Multiple students at Mountain Ridge High School entered a short film into the Rocky Mountain Emmy Awards and took home multiple wins.

Media Productions students Clayton Moore, Connor Harris, and Brandon Pero won the Craft Editor and Cultural Affairs Emmy awards for their short film on cyberbullying. They entered their film into the Rocky Mountain Emmy Awards and won 1^st place at the FBLA Regionals. The award ceremony was held on September 22, 2018 at the Chateau Luxe. They competed against high school and college students in Southern California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona.

“It’s a huge success to me early on, I mean knowing that I was 16 when I won this, and that this is just the beginning of my career in video editing and video making. For me it’s a symbol of a start to a great career in the future,” said Clayton Moore.

Moore hopes to win an Academy Award for one of his future films. He says he is currently in the progress of making another short film with Brandon Pero and Connor Harris.

“Video editing to me is me being my own person and filming whatever I want and editing it how I want and that’s what I like about it,” Clayton Moore said.

The Media Productions class gives students creative freedom to make their visions come alive and really enjoy the films they are working on. However, they still had to invest a great deal of effort to produce a film they were proud of.

Mrs. Bernard shared, “They excelled at coordinating their schedules, production dates, and ideas and how to set the shots, lighting, camera angles, and sets to convey their message.  This started off as a competition project for FBLA and they worked very hard on this for about 2 months.”

Click on the link below to watch their PSA on Cyberbullying!

Kate Ourada, a Mountain Ridge senior, also made a video on “How Bullying Effects LGBT+ Youth” with her partner August. They took home the Craft Talent Emmy award for their piece.

They made the video as part of an after-school journalism program they are in called Spot 127, which is run by the radio station KJZZ. Part of Spot 127 is writing, performing, and producing videos and other media on issues that teens face.

Ourada shared, “To have your work achieve something like that is a pretty major experience and I am thrilled that we achieved it.”

These Mountain Ridge students’ passion for Media was greatly rewarded in a way that few students get to experience. They showed that with a little inspiration and a lot of dedication you can make a dream come alive.