What actually made my night was a new addition to our Oscar night outreach: We decided to have a short film festival (10 minutes each) to encourage any budding Christian filmmakers who might be in our group or to have teens who might not have a church home have an opportunity to get involved. It was our first foray into something like this so we didn't know what would happen.
I was pleasantly surprised.
Over the six weeks we got plenty of submissions, and 3 films were nominated to win the Shorty (a golden videotape on a plaque). Over 130 teenagers and parents showed up for the early afternoon screening and I expected the films to all be pretty good. They were...the teens took it seriously. "A Boy Named Dilgo" won...a computer animated romantic short. It beat out a really funny spoof entitled "Bored of the Rings."
What I thought was really cool was the enthusiasm the crowd showed. At the end of each film that won a spot in the screenings there was genuinely appreciative applause and all sorts of encouraging hooting and such. And when the winner was announced the place really went wild. And Everett Bradford, the senior that wrote, directed and animated the film, gave a really touching acceptance speech when he talked about his girlfriend being the inspiration for it. The placed "awwww"-ed and then when he said his final thank you they went wild again.
Even the directors/actors of runner-up Bored of the Rings were excited to have been in the screening and were excited over the true enjoyment the crowd showed them and their work. They were getting the accolades of their families and friends after it was over.
I guess what I never get tired of seeing is watching how much teenagers support each other on things like this. There just doesn't seem to be any of the normal divisions. They showed up to watch their friends' movies. They clapped for the directors of the movies whether they knew them or not. They shook hands and gave hugs. Athletes applauded goth-dressed directors. Goth-dressed friends laughed at drama kids' production. And it was real.
And it was cool to watch. It made my Oscar night...before the show even came on. And I think we're on to something. I already can't wait for next year's Shorty's.
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