{"id":1044,"date":"2013-05-22T12:07:37","date_gmt":"2013-05-22T16:07:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=1044"},"modified":"2013-05-22T12:08:06","modified_gmt":"2013-05-22T16:08:06","slug":"unionville-high-teens-take-chance-with-film-and-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=1044","title":{"rendered":"Unionville High teens take chance with film and win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Short movie earns second-place finish in statewide competition<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/h1>\n
\n

By Kathleen Brady Shea<\/strong><\/span>,\u00a0Managing Editor, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Unionville<\/a>

Unionville High students Alan Dembek (from left), Molly Basilio, and Adam Carl show off their second-place prize for \u201cChances of,\u201d a digital short movie.<\/p><\/div>\n

The boy gets the girl in the film, and its Unionville High creators come up winners, too.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cChances of,\u201d a nearly five-minute short written by Unionville seniors Adam Carl and Alan Dembek, won second place Wednesday out of 22 entries statewide in the digital movie category of the Pennsylvania High School Computer Fair at Dickinson College in Carlisle.<\/p>\n

Starring sophomore Abu Akki and freshman Caroline Salisbury, the film depicts a boy\u2019s awkward and often humorous efforts to take a girl he likes to a dance. It boasts an original score by junior Shawn O\u2019Donnell and seniors Tim Pollick, and Andrew Popeo, and no narration, relying on the actors\u2019 facial expressions.<\/p>\n

Dembek was familiar with the state contest, which first required a win at the district level. A month before the qualifying round at the Chester County Intermediate Unit, he and Carl signed up \u2013 with no script in mind. \u201cWe just put our names down,\u201d said Carl. \u201cThat pressure really helped to drive the film.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\u201cChances<\/a>

\u201cChances Of,\u201d a short film by Adam Carl and Alan Dembek, won second place in the digital movie category at the Pennsylvania High School Computer Fair.<\/p><\/div>\n

After an inspiring meal at Buffalo Wild Wings, the pair had a plan, they said. They decided to focus on the school\u2019s MORP, a dance known as the anti-prom that features its backwards spelling.\u00a0 The script then evolved backwards as well, requiring the writers to devise a beginning that would lead up to the dance. Then reality interfered: Filming at MORP was not permitted without getting hundreds of waivers, they said.<\/p>\n

So Dembek, Carl and Basilio worked some Hollywood magic to recreate the scene a day after the dance \u2013 and three days before their deadline. Basilio assembled\u00a0120 glow-lite bracelets, 50 necklaces, six light-up mouthpieces, 10 LED light-up balloons, 20 neon balloons \u2013 and then added some candy to entice the extras.<\/p>\n

Basilio\u2019s\u00a0bribe worked: 53 people showed up. Dembek directed the photography and Carl handled the sound. \u201cIt actually worked better,\u201d Carl said of the staged event, \u201cbecause we got to go into the crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dembek said the film would not have happened without support from a host of people, including teachers Betsy Hickman and Jimmy Conley, who provided editing skills, and Dembek\u2019s ninth-period public-speaking classmates, who did an in-class reading.<\/p>\n

He said the list of assistants, which includes Geordie Massih and Ashish Streatfield, is so long that he\u2019s likely to forget people. \u201cIf you had anything at all to do with this, thank you so much,\u201d he said. \u201cWe went from having an idea in our head to an entire film in four weeks, and we couldn\u2019t have done it without everyone\u2019s support.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jean Stevens, from Unionville\u2019s computer applications department, accompanied the filmmakers to both the county and state competition, where they were awarded a check for $100.\u00a0Since the total will have to be split three ways, the winnings probably won\u2019t cover the group\u2019s costs, but the experience paid huge dividends, they said. \u201cWe really learned a lot,\u201d Carl said. \u201cWe feel we can go on to something better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carl said CDAV (Carl Dembek Audio-Visual) Productions started out as a joke. He said he and Dembek designed a logo for fun, eventually adding it to the film\u2019s opening. Now with a second-place finish and new ideas percolating, it\u2019s likely destined for some serious use, they said.<\/p>\n

The Pennsylvania High School Computer Fair is an annual event that highlights Pennsylvania high school students\u2019 application skills and computer knowledge, according to its web site. Students are able to unleash their creativity, learn how to convey information more dynamically, and enhance the learning process.<\/p>\n

To view Carl and Dembek\u2019s creation, visit\u00a0http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Y-JwJLspDjw<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Short movie earns second-place finish in statewide competition By Kathleen Brady Shea,\u00a0Managing Editor, The Times The boy gets the girl in the film, and its Unionville High creators come up winners, too. \u201cChances of,\u201d a nearly five-minute short written by Unionville seniors Adam Carl and Alan Dembek, won second place Wednesday out of 22 entries […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,7,12],"tags":[965,966,967,968],"class_list":["post-1044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-featured","category-schools","tag-adam-carl","tag-alan-dembek","tag-chester-county-intermediate-unit","tag-pennsylvania-high-school-computer-fair"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1044\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}