Boys & Girls Club holds second film festival, rolling out the red carpet for event venue

For the culminating activity of their summer programs, club and staff members of the Los Cerritos Boys & Girls Club in Thousand Oaks transformed their multipurpose room into a red-carpet venue for Club Idol and the second annual Summer Film Festival.

Young singers and filmmakers from the Boys & Girls Club competed for awards, but the personal lessons which they carried away from the experience proved valuable.

Larry Tepezano, program coordinator for the club, was one of several staff members who guided the singing contestants through the signups, auditions and rehearsals. He fashioned a quasikaraoke machine by plugging a PlayStation 2 game into a master speaker and hooking a microphone up to disc jockey equipment. A roster of 13 competitors was gradually whittled down to three for the event.

Club member and eighthgrader Elena Vucetic won first place by singing "Over My Head" by The Fray.

For the film festival, club tech center coordinators Michael San Martin and Tomas Martinez steered members through the monthlong process of script writing, filming and editing using Microsoft Moviemaker. They supplied contestants with cameras, lights and tripods; assisted them with making props in the art room; chauffeured them to shooting locations; and helped them compose background music.

The Best Script award went to Max and Cullen Thompson for "Rocky vs. El Chupacabra." The Best Film was "Star Wars: The Found Episode" by Ryan Palmer.

Eleven-year-old club member Sam Carow won Best Editing and Best Acting Performance for "The Kool-Aid Kid," about a nettlesome character who ambushes strangers by dumping buckets of Kool-Aid on them.

For more information about Boys & Girls Clubs, call (818) 880-8577 or visit the website www.bgcconejo.org.