St. Margaret’s Film Students Excel in Unique Storytelling Competition

Six teams of cinematic arts students at St. Margaret’s had a challenge: Create an original narrative short film, using only stock footage video, music and sound effects, and recorded audio narration.

The contest, the Narrative Editing Stock Footage Challenge, was part of the National Film Festival for Talented Youth. The six teams all put together moving films, and two of the teams were honored for their final cuts.  

Kat Dubrow, a freshman, won first place for her film The Color of You, while juniors Kate Lee and Winston Verdult won second place for their film Archivist. The winners received a prize package including a cash prize, subscriptions to AudioSocket, books, t-shirts and more.

The competition was a unique one, as students had to rely solely on footage they did not personally create from the collection on StoryBlocks, a royalty-free video service. Despite the challenge, the six St. Margaret’s teams told compelling stories with themes of love, loss, healing and inspiration.

St. Margaret’s film teacher Karen Bennett said the competition was a great way for students to work on writing and editing skills.

“In this challenge, students are forced to rely solely on original narrative storytelling, particularly on the aspect of character arc, to bring unrelated images into focus as a cohesive story,” Ms. Bennett said. “Similar to found art or mixed media projects in the visual arts, our film students are tasked with finding a way to construct an artistic, edited thread between unrelated images to tell a story.”

To see all six of St. Margaret’s films, including the two winning entries, click here.