Ashley Attanucci
Web Manager

Imagine 2,000 students running around a convention center, cameras and microphones in hand, curiously scoping the setting for an idea to base a winning video off of.

This was the scene at the Rosen Plaza Hotel in Orlando, Fla, where 20 KCBY students attended the annual Student Television Network (STN) Convention, racing against top students from across the nation and a strict deadline.

This year, for the first time in Coppell High School history, KCBY brought back first place bragging rights after winning first place in the Short Feature category. Seniors Keely Leonard and Allen McKlintock and junior Jordan Haggin made up the winning team.

“It’s usually a pretty hard contest to win just because it’s an open prompt and based on if the judges like the idea or not,” Leonard said.

Competing against some of the best film students in the country, exceptional techniques in lighting and editing were understood; a contestant’s fate was determined by the creativity of the direction taken with the vague prompts, which in Short Features’ case, demanded “the laws of gravity are broken.”

KCBY’s winning short feature film is a stop-motion film, the first stop motion experience for all the team members. Its film, composed of 727 frames features Haagin performing morning rituals of brushing hair and teeth and dressing oneself.

“We had Jordan go through a normal day doing what she would normally be doing except that it was done in her dream, and we addressed the prompt with the balloon scene because we had her as if she was floating back to bed which was obviously breaking Newton’s Laws,” Leonard said.

The trip to Orlando offered KCBY the opportunity not only to showcase what they have learned from teacher Irma Kennedy but to also push their own limits and bond with their peers.

“That was the beauty of all of this competition,” Kennedy said. “We collaborated and asked each other, ‘this is our prompt, what do you see’ and the team of that project put it together with their vision. One hundred twenty-two schools and 2,000 kids with their cameras being creative – it’s really neat to see.”

The Oscar-style awards ceremony kept the group in suspense, as the Short Feature category winners were one of the very last to be named. Senior KCBY member Ryan Clancy, who assisted the winning team in the production of their video, assures CHS was the loudest cheering for a win;

“The competition lasted about an hour and [Short Features was] the next to last competition,” Kennedy said. “We still hadn’t won. And [then] they announced ‘first place Coppell High School’, I was like ‘Wow! We did the best out of all the students here in this category’. We had an amazing time.”

Leonard, who left Orlando early and missed the awards ceremony, received the news with great enthusiasm.

“When I landed back in Dallas, I had a thousand text messages from everyone in KCBY saying ‘You won!’ It was really exciting,” Leonard said.

Aside from the great pride and spirit the first place award stirred in the group, KCBY members had a great time while in Orlando for three days, being creative during the convention and visiting Universal Studios.

“The students had really tight deadlines and if [the video] wasn’t there exactly, they didn’t accept it,” said Assistant Principal Michelle Kellen, who traveled with KCBY to Orlando. “I thought the kids did a great job and it was neat to see how hard they worked and for them to have good results and especially [look forward to] next year and have a really good time with it next year in Dallas.”

KCBY members are excited to attend STN next year, held in Dallas, for the cost of travel prohibited the other 34 KCBY members from being able to attend the convention.

“[The competition was] really intense and, by the time the weekend was over, we were exhausted, but it was fabulous and fabulous to see what the kids can do under pressure in a different environment, not only physically but under different confines, creatively working on the spot based on a prompt,” Kennedy said. “They focused and came out stronger; we worked as a team like we never have before and that’s priceless. There was a lot of growth those four days being a collaborator, team player. Probably the best trip we’ve ever been on with students.”

View winning video below: