Congratulations to Field 5th graders Julien Butchko and Jameson Fumagalli for winning the Elementary Grand Prize in the Google Chicagoland Film Fest. Their stop-motion "Worlds" thoroughly impressed the judges.
Julien and Jameson have gone back-to-back in the competition, winning first place in stop-motion last year! You can watch this interview and their film here.
"We were really happy and excited," said Jameson, recalling the feeling that their film had won. "We can't wait to go to the Film Fest again."
"I was surprised," said Julien. "I was like, 'oh my gosh, we won again?!' We won last year, so it was like, 'Will we win again this year?' I couldn't believe it. Two years in a row."
Field Elementary School ITC Jessica Ross was ecstatic to see the student's hard work being recognized and that they found something they're passionate about.
"I'm so proud. It's great to watch our students grow," said Ross. "To think we just started teaching them stop-motion. It's a club for fun, and now they're here working together, creating something real and tangible for them. It's really nice to see."
The film took the two Field 5th graders around 13 hours to create.
"Well, we spent a lot of time planning it and brainstorming a lot of ideas," said Jameson.
This year's theme for the competition was "My World," and students were asked to think about the following ideas when preparing the videos:
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STOP and LOOK... What do you notice from the world around you?
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CONSIDER... Where is my place in my world?
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THINK... What is bringing people together?
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ASK... How is the world changing?
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LISTEN... What do you notice in the quiet around you?
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OBSERVE... What do you notice in the busyness of life?
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SPOTLIGHT... Traditions, Celebrations, Diversity, Inclusion
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SHARE... What makes your world special and important?
"I told Julien this at the beginning...' Let's go big or go home,' and that's what we did. We won the grand prize," added Jameson.
With two first-place finishes at the Film Fest, Julien and Jameson make a pretty good team.
"I think we're both creative, and we have all of these good ideas," said Jameson. "I couldn't do it without him, and he couldn't do it without me. It's both of us combined."
Worlds is a film with different...worlds, and without spoiling the plot, it is about the importance of always treating others with kindness.
"It's almost like if we don't change now...we're still not treating people equally sometimes. But in the future, if we don't change, that's what it might look like," said Julien as he explained the message behind their movie. "So if we change, it could not look like that, and we could all be treating everybody equally."
Julien and Jameson will be honored at the Film Fest on February 13th, and part of the award show is submitting an acceptance speech. I put the two friends turned award-winning filmmakers on the spot to see if they knew what they wanted to say, and they delivered masterfully!
"I'm going to say thank you to my amazing partner, Julien, for helping me with this film," said Jameson. "And thank you to Mrs. Ross and Mr. Mark for helping us edit and getting us into the competition. Thank you."
"Yep, I would like to say thank you to my wonderful partner Jameson and thank you to Mrs. Ross and Mr. Mark for teaching us how to edit and also getting us into the competition," said Julien.