High school students win international video award

Four Oceanside High School students have won a Silver Award in the 44th annual Telly Awards, an international program recognizing excellence in video and television across a variety of platforms. The award was presented in the Non-Broadcast: General-Student area of competition for Unmatched Talent, a student film written, directed, filmed, and edited by Tim Kunken and Bora Sever.

It features Sever and Thomas Biamonte as actors with Peter Arapas as the production assistant. The students were assigned a project by their media teacher, Tracy Busk, to create a film featuring a dream sequence. The students interpreted the concept of a dream metaphorically to create a film about what it takes to be successful in the arts. Sever was the ‘dreamer’ hoping for a career in music to Biamonte’ role as the judge.

“Bora got the inspiration from being in (the OHS production) of Fame,” said Biamonte, “We all had a say in creating the story, bouncing ideas off each other, choosing the songs...” Biamonte, a senior, will attend the University of Hartford in the fall.

Parts of the video were filmed in Sever’s room, where Kunken, who plans to study cinematography at Syracuse University, made use of the dream-like afternoon sun streaming through horizontal blinds. Arapas said the group worked as a team to create the story and he also helped set up shots, including zooming in at one part and flashing spotlights during the dance sequence. Arapas will be pursuing a trade after high school.

In addition to acting, Sever also worked with his co-creators to write, storyboard and pre-edit how they wanted the story to go. “Later things didn’t end up the same way as we planned,” he said, which is of course part of the creative process. Sever will be attending the SUNY Purchase conservatory where he plans to study editing and sound design.

Founded in 1979, the Telly Awards are a major industry-standard award recognizing the finest film and video productions, groundbreaking web commercials, and outstanding local, regional, and cable TV commercials and programs from around the world.

Entries are judged by members of the Telly Award Judging Council, composed of more than 200 industry-leading experts. Submissions are graded against a high standard of excellence under the criteria of content, quality of message, production and execution, and overall experience. More than 12,000 entries to the Telly’s are received each year.