“The 10 Day Film Challenge” is a filming contest that allows high school students to have 10 days to make a video based off of the information given to them by the non-profit Ten-Day Film Challenge company. Students from nine countries, including the United States, and 23 states participated in the challenge that has seen some good results from Cinnaminson High School’s (CHS) Advanced TV Program in the past five years.

Prior to this  year, CHS won three awards for best in New Jersey – fifth in 2014, second in 2015 (and fifth in the country) and ninth in 2016.  The production of Chimera was one that was a great deal of work for the Advanced TV class, but they were not sure what to expect when they submitted the work.  When the awards were being announced last Friday, April, Mr. Wilson’s Advanced Television Class was confident in their work, but still somewhat surprised at the outcome.

The awards were called for the top 10 and the announcer kept trickling down – fifth best, fourth best and finally, Cinnaminson was called for the third-best film in the state of New Jersey.  Mr. Wilson, adviser to the TV Production program at CHS was taken back with the award.

“We’re thrilled to see how our work is being recognized by others in the state, but are having a hard time putting it into words how honored we are at the award we received,” Wilson said.

Chimera was awarded third-best film overall and best screenplay and now moves on to the national competition.  According to the website, http://www.tendayfilm.org/, “The Top Films from each state AND the multi-state Challenge will compete in June at the 10 Day Film Challenge Championships in a city to be determined for Best Film.”

During the competition, the students are provided with certain lines to use, props, characters names, and background information. An important rule is that the students are not allowed to work on the project outside of school. According to senior Nicky Sullivan, the objective of the 10 Day Challenge is to “make a video based off of the details that the judges give them within a matter of 10 school days.”

The project is very challenging for the Advanced TV class because they could not choose some of the details that you may want to due to the details already given. Following the specific guidelines of this assignment is essential to the success of creating a well produced film.

Due to all the rules, guidelines, and restrictions, the hardest part about the 10-Day Challenge according to Hailey Gutowski is “coming up with and all agreeing with the variety of different ideas that each person has.”

Students probably had a different view of how they would like the video to be completed which might result in the students clashing heads with each other from time to time. It seems like the students disagreeing with each other is inevitable due to the amount of students with a variety of opposing ideas that there is in the class.

One would think that someone within the group has to take some control of the project but not according to Gutowski, who says the whole class is able to work together and compromise on their individual ideas. It is quite surprising that no one really attempts to take control of the group but that is probable for the best as it avoids unnecessary arguments. Ultimately, the group that was part of the 10 Day Challenge was successful and managed to make a film in 10 days which is quite impressive.

Chimera starred seniors CJ Cunnane, Jess Raday and George Snedden with music contributions from Mr. Matz and the remaining 13 members of the class acting as writers, editors and directors of the film.  The film can be found at the following link – Advanced TV’s 2018 film, Chimera