TRAVERSE CITY -- Young filmmakers honed their skills at this year's Traverse City Film Festival. Many said they picked up things they wouldn't be able to learn elsewhere.
Casey Aaron Voss, 13, of Traverse City, said his interest in filmmaking started by using toys most of us probably own.
"I just did Lego animations. That's where I started," he said. "It just sort of came to me one day. I just had an idea to do stop animation and I just did some experimenting and found that it was really fun."
Adin Harmon, 16, of Traverse City, and a friend wrote, directed and produced a 15-minute film, "Chasing the Daylight."
"(It's) ungodly good for a first film," Harmon said. "It's a movie on the IRA, the Irish Republican Army, specifically, the provisional IRA. It's a thriller," he said.
Jon Casey, 19, of Southfield, made a montage right before coming to the festival. He says it shows a collection of scenery from around Grand Traverse Bay. While filming, he had the kind of experience many filmmakers hope to come across.
"This one guy snorkeled all the way from the lighthouse in that little river," he said. "He snorkeled all the way to that little beach there and there were these fishermen and he got caught up in their line on his way up on the shore. The first thing he did when he got up on shore was ask for a cigarette."
Clayton Queen, 16, of Traverse City, had a film scheduled to be shown in "Shorts by Students" Sunday at the Old Town Playhouse. He said "A Fruit" is one of his favorite films that he has made.
"It's about some fruit. One of the evil yogurts is trying to make pear yogurt with a pear," he said. "So it's their rescue mission to try to get the pear back. Just a fun little animation."
Film festival videographer Mark Dragovich said kids who come to the festival have a unique experience.
"It's a way for you to expand what could be your reality. You could be the ones up there on the big screen, so youth really need to be involved in filmmaking. It's an art that's desperately needing some youth injected into it."
Andrew Ducharme, 10, of Elk Rapids recommends the festival to other kids.
"This would really help you out and you would see some of the older and a lot newer movies," he said. "It just gives you examples and shows you how to do this kind of thing."
This article was written by Chelsea Parrish, 17, Lane Whitley, 15, and Tia Platteborze, 13, with contributions by Andrew Powell, 17, and Hayley Maskus, 16. They are the members of a team of reporters from 8-18 Media, a youth journalism program of the Upper Peninsula Children's Museum in Marquette who are in Traverse City covering youth issues at the film festival.
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