Maine West Film Student Katie Huk Earns NATAS Nomination! #207Now #filmmaking #studentemmy @wmth_west @mainewestfab

The Foundation of The National Academy for Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) announced the nominees for the 2025 National Student Production Awards. Nominees were selected from high school student entries from across the United States in 25 different programming and craft categories. 

"The EMMY® Awards are the “gold standard” in the television broadcast industry - recognizing the very best of the best. Similarly, the National Student Production Awards recognize the very best from our industry’s next generation of media creators and leaders.,” said Terry O’Reilly, Chairman, NATAS. “The work they’re doing today promises an amazing future ahead - for them, and for the entire television community."

“The work created by our nominees is exemplary,” said Danielle Mannion, Education Chair, NATAS. “Each year the students and their teachers raise the bar of excellence higher. The future of the industry looks bright with these talented individuals leading the way!”

This year’s submissions were successfully culled from over 2000 entries from the regional chapters of The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Entries were judged by selected industry professionals and media academics.

Maine West's Kathryn Huk received a national nomination in the category of commercial for her piece, Eggo: Worth the Wait.

A NATAS nomination is the equivalent to being nominated for a student Emmy award! It is a huge honor and means you are in the top 2-5 projects of your submitted category. 

Enjoy "Eggo: Worth The Wait" below:

The Premiere of R. Adaya's Film, "The Choraliers" #207Now #filmmaker @wmth_west

Today after school, Russell Adaya hosted a premiere of his newest film, "The Choraliers," in the Maine West Auditorium. The film, which focuses on the Maine West extra-curricular choral group of the same name, is the first in a planned trilogy, and had a comedic bent.

Congratulations to Russell and all of his friends who collaborated to make the film! We look forward to the next film in the series!

Maine West Film Students Find Success at MMEA Film Festival & NATAS 2023 #207Now #mediaarts #excellence @wmth_west @mainewestfab @mwactivities

The work of several Maine West film students recently received recognition from two prestigious film organizations: Midwest Media Educators' Association (MMEA) and The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS; the organization behind the Emmy Awards). 

We are so proud of these students and their film teacher, Ms. Rebecca Orr, for their achievements!

Congratulations to the following students:

The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Student Production Award Nominees (LINK)

Ash Carmichael - Arts and Culture Nomination: Expressing Identity Through Art

Addie Webb - Serious News Nomination: Banned Book Week at Maine West

Russell Adaya - Public Service Announcement Nomination: Be Kind PSA

Midwest Media Educators' Association Award Recipients (LINK)

Kris Modi - Recipient of the Lucas Palermo Scholarship

Marjorie Padar and Avery Rizzi - 1st Place Demonstration: How To Put Up a Birdhouse  

Nikhil Nair - 3rd Place Demonstration: How to Make a "Dum" Good Biryani

Ash Carmichael - 2nd Place News Package: Expressing Identity Through Art

Abby Wilson - 5th Place News Package: New Feature Twirler: Olivia Young

Marjorie Padar - 3rd Place Public Service Announcement: Surviving Your Family During the Holidays

Ben Pluta - 4th Place Public Service Announcement: Porch Pirate PSA

Ben Pluta - 3rd Place Talk Show: Career Corner with Michael Norman

More pictures from the 2023 Midwest Media Educators' Association can be found HERE.

Maine West Broadcasting Students Earn Awards from NATAS and MMEA! #207Now #broadcasting #mediaartseducation @wmth_mainewest

Students in Maine West's broadcasting program distinguished themselves as some of the best student broadcasters and filmmakers in the region by earning a number of awards at the Midwest Media Educators' Association (MMEA) Festival on Friday, April 29, 2022! Congratulations to all of the students on your incredible achievements! We are so proud of you!

Brooke Capper's piece, The Hope Wall, took home two awards: 

• 1st Place and Crystal Pillar Winner from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) for Light News
• 2nd Place News Package from the Midwest Media Educators' Association

Brooke Capper's piece, From Pain to Hope, took home 1st Place in Documentary Filmmaking from the MMEA

Ben Pluta's piece, Libraries of the Past: Terry Blue's Honor Flight, took home 3rd Place in Documentary Filmmaking from the MMEA. Ben's piece also received a NATAS nomination. 

Nitya Nair and Lindsey Kulesza's piece, How to Make a Dessert Charcuterie Board, took home 2nd Place in Demonstration Video from the MMEA.

Warrior Weekly- 4th Place News Program MMEA 

Anchors: Said Nonoal, Andrew Stutheit, Nitya Nair, Lindsey Kulesza 

Producers: Abby Wilson, Said Nonoal, Brooke Capper, Addie Webb, Ash Carmichael 

News Packages: Addie Webb, Brooke Capper, Leena Lugo, Nitya Nair, Lindsey Kulesza

Intro Video: Damian Liakopolous 

Head Editor: Sam Lightfoot 

Warrior Weekly 57 

Three Maine West Filmmakers' Films Selected for SCREEN TEST STUDENT FEST & Brooke Capper's Film Places Third! #207Now #studentfilmmakers #mediaarts #mediaartsed @wmth_mainewest

This past Friday, April 8th at 7:00 p.m. the Schaumburg Prairie Arts Center hosted Screen Test Student Fest, a film festival featuring work by student filmmakers from around Chicagoland. Over 50 films were submitted to this festival and only ten were selected to be part of the festival. Among those ten are THREE films by Maine West film students!

Aydin Khan (junior) presented his short film, Garage Door. 

Brooke Capper (sophomore) presented her documentary, From Pain to Hope. 

Avery Rizzi (sophomore) presented her documentary, Diane Erwin's Ghost Story. 

Films were played on the big screen and then students participated in a Q&A about their films. After presenting, students received a gift basket with t-shirts, popcorn, candy, and a slate filled out with the name of their film. 

Awards were given to the top 3 films as well as an audience choice award. Sophomore, Brooke Capper, won $100 and took 3rd place for her film, From Pain to Hope. She gave an acceptance speech following her win!  

Congratulations to Avery, Brooke and Aydin on this tremendous achievement! A huge thank you to Ms. Rebecca Orr for making this opportunity happen for these students, and for her tremendous mentorship and teaching of these young filmmakers!

More pictures from Screen Test Student Fest can be found HERE.

Five Maine West Student Filmmakers Nominated for National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Crystal Pillar Awards #207Now #studentfilmmaking #studentemmys @wmth_west @mainewestfab

Five Maine West student filmmakers had works nominated by the Midwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) for Crystal Pillar Awards in four categories of filmmaking. This distinguishes these students' projects among the top 3 or 4 films in each category in the region.

The NATAS organization sponsors the Emmy Awards, and similar to the Emmy Awards, after being nominated, the next step will be for the NATAS to announce winners in each category. Winners are invited to attend the Silver Circle Dinner on May 13th to receive the Crystal Pillar Award. Winners will be announced at the Midwest Media Educators Association (MMEA) Festival on April 29th.

Enjoy the films nominated this year below!

News Report- Light News: Brooke Capper for The Hope Wall

Short Form Non Fiction: Ben Pluta for Libraries of the Past: Terry Blue's Honor Flight

Sports Program: Nitya Nair and Lindsey Kulesza for Girls Talk Sports

Commercial: Abby Wilson for Goldfish Cheeze-It® War

Congratulations to these students for their excellent work and for earning this recognition! A huge thanks to Ms. Orr for making this opportunity available to the students at Maine West!

Fine Arts and English Departments Collab on Poetry Typography Videos #207Now #collaboration #typography #poetry #film #mediaarts @wmth_mainewest

The Fine Arts and English Departments have engaged in an interdepartmental creative project between student filmmakers and poets. Students at West typically study poetry and write poems to perform at the annual Poetry Out Loud event in February. This year, student filmmakers have joined in the fun! Typography films are becoming an increasingly popular genre of film, and the poetry unit offered the perfect opportunity for artistic collaboration.

Student filmmakers who are in Ms. Orr's Digital Video Production, Broadcasting, and Advanced TV and Film classes are working on creating films for each poem. These students are learning important tools of the trade, like elements of fonts, how to animate and key frame text, how to edit color, font and space, and using movement to enhance meaning. In addition, these students are having to analyze each poem in order to find ways to amplify the meaning of the text, thereby learning about important language considerations for poets.

Collaborations such as this create deeper learning opportunities for all students involved! Thank you to Ms. Orr and to the English teachers for working together on this project!

If you would like to look at some of the typography videos, click THIS LINK.

Maine West TV, Film + Radio (Broadcasting) Program Shooting a Documentary to Celebrate the Honor Flight Program & Veterans #207Now @wmth_mainewest

James "Terry" Blue

In cooperation with Honor Flight Chicago, the Maine West TV, Radio & Film (Broadcasting) program welcomed three veterans, Gary Nelson (Coast Guard), James "Terry" Blue (Marines), and Thomas Strossner (Air Force) to campus to be part of a documentary film being produced by Maine West film students. 

Honor Flight Chicago's mission is to Honor, Thank, and Inspire by building awareness and appreciation of the debt of gratitude America owes its veterans for their service and sacrifice for our nation. The centerpiece of their programming is the Day of Honor in Washington, D.C., visiting the memorials built in tribute to the service of our veterans from WWII, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. This trip is provided at no cost to the veteran and is intended as a heartfelt thank you for their service and sacrifice from a grateful nation. 

Honor Flight Chicago encourages community and student participation in all of their programs, and uses lessons derived from the Day of Honor trip in its Operation Education program, inspiring students to learn about the service and sacrifice of our veterans. Maine West film students are some of the students benefitting from this outreach program.

In making this documentary film, students are learning how to write questions that elicit interesting responses to tell a story, how to interact with subjects and request that they rephrase questions in their answer, how to set up a multicamera interview shoot, how to position themselves with a camera to shoot documentary style film, how to set up three-point lighting, not to mention all of the learning that will take place in the editing process!

Thank you to Mr. Strossner, Mr. Blue and Mr. Nelson for taking the time to share your story with students at Maine West!

A special thanks to Ms. Orr for making this incredible opportunity happen for the Maine West Film students!

For more pictures related to the making of the documentary, click HERE.

Stay tuned to this blog to see the documentary in its finished form! 

Thomas Strossner

Gary Nelson