Making movies, making memories

Video production teacher Audrey Miller, left, and her students, Jessica Silver, Zach Matzelle, Mike Lucido and Jacqueline Xerri.

Rebecca Melnitsky/Herald

A still from an animation by Jordan Landsberg that will be shown at the Oceanside Student Film Festival.

Courtesy Oceanside Schools

A still from “Bad Ziti” by Santino Morrone, which is about a mob boss who just wants ziti.

Courtesy Oceanside Schools

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Oceanside High School becomes Hollywood for a night with the seventh annual Oceanside Student Film Festival.

For students from the elementary, middle and high schools, the film festival on Friday is a chance to show off their moviemaking skills for an audience. A committee votes on the best films, and the audience votes for “Best in Show.” Devin Logan, an Oceanside High School graduate and silver medalist for Olympic freesking, even submitted a video.

Elementary and middle students get to learn the basics of video making from high school students in film camp, now in its third year. “It’s such a fun day,” said video production teacher Audrey Miller. “And they get so enthralled working with high school kids that they really pay attention, and they learn and they grasp the concepts. And they go back to their school and they share what they learned with the rest of their class and their teachers.”

High school students from Miller’s classes should be especially proud of their work. The Herald spoke to four students about their involvement with the film festival: seniors Jacqueline Xerri, Jessica Silver, Mike Lucido and junior Zach Matzelle. “These guys are awesome,” said Miller.

Lucido, 18, will act as the Master of Ceremonies for the film festival. He’s made movies for the film festival since middle school. “Ever since then I’ve been hooked,” he said. He has always enjoyed the collaborative nature of the film festival. “You see people in each other’s videos all the time,” he said. “And you see what they each bring to the table, in terms of their own style and everything. That’s something I really enjoy about the whole process — people are co-creating everything.”

Lucido hopes to study computer science and film in college. “I want to combine the two somehow,” he said. “And make it even easier for future filmmakers to go ahead and make their own works and share them with other people.”

Silver, 18, made a Public Service Announcement about talking to one’s younger self to give hope for the future. Her first film, in 10th grade, was about an evil donut. “Ms. Miller inspires us,” she said. “In the future I want to go to college for film because … I love making films and it’s my passion.”