Hawaii digital-media students win big in national contest

Think of the Student Television Network competition as the Olympics of student journalism, multimedia and filmmaking.

For three days this past weekend, some 200 Hawaii students armed with video and editing equipment raced the clock as they hustled around the Hilton Hawaiian Village grounds, Waikiki and other parts of Oahu, shooting footage, interviewing passersby and straining for their best words and bravest faces for the cameras, before huddling around laptops to frantically edit and polish their video projects.

And then the final step: uploading their finished entries on tight deadlines, while crossing their fingers that their work would stand up to that of the other 3,000 competing students from across the U.S. — and uphold Hawaii’s high reputation at this annual national contest.

They need not have worried.

Hawaii schools scooped 40 awards this year, an all-time high since local schools started competing at STN in 2004. That was more than one-fifth of the 180 awards given out at this year’s conference.

What’s more, the Hawaii schools hit those benchmarks even while the COVID-19 pandemic made this year the first in which conference participation was via a long-­distance satellite “hub,” set up at the hotel. Students representing 17 middle, intermediate and high schools across the state participated.

State schools interim Superintendent Keith Hayashi has been publicly singing the praises of participants for more than a week. “The students and teachers who participated in this rigorous competition definitely represented their schools and our entire state well, and we’re so proud of each of them,” he said Monday in a news release.

Still, teachers and students involved in the high-pressure competition would say more important than winning any award was the learning, excitement and sense of connection that students gained.

Kevin Matsunaga, a conference organizer who teaches digital media at Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School on Kauai, choked up while recounting that his proudest moment was watching some students who once seemed distant now laughing and bonding as a part of his school’s team.

“I told them this was the thing I was most happy about. I thought it was a success just from that,” he said.

Kalaheo High School media teacher Kathy Shigemura also got emotional while recalling her students’ “aha moments” as they rediscovered the magic of cooperation and collaboration after two years of frequent isolation while distance-learning during the height of the pandemic.

“It was nice to see the students interacting, being teenagers again, with other kids who were passionate about the same things,” she said. “It felt like we’re coming back to some kind of normalcy, some semblance of life.”

It was the first time in STN competition for the student team from Aliamanu Middle School — and a big change from earlier in the pandemic, when, for a while, they had to create videos alone from home.

The four 13-year-old girls now could scarcely contain their excitement recalling their adventures while shooting their videos together: Forcing themselves into the community despite nervousness led to discovering a dog that could hula, surf and skate. Working together under pressure reinforced the importance of communication and diplomacy.

Getting up the guts to ask strangers for interviews, and coming back after a rejection, required confidence and resilience. Nearly missing the time to upload a contest entry taught them a hard lesson about deadlines; they turned in their next project almost 45 minutes early, and celebrated with high-fives, cheers and laughter.

The Aliamanu Middle team took first place for their trailer for a fictional movie titled “It Ain’t Over.”

Their secret, they said, came from putting to work all the skills in communication and technology they’d learned over the past three academic quarters, plus cultivating each student’s specialty: Alessandra Solon was the main editor. Vienna Ryan was scriptwriter and worked with the camera. Alanah Williams was the main camera operator. Langley Arnold was their primary on-­camera talent.

“We learned from each other because we are a team,” Arnold said.

Hawaii students as a whole submitted works in 20 different categories in which they had to demonstrate skills such as building an anchor reel and motion graphics, or producing a commercial, public service announcement or short film.

Moanalua High School and Maui Waena Intermediate School earned the most laurels, with nine and six awards, respectively. In the STN awards for excellence in filmmaking, Moanalua High School won four awards, and Waiakea High School won one.

The STN conference normally goes to a different city each year. But in March 2020, just as the pandemic was taking hold, the conference was canceled. The 2021 conference was held virtually.

This year, with the pandemic and restrictions often still unpredictable, many local schools didn’t want the risk and hassle of flying teams to this year’s STN conference in Long Beach, Calif.

So a group of Hawaii teachers organized the satellite conference here, so local students could still go head-to-head with their mainland peers through online platforms and digital technology. The state Department of Education provided support, including help with the hotel and meals.

Matsunaga, who is a member of the STN board as well as the Hawaii Creative Media team that organized the local satellite conference, said he hopes the event’s success will make it more likely that the full STN conference could be held in the islands one day.

In a news release, Ron Mizutani, president and CEO of PBS Hawaii, which provided skills workshops at the conference, said Hawaii has already proved itself as a national force in the digital media realm by taking home “a disproportionate number of awards compared to highly populated states such as California and Texas.”

He added that the schools and Education Department “did a great service by bringing this national competition to our state, for the very first time, in the form of the Hawaii-Hub STN Conference. It is gratifying to see the joy on the faces of these students as they compete.”

And the winners are …

Digital media teams from Hawaii schools earned 40 awards at this year’s Student Television Network competition.

Film excellence

>> Writing: Waiakea High

>> Editing: Moanalua High

>> Best cinematography: Moanalua High

>> Best directing: Moanalua High

>> Best live-action film: Moanalua High

Feature story

>> Honorable mention: Maui Waena Intermediate

Movie trailer

>> First place: Aliamanu Middle

Motions graphics editing

>> First place: Maui High

Commercial

>> First place: Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle

>> Third place: Honouliuli Middle, Kaiser High

>> Honorable mention: Lahaina Intermediate

Tell the story

>> Second place: Moanalua High

Silent film

>> Honorable mention: Kamehameha Schools-Maui Middle

Anchor team

>> Second place: Maui Waena Intermediate

Short film

>> First place: Maui Waena Intermediate

>> Second place: Honouliuli Middle

>> Third place: Moanalua High

Public service announcement

>> Third place: Lahaina Intermediate

>> Honorable mention: Moanalua Middle, Moanalua High

Commentary

>> Honorable mention: Moanalua High

Action sports editing

>> First place: Kamehameha Schools-Maui High

Personal vlog

>> Honorable mention: Honouliuli Middle, Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle, Moanalua High

Music video

>> First place: Kamehameha Schools-Maui High

>> Second place: Highlands Intermediate

>> Third place: Maui Waena Intermediate, Moanalua High

Vertical storytelling

>> Second place: Moanalua High

Multimedia journalist

>> First place: Kauai High

>> Second place: Waianae High

Crazy 8’s news magazine

>> First place: Maui Waena Intermediate

>> Third place: Kamehameha Schools-Maui Middle, Moanalua High

>> Honorable mention: Highlands Intermediate

Crazy 8’s short film

>> First place: Maui Waena Intermediate, Moanalua High

>> Second place: Honouliuli Middle