The Student and Filmmaker Alliance (SAFA) held its second annual Story Starter Film Competition in 2011, an innovative program that brought together middle school students and local filmmakers in Mobile, Alabama, through the power of creative writing and cinema.
How the Competition Worked
The competition began with a community-sourced writing prompt. Members of the public were invited to submit short “Story Starter” prompts — one or two lines designed to spark the imaginations of more than 700 seventh and eighth grade students at Burns Middle School. The previous year’s prompt, “It was the strangest thing I had ever seen, with tubes and wires…” had inspired student narratives spanning genres from science fiction and dystopian drama to slapstick comedy.
During the school’s annual timed narrative writing assessment, students were given 90 minutes to craft creative essays incorporating the chosen prompt. The Language Arts Department at Burns Middle School then selected 25 winning stories from the submissions.
This year’s winning prompt — “I finally found out what was the matter with that crazy lady down the street” — was submitted by Brennan Gibson.
From Page to Screen
Local filmmakers had the opportunity to turn those winning stories into short films. At the Story Starter Film Competition Kickoff, held at Satori in Mobile, participants learned the year’s theme, received competition details, and randomly selected one of the 25 winning student narratives to serve as the basis for their film.
The finished films were then screened at a public event where students and judges voted on their favorites.
2011 Competition Results
The second annual Story Starter Film Screening celebrated nine finalist films and announced three winners:
- Best Story: Ben Bentley
- Best Film (Student Choice): Scotty White
- Best Film (Judges Choice): Andrew Preston
The Finalist Films
Nine filmmaker teams produced short films based on randomly selected winning student narratives:
- “Werecorn” — written by Sara Armstrong, filmed by Tony West (Jolt Productions)
- “Going Crazy” — written by Lillie Busch, filmed by Trey Brannon
- “The Faceless” — written by Mitch Carter, filmed by Keli Mazza and James Burke (SHC Film Club)
- “Cupcake Cannibal” — written by Gracie Griffin, filmed by Timothy Dixon, Trey Lane, and Brennan Gibson (Burning Mirror Films)
- “Door to Door” — based on “She isn’t what you think” by Sarah Lawrence, filmed by Scotty White (Stupid Mop Productions)
- “Wal Mart Ninja Incident” — written by Ben Bentley, filmed by Logan Bowes (Jolt Productions)
- “Ms. Gonzalez” — written by Jasmine Ramsey, filmed by Margaret Broach (Death in Stilettos)
- “The Case of Mrs. Drawsworth” — written by LaShayla Bedell, filmed by Tinashe Nyatanga (BRTL Films)
- “High Score” — based on “What happens in New York stays in New York” by Passiah White, filmed by Andrew Preston (BRTL Films)
Bridging Education and the Arts
The Story Starter Film Competition represented a creative approach to arts education in Mobile, connecting classroom writing exercises with real-world filmmaking. By pairing professional and amateur filmmakers with student writers, SAFA created a unique pipeline that validated young writers’ work and exposed them to the collaborative process of bringing stories to life on screen.