The Student News Site of Monta Vista High School

El Estoque

The Student News Site of Monta Vista High School

El Estoque

The Student News Site of Monta Vista High School

El Estoque

Night Under the Stars: photos, film, food, and more

Night Under the Stars: photos, film, food, and more
Night Under the Stars: photos, film, food, and more




Photography, film, music, and food all in one place at one time—could you ask for anything more? The ASB Leadership  Histech commission and Community Leadership Community commission teamed up to organize the first Night Under the Stars event, a chance for students to relax and socialize while viewing some of their classmates’ creative work.

Night Under the Stars—NUTS, as it has been fondly abbreviated to—will take place in the library starting at 6:30 p.m. ending at approximately 9 p.m. on May 13.

The festival will kick off with a half-hour reception to showcase the photography entries. Viewers are invited to vote for their favorites in each of the four categories—Black and White, Portrait, Landscape, and Macro. After a 15-minute break, there will be a half hour to display the films, which were required to all be music videos. Dinner, provided by Community commission, will consist of pizza and soda for $3 per person, and will be served at 8 p.m. with live music featuring student bands and acapella groups for entertainment, which will last until 8:45 when the winners for photography and film are announced. Winners for photography will be rewarded $25 gift cards to stores of their choice, and the winning film will receive a $50 gift card.

Histech commission hosted a similar film festival in 2009, but plans for last year’s festival fell though when they did not receive enough submissions. This year, Histech commission actively worked to prevent the same issue.

“The main thing this year was targeting the people we knew were into videos and video-editing,” said Histech commissioner senior Crystal Hs.

Submissions were open to the whole school, and this year there was no shortage, with almost 15 to 20 photo submissions for each category, and Histech commission had to determine the 10 finalists per category in the actual show. Photographers were allowed to submit only one photo per category, but could submit to as many of the four categories as they liked. Senior Zaheer Mohiuddin will have three photos displayed on Friday—in black and white, landscape, and macro.

Mohiuddin is the only photographer with three photos, though a few others have two. Though many photographers submitted photos in all four categories, Histech did not allow too many finalist photos per photographer.

“We took [how many photos they had submitted] into consideration when we were debating between close calls,” Hsu said.

While competition is the focal point for the film and photo displays, the evening is expected to be wrapped up with relaxing dinner and music. The music acts are there purely for the art of performance, a fitting close for a night of art and enjoyment.

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