CARLSBORG — The Bluthenthal brothers, two of the youngest moviemakers in Friday’s seventh Annual Sequim Student Film Festival competition, panned their camera 180 degrees this year.
They produced a comedy as a follow-up to their serious first film competition entry last year, a documentary about the Jimmycomelately Creek salmon habitat project.
This year, Cameron, 15, and Kelley, 13, produced, directed and starred in their own short film, “How to Make a Movie.”
It will be one of 12 entries in the film festival that will begin at 7 p.m. Friday at the Sequim High School Performing Arts Center, 601 N. Sequim Ave.
Their first production, “JCL Salmon Recovery Project,” earned them a second place and two $750 scholarships in 2011.
Before that, Cameron said, “We never really thought about ever being in a film festival.”
Cameron said he and Kelley began in 2009 with a zombie movie, but after watching it, they decided, never again.
“I just wanted to hit my face on the desk,” he said, relaxing at his family’s home on Sunny Dell Lane last week.
There he was joined by Kelley, his mother, Diana, who home-schools the boys through the Olympic Peninsula Academy, and his father, Vincent, a Coast Guard petty officer first class serving at Air Station/Sector Field Office Port Angeles.
The family has recovered from a near tragedy Nov. 26, when they were all left with varying back and leg injuries after a motorist driving a sport utility vehicle rammed into the rear end of the family’s Honda Civic just as Vincent Bluthenthal was preparing to turn off state Highway 19 to Anderson Lake Road in Chimacum.
The force of the crash pushed the small car into a power pole.
Vincent and Kelley Bluthenthal were airlifted from the scene to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle and were released soon after.
Diana and Cameron Bluthenthal were treated at Jefferson Healthcare hospital for minor injuries and were discharged.
Cameron and Kelley are up against greater competition this year.
The dozen entries — each of seven minutes or less — are from the largest bunch of video project teams in the film festival’s history.
Elna Kawal, Sequim Education Foundation director for the film festival and a former Sequim School Board director, believes increasing numbers of students are entering the film-making contest because they are more comfortable with technology.
“The kids are growing up with technology,” Kawal said.
“YouTube is huge now with kids, and they’re seeing these little movies all the time.”
A pre-film festival workshop in February also spirits more students into the festival, she said, just by showing them the ropes and sharing basic legal and professional guidelines.
This year’s other entries are:
— “The Explorers,” by Ashton Earley and Darren FitzGerald, both Sequim High School juniors, who produced a documentary on the training firefighters under go in the Explorers program.
— “Sequim, Washington,” by Grace Koenigsaecker, a SHS sophomore who photographed Sequim scenery and interviewed residents about what they love about the place.
— “Un Mundo Sin Taco Bell,” a “foreign film” by Sequim students about a boy’s dream of food from Taco Bell, which is closed. The film is by juniors Mitch Koonz and Ian Jones, senior Chris Venegas, eighth-grader Trevor Jones and Derek Chamblin and Tim Guan.
— “One Earth,” by Angela Bentley, a SHS sophomore, who tells of her adventures of living in another world where she learns that the value of happiness is not in having more.
— “First Robotics,” by Patrick McCready, a SHS senior who documents a robotics competition.
— “Racers Ed,” by Brendan Hudson and Aran Burke, SHS juniors who tell of race car drivers who get in trouble while succumbing to their passion for shopping and change the lives of a driving education school trainer and themselves forever.
— “Softball — Fastpitch,” by Nicole Anders a seventh-grade student at Sequim Middle School, documents the differences between the two.
— “Sequim Bay Yacht Club,” by Grant Shogren, a home-schooled ninth-grader, who interviewed members of the yacht club about activities in Sequim Bay.
— “Reduction,” by Torrie McIntyre, a junior, and Skyler Lewis, a senior, both of SHS. The two focus on changes in what was once largely a farming area, with a particular focus on dairy farming.
— “Cowboys vs. Zombies: A Buckle Story,” by SHS students that uses zombie and cowboys to illustrate the importance of wearing seat belts.
It was created by junior Angelina Morris-Morales; senior Tyler Jennings and Parker Cibene; and ninth-grader Serena Morales.
— “Ali in Wunderland,” by Alison Cobb and Stephanie Grow, both seventh-grade students at Sequim Middle School, in which they place themselves in the world of Alice.
Sequim students from grades sixth through 12th are eligible to submit original films and compete for scholarships prizes: $1,000 for first place, $750 for second place and $500 for third place.
The maximum amount of scholarship prizes for first place is $3,000, second place is $2,250, third place is $1,500, divided equally among members of winning video production teams.
Videos are judged by an independent panel of local experts on the basis of content, presentation, and production techniques.
Judges are Sue Ellen Riesau, Elaine Caldwell, Carol Yearout, John Rodsett, Shelley Taylor, Marine Jahan Hirschfeld, Sherry Niermann, Joan Consani, Ellen Frick, Antonia Krupicka-Smith and Lisa Hitt.
Diana Bluthenthal, as the boys’ teacher through Olympic Peninsual Academy, described her role in the film-making as “the prodder” who gently but forcefully reminds her sons to work on their project.
“How to Make a Movie” — a spoof on the tips provided at the filmmaking workshop — was filmed entirely in and around the family home.
The boys video recorded with a Canon camera and edited on Macbook laptop with iMovie to edit the project.
Kelley, the quiet, smiling half of the Bluthenthal brothers, said he helped shoot photos for the salmon recovery movie, a documentary with commentary by his older sibling.
In the comedy film, Kelley acts naturally and comically, dancing as the four-minute video wraps up.
Cameron, playing the dominant role in the video, pulls out all the stops to make the viewer laugh.
Asked what he sees as the most challenging aspect of film production, Cameron said, “It’s not falling asleep in front of the computer.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
