WARSAW — The red carpet was rolled out for a group of Kosciusko County teens on Friday, June 24. The first Teen Film Camp came to a close after two weeks of hard work when the films were debuted to the local community. The teens came dressed in their best gowns and suits, excited to see the final products.

The camp, put on by Kosciusko Cares, was completed in two parts. The first week of the camp was spent learning how to write a script and coming up with plans for the four different films. During the second week, an additional group of teens got to act, direct and help as crew members as the films were produced. Everything was done by the teens except for the video editing, which was done by a professional editor.

One of the goals of the film camp was that campers would leave with a wide set of new skills. Each camper had to hold a different role on set everyday to learn how all the aspects of film work. The teen who wrote a specific film was not allowed to direct the same film, to encourage teamwork.

In the end, the teens created four different films revolving around the themes of kindness and compassion. The films will now be used to create positive messages in the community.

Each film was shown during the film premiere along with a behind-the-scenes video. The behind-the-scenes video gave viewers a unique insight to all the hard work the campers put into the projects and just how quickly everything got done.

After the films were shown the actors and writers held a Q & A session for the films.

“It’s very surreal,” said camper Nate Myer. “Until we saw it here tonight I didn’t realise just how very surreal it is to see your ideas on the screen.”

When asked if the campers looked at films different now, Myer laughed and said, “Personally I’m having a hard time enjoying movies now.”

One of the final questions asked to the campers was if they would be interested in doing the film camp again. The question was met with a unanimous ‘yes’ from the campers. It was made very clear that film camp will return in future years.

“We’ve been in existence for four years,” said Jessica Hardy, Kosciusko Cares Media Coordinator. “We are now going into our next four years and are really excited to be able to offer more programs like this to the community.”