Los Altos High School’s Film Analysis classes are set to host the day Film Festival on Monday, May 19, and the evening festival on Friday, May 30. There will be 58 student-produced films — ranging from horror films to comedies to animations.

“Being an executive producer for all the films is a passion project,” Film Analysis teacher Susanna Herrera said. 

Every student in Film Analysis is working on their own film, and students share their films with the class throughout  the process. Senior Camila Brito is one of the students that received feedback on her presentation.

“We got a lot of good feedback on mostly lighting and camera movement,” Camila said. “The film was really dark due to filming at night.”

“That is an intimacy and a different kind of relationship than you would have peer editing a research paper,” Herrera said. “This is because everybody has such a strong and visceral reaction to what’s on film. Visually and just hearing the audio can make you feel very different things than reading an essay.”

Senior Luwan Huang is working on an animated film about chasing dreams. The main character is a block in a room that slowly moves into the sun. Luwan wants the block to come across as a real person.

“I spent a lot of time on the block’s expression, because I think that’s gonna be what will help people learn it’s personal,” Luwan said. 

In the film, the sun goes through the window just missing the block, while the block yearns to feel sunlight.

“What I’m focused on right now is to show how the block really wants to feel the light,” Luwan said.

Senior Iris Wu is also making a short animated film — one that’s hand-drawn. Iris has always been drawn to animation, both with watching it or the idea of getting to create it. She saw the Film Festival project as the perfect opportunity to explore this interest.

Iris had no prior experience in animation and didn’t know what to expect. She learned to focus on certain aspects, such as sound effects, to make her film come alive.

“I’m careful with a lot of cartoon sound effects,” Iris said. “I didn’t want to use many popular sound effects used especially in Western cartoons, because I just didn’t think it fitted the visual style that I have in my animation. It’s very Japanese-inspired, with its pastel and kawaii style, colors, and character design.”

Another aspect Iris explored was the depiction of speed. In animation, one movement (such as a hand wave) is drawn in multiple frames. Iris realized that spacing between each frame — not the number of frames — dictates how fast a movement appears to an audience. 

“One thing I learned on my own is about the spacing between each movement,” Iris said. “When spacing is closer, the movement appears slower. When the spacing is further apart, the movement appears to be quicker.”

One of the biggest challenges in animation that Iris encountered is determining how long of a scene she should show. Without another pair of eyes, she loses that sense. Iris turns to her classmates for advice.

“In film class, I found critiques on timing really helpful,” Iris said. “If I want a moment to really stand out, I have to show it really clearly. If I don’t show it for long enough, the audience might wonder what happened.”

Meanwhile, another group is steering towards an entirely different genre for their final project: comedy.

“Comedy needs a character you can make fun of, in a sense,” film director senior Théo Barbou-des-Places said.

The group’s main inspirations were “Groundhog Day,” “The Graduate,” and comedy director Edgar Wright. Building on their vision — to make people laugh — the team first found inspiration from the lead actor himself, senior Pranav Kausik.

“‘The Graduate’ is about a very introverted, awkward college student my group all thought was funny,” Théo said. “Our main actor, Pranav Kausik, is kind of like that as well. So when I was writing the script, I was like, ‘Yeah, this is perfect.’”

The film’s journey was not smooth, as the team struggled with maintaining shot continuity — the film is based on time loops — and managing schedules. The team has had five to six meet-ups, spending around 16 to 20 hours on actual shoots.

What makes the group unique is that they shoot at actual locations, such as using an actual reception room at a dental office. Although it is frustrating for the team to coordinate times with such conflicting schedules between five people, everyone enjoys various parts of the process. They all share one goal.

“I just hope they laugh,” film assistant director senior Joseph Tadros said. “A lot of the times when you’re in the film festival, people don’t get laughs. If we can get the audience to chuckle, laugh, and have a little bit of fun watching it, it’ll be worth it.”

Admission is free and open to the public, and $5 donations will be accepted at the door.