The 6th annual DeKalb County Student Film Festival is slated to take place on March 26 at the Porter Sanford Performing Arts Center.
The film festival will showcase 17 short films by students from McNair, Lakeside, Southwest DeKalb, DeKalb School of the Arts, Chamblee, Arabia Mountain, Tucker, Miller Grove, Dunwoody and DeKalb Technology-South High Schools. According to a press release, the student filmmakers were required to use the prompt line, “I didn’t see that coming,” a deck of playing cards as a prop, and a character named “Kai Miller.” The films are each up to three minutes long.
One of the student filmmakers participating this year is Isabella Brathwaite, a 17-year-old senior at DeKalb School of the Arts. She learned about the film festival when she attended with her mom in eighth grade and knew she wanted to be a part of it when she was old enough. She has been entering the film festival since she was in 10th grade.
This year, Brathwaite directed a film called “Butterfly Effect.” The movie is about a smaller indie band that’s just on the cusp of making their big break, but running into some big issues.
“You’re witnessing the moment before the band breaks up,” she said. “It’s them after the gig. They’re decompressing, and you see what unfolds that leads to the band breaking up.”
Brathwaite said that by the time she and her group had come up with their idea, they spent about two to three days coming up with characters and writing the script. They shot the film all in one day in a friend’s basement and took about a week to edit.
Brathwaite said she found editing to be the most challenging part of the filmmaking process this time around.
“[Editing] was a more tedious process this particular year, because we just really wanted to nail it,” she said. “Fine tuning really comes in with editing and layering music, layering sound. So I think that was the most difficult process.”
In the run up to the big day, Brathwaite and the rest of her group have been coming up with new ways to promote the film. This year, the producer of their film had the idea to make movie posters for their project.
“That’s the first time I’ve ever done that. We did that last week, and we’re going to be posting them on our Instagram probably next week,” she said. “We did a whole photoshoot with the entire cast.”
According to the release, the festival entries will be judged into one of two categories: Novice or Advanced. Films will have the opportunity to win awards such as Best Overall, Best Editing, Best Acting, Best Sound Design, Best Wardrobe/Makeup, Best in Show, and Audience Choice. Winners will be announced during the festival.
The DeKalb County Student Film Festival is free to attend and presented in partnership with the DeKalb County School District and re:imagine/ATL. The event starts at 6:30 at the Porter Sanford Performing Arts Center, located at 3181 Rainbow Drive in Decatur.