High school students are full of wild ideas. Some go to theatre, some go to photojournalism, then there are the visionaries. SOL, directed, produced and edited by Jack Elliott was put up on Youtube on Jan. 18 and already has 7,248 views and counting. The six minute and fifty-nine second movie is about a post apocalyptic world and is entered in the 2016 UIL Narrative short film event.

“We thought since last year I tried a documentary, [I thought as a team] let’s do a narrative this time.” Elliott said. “Let’s make this a team effort and get some more people involved and assemble a great crew.”

There were six crew members and five actors in total. The film is about a man who survived the sun apocalypse who had his guitar stolen.

“We wanted to do this idea of humanity at an end and people are living almost like animals,” Elliott said “So, in this situation what could make us human, essentially and could we have people connect over this object that does not aid in your survival.”

There are five rounds of the UIL short film: submission, quarter-finals, semi-finals, finals and state. There are two judges for each round and each are in the film industry. Elliott created a independent film last year called Defining the Standard that made it to the semi-finals.
“I think they have a great chance,” AV teacher Micheal Ellis said. “We have gotten to view several of the other videos and I feel our contribution is stronger than most of the others I have seen.”

The quarter finals are on Feb. 1, semi-finals are on Feb. 9, finals Feb. 18 and state on Mar. 2.