By Daniel Lahr

Executive Director, Central Coast Film Society

The final votes were tallied and incredible pieces of film, photography and media were chosen winners for the recent ‘Never Stop Creating’ competition hosted by the Central Coast Film Society. This was the first year for doing this event, and while it would have been great live, it was done virtually this year due to COVID-19.

“The past year these student creators have endured the unthinkable with lockdowns, remote classes and canceled events from school to sports and recreation,” said Raiza Giorgi, president of the Central Coast Film Society. “We wanted to give them an opportunity to do something positive. This competition gave them an opportunity for a creative for all those feelings bottled up, and wow, we saw just incredible work.”

The challenge covers all aspects of film, digital media arts and podcasting, including:

Film Challenge
Digital Media Arts — Podcasting Challenge
Digital Media Arts — Screenwriting/Storytelling Challenge
Digital Media Arts — Photography Challenge
Digital Media Arts — Highlight Reel Challenge (Editing, Acting, Short/Long Form Digital Content)

All students who submitted their films or creative works received constructive feedback from the Central Coast Film Society board members and were eligible for entry in the “Never Stop Creating” Student Showcase. Finalists entered into the online “Never Stop Creating” Student Showcase their their work reviewed May 1-2 by a panel of judges from the industry and academia to earn Awards for Excellence and available $100 scholarships for each category.

Dunn School student Quinn Stacy won for his Visual Effects entry. You can view the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IU2YsA3hph4.

“A reel of any kind — VFX, directing, acting, voice-over, etc — is itself a fine art. Quinn is off to a great start,” said judge Ken Napzok. “I trust he’ll continue to fine-tune the presentation of his reel with an emphasis on pacing, editing and the marriage of the music and the visual.”

Attendees of the online “Never Stop Creating” Student Showcase also had an opportunity to vote for their overall favorite works to determine the People’s Choice Award, worth an additional $100 scholarship.

The judges were Randi Barros of Cal Poly’s Interdisciplinary Studies in Liberal Arts; Skye McLennan, festival director for the SLO Film Festival; Napzok, podcaster, author and YouTube producer and host; Sheryl Franciskovich, publisher and creative director for SLO LIFE Magazine; Chris Lambert, creator of Your Own Backyard podcast and freelance journalist; Josh Ernstrom, digital media producer for PG&E; and Chris Burkard, international photographer and filmmaker.

For more information about the Central Coast Film Society, visit its website www.centralcoastfilmsociety.org, or follow it on social media.

Here is a list of winners below in their categories and the titles or their works:

Overall Excellence (Scholarship Winners):

Category: Film

BRAIN DEAD — Ian Hammons, San Luis Obispo High School

Category: Photography

Shadow Fork Photography — Keira Prazanowski, Central Coast New Tech High School

Category: Screenwriting/Storytelling

Kingdom of Happy Fallacies — Ian McKay, San Luis Obispo High School

Category: Film Editing/Reel

Quinn’s 2020 VFX Reel — Quinn Stacy, Dunn School

Category: Podcasting